Synopsis

This is an intensive introduction to ANSI C programming using the GNU C compiler. At the end of the course attendees should be reasonably confident in reading and writing C programs and have a good practical understanding of advanced topics such as the use of C pointers, the relationship between pointers and arrays, as well as dynamic memory allocation and memory management. In addition, they will be able to understand makefiles and version control using RCS and CVS.Throughout, the course will emphasise a disciplined and structured approach to C programming.Debugging and code testing techniques will also be covered extensively, including the use of the GNU debugging tools. The course is not based on any particular Integrated Development Environment (IDE), and adopts a more traditional approach where files are created using a suitable editor (such as EMACS) and programs are compiled either by issuing commands at the commandline, or by invoking make on an appropriate makefile.

Prerequisites

Drive and determination are important pre­requisites ­ the course aims to produce competent working programmers, as is a good sense of humour (vital when working under pressure). Good programmers think hard, but also have a strong obsessive streak .... a need to get a program fully debugged and working at all costs.

well here is what you learn ...

  Master the GNU C compiler

  Learn both the syntax and usage of C

  Enter the exotic world of dynamic data structures and algorithms

  Be able to save data to files and read data from files

  Understand the intricacies of makefiles and make

  Appreciate the need for version control and be able to work with RCS and 

  CVS

  Master the techniques for writing well structured modular code in C

  Know how to use the GNU debugger

Here you will be subjected to learn ...

  Compiling a simple C program

  Compiling an application containing several C modules (.c files)

  Creating data structures and applications that use them

  Traversing and processing information in one dimensional and 

  multi­dimensional  arrays

  Finding your way round the GNU documentation and help manuals

  Reading and writing text and binary files

  Creating and using indexed data structures 

Contents :

First steps

• How C became
  
• Getting to know the GNU C compiler
  
• The basic anatomy of a C program

Data types, operators and expressions (the basics)

• Base data types and their sizes
  
• Constants and declarations
  
• Variable names
  
• Arithemetic operators
  
• Relational and logical operators
  
• Increment and decrement operators
  
• Increment and decrement operators
  
• Assignment operators
  
• Expressions
  
• Operator precedence
  
• Casting and type conversion

Program flow control

• if - else
  
• switch
  
• while , do-while and for-loops
  
• Statements and blocks

Functions

• Functions and function prototypes
  
• Returning values from functions
  
• External variables and scope rules
  
• Static variables
  
• call by value and recursion

Pointers and arrays

• Pointers and addresses
  
• Pointers as arguments to functions
  
• Arrays
  
• The relationship of pointers and arrays
  
• Pointer arithmetic
  
• How C deals with multi-dimensional arrays
  
• Arrays of pointers - their uses and initialisation
  
• Strings and string functions 

Structures

• Fundamentals of structures
  
• Passing structures as arguments to functions
  
• Returning structures as return values from functions
  
• Arrays of structures
  
• Pointers to structures
  
• Using pointers to structures to pass values to a function and return values from a function
  
• Typedef and its uses in developing well structured and maintainable code

An introduction to data structures and algorithms

• Sorting arrays of records
  
• Allocating and freeing memory (malloc and free)
  
• Linked lists and queues
  
• Indexing (table lookup, binary trees, hashing)

Input-output

• Standard input and standard output
  
• Formatted output - printf
  
• Formatted input - scanf
  
• The dangers of scanf
  
• File access and file I/O
  
• An overview of input-output in a windowing environment

Further topics

• The MACRO pre-processor and how to use it wisely
  
• Unions
  
• Bit fields
  
• Date and Time functions in the C Standard Library
  
• Diagnostics- the assert macro

Makefiles, Libraries, RCS and CVS

• Simple make files
  
• MACROS in make files
  
• Use of dummy targets
  
• Recursive makefiles
  
• Building and using libraries
  
• The importance of version control
  
• RCS and CVS 
  Now its time for work, lets take a leap and lets get on to the first step ...