Thread: I need to learn more.

  1. #1
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    I need to learn more.

    Hi. I finished my C All-in-one Desktop Reference for Dummies book, and I don't have anything to do now. I know all about the C language itself, keywords, operators, variables, arrays, structures, pointers, loops, the funny ?: conditional thingy, creating functions, accessing files, writing and reading files etc...

    What I want to do is start learning something new. How to access information from drives maybe, or how to download/upload files from/to servers on the internet, how to make GUIs, how to make my program run on different processor threads, etcetera. And I want to learn how to do this in C before starting with C++ (or keep learning the bit I know of Python).

    The first thing I want to do is the download/upload things from/to the internet, since I have $4/month GoDaddy server I can test with. So... how can I do it? Could somebody point me out to the right direction? I know it is possible to do this in C, but I really have no idea how to start, and I've even been searching for books and googleing websites that can show me but I can't find them. The only thing I found was that I need some sort of libraries for these tasks... what are libraries? Are those like header files or something?

    - I'm on a Windows XP machine, Intel P4 w/ HT Tech, using Notepad++ as editor and MinGW as compiler w/Msys - Just in case.

    Thanks a lot.

  2. #2
    C++まいる!Cをこわせ!
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    There's really no need to wait with C++. Most API and stuff is C anyway, so you can learn C while learning C++. The best is that you can wrap them inside your own classes and make a nice framework to make it easier on your when coding.

    There's lots of GUI libraries out there, such as GTK, MFC, etc.
    And a good place to check is CodeProjects. Lots of tutorials and code there!
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

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    Cool stuff. Right now I am checking GTK+ on this page: http://www.gtk.org/download-windows.html ... Is this what I need? And, what exactly is a library?

  4. #4
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    Typically a framework, in this case. The goal is allow you to create GUIs without so much problems. Using pure Win32 API to do it is a pain even for the experienced. Not to mention, so many things can go wrong.
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Elysia View Post
    Typically a framework, in this case. The goal is allow you to create GUIs without so much problems. Using pure Win32 API to do it is a pain even for the experienced. Not to mention, so many things can go wrong.
    When you say pure Win32 API... is it something like this?
    Code:
    #include <windows.h>
    
    int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, 
    			HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, 
    			PSTR szCmdLine, 
    			int iCmdShow) 
    {
    	MessageBox (NULL, "Hello", "Hello Demo", MB_OK);
    	return (0);
    }
    And also... I'm seeing this GTK+ page and I don't understand anything... there are so many packages and stuff. Do you know about a book or something that can help starters like me with programming GUI?

  6. #6
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    Yes, that's Win32. But programming a GUI is far more complicated.
    Also, unfortunately, I don't know much about GTK. I use MFC myself, but unless you have Standard+ edition of Visual Studio (not free), you're not going to touch MFC...
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

  7. #7
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    That's the problem, I don't have any of the Microsoft Visual whatever things, and I don't program in Linux... That's why I'm really not sure of what to do next, and that's why I thought about making a program that downloads files from the internet.

    It seems that I still have a lot more to discover. I don't understand why this For Dummies book didn't point me to a more advanced book or something. :-(

  8. #8
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    Heh, Microsoft Visual Studio is an IDE to make executables for Windows. Very nice GUI.
    I'm sure someone else has experience with some GUI libraries, however.
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

  9. #9
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    Holy crap Visual Studio 2008 Standard costs $300 and Professional costs $800!!! I think I have to find something else to do.

    Even if I buy that, I woudn't know how to start. I'll just explore something else or start with C++.

  10. #10
    C++まいる!Cをこわせ!
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    Hehehe. If you're a student, you can get it free, otherwise I think you need to look elsewhere
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

  11. #11
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    Thanks a lot I think I'll start learning C++. I've seen in sourceforge, almost every nice GUI program is written in C++, and I'm downloading this instant Visual C++ Express (free!) to see what I can do with it.

    Thanks a lot.

  12. #12
    C++まいる!Cをこわせ!
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    Well... good luck. You're certainly going to need it.
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

  13. #13
    Registered User rogster001's Avatar
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    hahaha, thats quality...!

  14. #14
    C++まいる!Cをこわせ!
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    How about contributing something instead of posting spam or other meaningless stuff?
    Quote Originally Posted by Adak View Post
    io.h certainly IS included in some modern compilers. It is no longer part of the standard for C, but it is nevertheless, included in the very latest Pelles C versions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Salem View Post
    You mean it's included as a crutch to help ancient programmers limp along without them having to relearn too much.

    Outside of your DOS world, your header file is meaningless.

  15. #15
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    Well, I'm back from downloading that Visual C++ Express, and I can't believe how full of crap this piece of software is.

    Now I really understand why you said that I would really need luck.

    Oh and... some question (this topic is really mixed up)

    How come g++ (MinGW) makes a 477kb C++ "Hello World" program, when gcc makes a 15kb C "Hello World" program and VC++ makes a 47kb C "Hello World" program and a 38.5kb C++ "Hello World" Program?

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