Thread: how long to learn c programming

I'm hardly a great judge, having just started with the language myself, but after years of high level dev (in language terms, not skill) using Perl, Python and PHP for web, I find that C can take you so close to the metal on the platform that you're working on, that it becomes less of a language issue, and more of an architecture / platform / OS issue.

C has few keywords, the same-ish loop structure as everything else you've used, so "learning" C is pretty easy. Learning "how" to use C could take a lifetime. Just poke through some of the docs on a friendly FreeBSD server, or look at the source code and see what can be achieved. It's mind blowing.

I am just getting started on all this myself.
I am learning through school rather then going through any sort of self study. I took an introduction to programming concepts where I learned psuedo code, then I took fundamental programming where I learned C# and at last I am on to C++.

With the first class I feared I had made a mistake and all of this was way over my head and there was no way I'd ever get it.

Then C# gave me hope, but I didn't have an IDE to work with and the compiler I was working with was cheap and annoying. I enjoyed what I was doing but I struggled with every new concept and execution.

Now I am working with a better book, an actual IDE instead of notebook and I am having so much fun. I see this as a form of art and I am enjoying myself so very much. I'm already planning programs in my head that are far beyond my capability.