Well, you're definitely right that the best way to learn a language is to work on some sort of project using it. However, I think doing something like transcribing the book would be a huge waste of time.

Compared to newer programming languages I find C very straightforward, and as long as you understand core concepts like pointers I don't really think it's difficult to get a hang of it. How familiar are you with programming in general? Do you know other programming languages? If you aren't, then the main thing you will have to learn to do is to organize your code properly and just get used to some common design patterns.

You said you want to stick with the book, and that's preventing you from working on a project? That seems kind of off. If I were in your position, I would just go through the book as fast as possible and then just start working on some project and go back to the book as a reference. So you might be writing some codes and be like "oh, this looks like a good place to use one of them switch statements", and then just go look it up if you don't remember the syntax or something.

Basically what I'm trying to say is don't get stuck on the book. You will never learn any programming language without going and writing your own apps, running into problems, and looking stuff up to find a solution

PS: Out of curiosity, is there any reason you are learning C over say C++?

I already 'know' C and C++ since I have been coding for many years however, I haven't programmed a single line of code in 2 or 3 years.

Now I have the opportunity to do everything I didn't / couldn't / forgot to do before, that's why I want to start from zero (or near zero). I have a need to to go over all the concepts and, in a way, relive my college years when I learned programming.

Transcribing may sound insane, but that was just one idea, what else can I do that has to do with the book? Maybe something like a study guide / tutorial? The point of doing something is to keep track of what I am doing and provide a sense of completion, if I just read the book I know I will think I missed something later.

EDIT: C over C++ for no particular reason. I may pick up Bjarne's C++ book after this one.

Last edited by bcrAn (2011 October 27, 10:13 pm)

Yeah, I feel the same way about programming books. A lot of the time what I need isn't even covered in the book. In that case stack overflow or other web forums are your friend .

Is there something you've wanted to code but just haven't? A project is definitely more useful than reading the book, and I'd argue it's more fun too. Could you program a simple game or use C as the backend to a website or something? You could use it to analyze some data....there are many possibilities.

I need to refresh my C++ and java, and I'm in a similar situation where I need a fun project.

Reading a programming book doesn't work. You need to start using the language asap.

My method is to work through chapter by chapter, manually typing in all the examples in your IDE and getting them to run and compile. There is a world of difference understanding the concepts in the book, and actually using them! Also play around and modify the code - just change bits and see what it does.

I like to comment every single line as I go, so i can always refer back to these code snippets later rather than having to go back to the book again.

chamcham wrote:

Get the K&R (Kernighan & Ritchie) book "The C Programming Language".
Ritchie is the designer of C.

It's a computer science classic. We call it the K&R book.

As a general rule, always get the book written by the inventor/designer of
a programming language.

While i don't agree with your last statement (not sure there's a correlation between designing a a language and being able to write an interesting book on how to use it), 'The C Programming Language'  is great and is also recommend it for beginners. Type out all the code, see if it works, by the end you'll know all the main concepts.

After that moving on to C++ i recommend 'Accelerated C++: Practical Programming by Example'. Great fun book, worked for me!

JimmySeal wrote:

Speaking of Dennis Ritchie, did anyone else hear that he died half a month ago?  All that noise about Steve Jobs, and hardly a peep about the man whose work is at the heart of practically every technological innovation of the last 30 or 40 decades.

Yep, Unix and C, the cornerstones of modern computing...