MESSAGE
| DATE | 2008-06-29 |
| FROM | email
|
| SUBJECT | Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] C Programing Workshop
|
any thoughts on teaching a course on Python?
its way more friendly to new programmers, its quick to use and provides
some instant gratification while forcing good techniques
i know c is the baseline of cs, but, especially in todays webby world,
its a tough first starter when a lot of the 'fun' projects are web stuff
i know linux is c, but the new programmer doesn't even have to compile
any software in linux these days. wasn't always so.
plus python has lots of c extension modules providing a warm entry to
static coding once understanding and skills are honed a bit
just a thought if you're looking to introduce new people to programming
Ronny Abraham wrote:
> If you're going to teach a class, I think it's important to also go
> into makefiles. Personally, I hate makefiles and prefer to use scons
> (it's python based and a hell of a lot simpler). Nevertheless, you
> need to know how makefiles work if you want to do anything usefull
> with the majority of projects out there. I would sign up for a class
> if you intend to explore that aspect.
>
> Also, if you are going to go into C++, it's better to stick with Bruce
> Eckels book Thinking
> in C++ It's downloadable and free (as in beer), so there is no
> reason not to use it. It's also the best book you are ever going to
> find on the language.
>
> He has a second volume covering the Standard Template Library, but
> unfortunately I never found the time to go through it.
>
> The thing that makes Eckel stand out is that he explains why things
> are done in a certain way. And since he was on the standards board
> for 10 years, he also has no problem being open about what is wrong
> with the language.
>
> -ron
>
> On Sat, Jun 28, 2008 at 10:04 PM, Ruben Safir wrote:
>> The C programming language was invented side by side with Unix. The King text goes through
>> much of the history of the language. Here I'd like to make a few points both in the general
>> and specific to GNU/Linux as a platform for C development.
>>
>> Oxymoronic as it sounds C language is a bare bones specification without anything useful.
>> All it requires is the keyword main, which defines the root function that everything else
>> is piled into. Everything that C does is imported from external libraries. These libraries
>> are defined, in the simplist case, on top of your program.
>>
>> For example, on page 10 of the King book is the following program:
>>
>> #include
>>
>> main(){
>> printf("To C, or not to C: that is the question \n");
>> }
>>
>> which was inherited from the K&R text. The first line defines the
>> library stdio.h which c is to import. The main keyword is present
>> (which defines the required function main() to be explained later,
>> and the function printf which is defined in the library stdio.h.
>>
>> Unlike programming languages such as Perl, Python and Rudy, C is a compiled
>> programming language. It needs a compiler to make a binary program that
>> can then be executed. The binary has machine like instructions which your
>> computer can directly understand. Unfortunately, your computer doesn't speak
>> English (or Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Manderin, Hebrew, or Udo). It speaks
>> binary. C is the interface between human language and machine code. The binaries
>> are very low level and C as a language, today, is considered to be very close to
>> the machine. You'd have to write programs in Assembly to get much close to your CPU.
>>
>> Therefor, you need a C compiler to translate your C Programming text into machine code.
>> At one time suc compilers were expensive and hard to get. Thanks to Richard Stallman and
>> friends, today we have compilers on almost every GNU based system. That compiler is called
>> gcc. Compilers do three things: Parse, compile and link.
>>
>> When you call:
>>
>> gcc file.c
>>
>> It loads file.c into the compiler. It then parses the programming you created and checks
>> for errors. It then analysis the symbols in your program and looks for their programming
>> definitions in the libraries that you call with #include. It then the different code
>> machine code peices it finds into a single binary.
>>
>> The gcc compiler is very complex and learning C includes learning much about the compiler
>> and also the debugger, called gdb. Both are documented with man pages, and have full books
>> which are available from the Free Software Foundation and worthy additions to your library.
>> Both are included in the NYLXS library as references.
>>
>> Any editor can be used to make C programs, but I strongly recommend learning either EMACS
>> or VI. EMACS has a GNU version, and VI has a version called VIM which can be downloaded and
>> used. I perfer the VIM editor and will use in in example and demonstrations. No editor
>> wars are needed here. I will say, however, if your using EMACS, then LEARN it. It is not
>> Microsoft Notepad.
>>
>> After editing this first program run the following command on the command line:
>> For this workshop, the "$" or "ruben-at-www2:~/cprog>" is the shell prompt. Your prompt
>> on the NYLXS server will look like the second example.
>>
>>
>> $ gcc -Wall file1.c -o file1
>>
>> the output will look like this:
>> ruben-at-www2:~/cprog> gcc -Wall file1.c -o file1
>> file1.c:3: warning: return type defaults to `int'
>> file1.c: In function `main':
>> file1.c:5: warning: control reaches end of non-void function
>> ruben-at-www2:~/cprog>
>>
>>
>> The compiler gives you 3 warning messages. I won't go into them currently, but in a few
>> weeks it should make sense to you. We will, however, fix the warnings later. For now, if
>> you look at your directory
>>
>> ruben-at-www2:~/cprog> ls -l
>> total 12
>> -rwxr-xr-x 1 ruben staff 7041 2008-06-28 21:45 file1
>> -rw-r--r-- 1 ruben staff 86 2008-06-28 21:35 file1.c
>>
>> file1.c is the file we are editing. You see it has no permisions to be executed.
>> file1 is the new executable we created. In addition. you see that it is executable.
>> gcc makes it executable permisions for us in most systems. We run our new program
>> on the command line like this:
>>
>> ruben-at-www2:~/cprog> ./file1
>> To C, or not to C: that is the question
>>
>> The C language defines the function main() and not much else. However, it is defined
>> as a function that returns an integer. We didn't return anything. We can fix this with
>> a "return function".
>>
>> We return a 0 by convention unless we are trying to indicate an error or other message. We also
>> put the keyword 'int' infront of main which explicitly defines that main returns integers.
>>
>> Our program not looks like this:
>>
>> #include
>>
>> int main(){
>> printf("To C, or not to C: that is the question \n");
>> return 0;
>> }
>>
>> and when we compile:
>>
>> ruben-at-www2:~/cprog> gcc -Wall file2.c -o file2
>> ruben-at-www2:~/cprog>
>>
>> No warnings.
>>
>> and when we run it, it looks like this:
>>
>> ruben-at-www2:~/cprog> ./file2
>> To C, or not to C: that is the question
>> ruben-at-www2:~/cprog>
>>
>>
>>
>> Next - Comments and C varriable basics.
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff
>> http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
>>
>> So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
>>
>> http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
>>
>> "Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME"
>>
>> "The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society."
>>
>> "> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned.<
>> You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been attached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you missed that one."
>>
>> (c) Copyright for the Digital Millennium
>>
>
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