RE: Learning C

James Richard Webster (jrwebste@nospam.socs.uts.EDU.AU)
Sat, 22 Oct 1994 11:09:56 +1000

On Fri, 21 Oct 1994, Kirk Nesbitt wrote:

>
> Hi i am _JUST_ a first year and have come to the conclusion that i need
> to learn to code C. Everything (well almost) seems to be written in C.
> It seems to be the common tounge of the information industry, so do any
> of you C types know any good books that i could buy to teach myself the
> language. Also what are the Good C compilers, should i learn C or C++
> or both, and if both which should i learn first.

It seems that these days the bookstores are filled with titles such as,
'Learn Visual C++ in 21 days', 'Mastering Turbo C', 'C for Dummies',
'Borland C/C++ Developer's Guide', and so on, all with ridiculous
price-tags. If you are serious about learning C, then depending on your
learning style, you may be better off waiting until you do a subject at
uni that includes C (i don't get electives so i don't which subject it
would be...). Or if you are rich, enroll in a professionally-taught C
course (which was not meant to be a slant against our lecturers :).
Self-teaching with books is fine, but discipline is required, and
attention-deficients such as myself tend to gloss over the hard stuff
(such as pointers :).

As for compilers, for DOS machines the standards are the Borland
products, Turbo C/C++ and Borland C/C++. In my opinion get the former
unless you *REALLY* want to do Windows programming, in which case get the
latter. Turbo C/C++ is available from the co-op at $125 on academic
discount, whereas Borland C/C++ is about $250 (i think). Essentially
they are the same product, although Borland C/C++ comes with full paper
documentation for all the functions, TurboDebugger, Turbo Assembler, and
for Windows a whole suite of development tools. It's really aimed at the
serious Windows programmer... probably something you want to stay away
from if you are beginning C/C++.

As always, avoid the Microsoft compilers like the plague!

As for C++ being such a cool OO language, there is currently a rumour
that the OO language of choice in the future will be OO-COBOL no less
<shiver runs up spine>

L8tr all,
Woody

jrwebste@nospam.socs.uts.edu.au (James 'Woody' Webster in real life)

'Hurry! Buy your copy of 'Learn to Program Windows and Visual Basic with
OO-Databases and 1000 tips in 21 days and Internet for UNIX Clueless
Newbies Dummies Non-nerds and any other fool who buys these hideously
expensive books'! Seriously, are all theses glossy computer books necessary?