Thread: C programming college course

  1. #1
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    Unhappy C programming college course

    Hello everyone,

    I am new to this C programming thing and I just need to finish a college course for a degree. My problem is that I have no clue. The class is online and very long distance. I have many problems getting in touch with my "liasion" and was wondering if anyone knew any helpful tools for what I need to learn. The book I am using is "A First Book of Ansi C: Fundamentals of C Programming". I also have homework assignments which seem very difficult to me but are probably very simple, however, I can ascertain no knowledge from this textbook. I even tried "C Programming for Dummies" and that didn't work since it didn't really seem to have anything to do with what I need to accomplish. I can post specifics about the assignments or whatever if anyone wants them, but I'm really just looking for good free references. Seems funny to me that I understand Nuclear Fission reactions and nuclear physics perfectly, but can't write a program or a function on how to count from 1 to 10 without pulling out my hair. All help is greatly appreciated.

  2. #2
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    The best advice from me would be to go through the simple programs that are available in the book that you have. After you have written them go through them line by line and trace exactly what each line of code is doing.

    I'm worried about you're compiler. Are you using unix, windows, linux? If you don't have the right set-up then nothing will really work.

  3. #3
    Derek
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    Yes I agree u are a dummy!! C is easy, why can't u do it!!!!! you prat!

    Damn it!

  4. #4
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    I am not presently using one since it was not provided with the class/textbook and I was hoping to avoid getting one. When I get home today I will download the early Borland mentioned on this site's homepage. I looked at the start of the class in places such as Tucows, but didn't really see anything anything good for free (I'll be darned if I'm going to pay any more for this class).

    Also, I have tried the line by line thing and following the examples, but the questions are conceptual about how to combine things and I have a hard time putting 2 and 2 together. I guess I'm just computer language ignorant. I'm just really upset about the lack of help from the school.

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    Derek Burton? Is that you? Why so hostile?

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    Post some examples (code) of what you need help with. I'll be glad to help you out.

  7. #7
    Registered User heljy's Avatar
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    Well, I guess C programs (or most programs) are basically made up of control statements. That means you want to control the program to do something.

    So I would really suggest the first thing that you do is know how to use those control statements, (if, else, for, while). You can get by any introductory programming class if you have a grasp of these control statements.

    Of course, there are also other things that require details. The best way to learn is to learn by looking at examples.


    So start reading those codes in the book!

    Good luck

  8. #8
    Registered User biosx's Avatar
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    You are talking to the greatest resources for help. This site has decent tutorials for C++ and any questions you have can be answered by any one of us. Most of us know what we are doing in C or C++ (and many other languages in most cases).

    Take it step by step. If you were willing to spend money I would recommend you pick up "The C Programming Language" by Kernighan and Ritchie because that is a very concise book on C that is very readable.

    Good luck though and don't be a stranger.

  9. #9
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    >Seems funny to me that I understand Nuclear Fission reactions
    >and nuclear physics perfectly, but can't write a program or a
    >function on how to count from 1 to 10 without pulling out my
    >hair. All help is greatly appreciated.

    Have you tried to write such a program?

    What is it that you don't understand?

  10. #10
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    [QUOTE]Originally posted by biosx

    Take it step by step. If you were willing to spend money I would recommend you pick up "The C Programming Language" by Kernighan and Ritchie because that is a very concise book on C that is very readable. [QUOTE]

    I would highly agree with biosx here. This book really gives you in-depth coverage of the C language (considering the author, Ritchie, practically wrote the C language) while maintaining an easy read and feel for the book.

  11. #11
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
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    > considering the author, Ritchie, practically wrote the C language

    Practically nothing - K & R DID write the language.

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    Wink

    I must apologize for my vague language there. I did mean that they did write it.

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    Smile

    Thanks everyone! I did some further looking at the site and I see a lot of things that may be able to help me, so I will look at them tonight. Thanks for all the advice and I'll give a status report tonight or tomorrow to see how I'm doing.

  14. #14
    Code Goddess Prelude's Avatar
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    >Practically nothing - K & R DID write the language.
    Actually, practically is more appropriate since a lot of C was based off of the B language. B was created by Ken Thompson who based his new language off of BCPL. At the time, B had performance problems since it used the PDP-7. Later on, Ritchie heavily modified B to take advantage of the new PDP-11 that had just come out, so he called it "New B", but the name was soon changed to C.

    -Prelude
    My best code is written with the delete key.

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