Beginning ANSI - Standard C

[Mr. Olsen]

Dear Everyone,

This is my first post on this newsgroup. I have extensive experience
and knowledge of other programming languages, primarily on an
Assembler level, the Z80, 6502/10, MC680x0, but also experience with
Pascal, Basic and a multiple of other languages. I used to develop
computer games for the 8-bit computers and the 16-bit computers such
as Atari and Amiga.

But "C" is "new" to me from a programming perspective. I want to learn
C - the ANSI Standard initially. From there on, when I have mastered
"that", I will move on to advanced topics, and perhaps, C++

I have got the following books:
- The C Programming Language 2. Edition (Kernighan & Ritchie)
- The "C" answer book (for the aforementioned)

as my "reference guides".

To get things started from the rock bottom, I bought the "double" pack
C for Dummies Vol. #1 and #2.

a few questions:

1) Which ANSI C compiler is GOOD, and also important FREE?

2) Moving on I want to use either Visual C or MetroWerks CodeWarrior.
Which is better, and why?

3) Good advice for the beginner? Any reference books? Websites?
Recommended compiler? I have been recommended the Bloodsheed compiler.
Is it "the" best ANSI/Free tools?

Thanks,
Mr. Olsen

 

[Ravi Uday]

Dear Everyone,

This is my first post on this newsgroup. I have extensive experience
and knowledge of other programming languages, primarily on an
Assembler level, the Z80, 6502/10, MC680x0, but also experience with
Pascal, Basic and a multiple of other languages. I used to develop
computer games for the 8-bit computers and the 16-bit computers such
as Atari and Amiga.

But "C" is "new" to me from a programming perspective. I want to learn
C - the ANSI Standard initially. From there on, when I have mastered
"that", I will move on to advanced topics, and perhaps, C++

I have got the following books:
- The C Programming Language 2. Edition (Kernighan & Ritchie)
- The "C" answer book (for the aforementioned)

as my "reference guides".

To get things started from the rock bottom, I bought the "double" pack
C for Dummies Vol. #1 and #2.

a few questions:

1) Which ANSI C compiler is GOOD, and also important FREE?

GCC is one compiler in common mostly and its free too !
It supporst C89 standard traditionally and C99 mostly !
If you use windows, then you can get 'cygwin' installed which
supports
GCC. I feel GCC is a safe bet for your learning and working purpose

2) Moving on I want to use either Visual C or MetroWerks CodeWarrior.
Which is better, and why?

Unsure.. !

3) Good advice for the beginner? Any reference books? Websites?
Recommended compiler? I have been recommended the Bloodsheed compiler.
Is it "the" best ANSI/Free tools?

Though people here say K&R edition2 is the best one can get for
learing C, i feel hanging here in comp.lang.c will benefit you to the
maximum.
I have learnt a lot of stuffs on C from great and experienced people
in this group.

All the best with your C experience.

- Ravi

 

[Mike Wahler]

Dear Everyone,

This is my first post on this newsgroup. I have extensive experience
and knowledge of other programming languages, primarily on an
Assembler level, the Z80, 6502/10, MC680x0, but also experience with
Pascal, Basic and a multiple of other languages. I used to develop
computer games for the 8-bit computers and the 16-bit computers such
as Atari and Amiga.

But "C" is "new" to me from a programming perspective. I want to learn
C - the ANSI Standard initially. From there on, when I have mastered
"that", I will move on to advanced topics, and perhaps, C++

I have got the following books:
- The C Programming Language 2. Edition (Kernighan & Ritchie)
- The "C" answer book (for the aforementioned)

IMO K&R2 is still the best available book on standard C
(although it's technically 'outdated', due to the fact
that the C standard was revised in 1999, the 1989 form
(upon which K&R2 is based) is still the one in widest use).

as my "reference guides".

To get things started from the rock bottom, I bought the "double" pack
C for Dummies Vol. #1 and #2.

Ack! I hate those "dummies" books.

a few questions:

1) Which ANSI C compiler is GOOD, and also important FREE?

That depends upon which platform you're using and/or
targeting.

http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html
See section 18

2) Moving on I want to use either Visual C or MetroWerks CodeWarrior.
Which is better, and why?

They're both good imo. Which one you choose will depend upon
your preferences and what you want to do. Better yet, get
both.

3) Good advice for the beginner? Any reference books? Websites?
Recommended compiler? I have been recommended the Bloodsheed compiler.
Is it "the" best ANSI/Free tools?

"Best" is a subjective issue, but I've heard good things
about that one too.

-Mike

 

[Old Wolf]

To get things started from the rock bottom, I bought the "double" pack
C for Dummies Vol. #1 and #2.

AKA. C by Dummies. Take anything you read in there with a grain of salt
(or even better, get a refund).
You can find a long list of C and C++ book reviews at www.accu.org .

1) Which ANSI C compiler is GOOD, and also important FREE?

GCC, Microsoft. (To name but two). I suppose by 'good' you mean
'few bugs' as opposed to 'good optimisation'; the latter won't
concern you for many months yet.

2) Moving on I want to use either Visual C or MetroWerks CodeWarrior.
Which is better, and why?

Both are non-free products (which seems to conflict with your '1').
If you want to develop for MS Windows then MS's studio is essential.

3) Good advice for the beginner? Any reference books? Websites?
Recommended compiler? I have been recommended the Bloodsheed compiler.
Is it "the" best ANSI/Free tools?

Bloodshed is an IDE (ie. a program that helps you organize
your source files and invoke the compiler). It uses the GCC
compiler by default.

 

[infobahn]

Dear Everyone,

This is my first post on this newsgroup. I have extensive experience
and knowledge of other programming languages, primarily on an
Assembler level, the Z80, 6502/10, MC680x0, but also experience with
Pascal, Basic and a multiple of other languages. I used to develop
computer games for the 8-bit computers and the 16-bit computers such
as Atari and Amiga.

You're going to do just fine in C.

But "C" is "new" to me from a programming perspective. I want to learn
C - the ANSI Standard initially. From there on, when I have mastered
"that", I will move on to advanced topics, and perhaps, C++

I have got the following books:
- The C Programming Language 2. Edition (Kernighan & Ritchie)

An excellent choice.

- The "C" answer book (for the aforementioned)

as my "reference guides".

I wouldn't call the answer book a reference guide, but it will do you no
harm.

To get things started from the rock bottom, I bought the "double" pack
C for Dummies Vol. #1 and #2.

Burn first, read afterwards.

a few questions:

1) Which ANSI C compiler is GOOD, and also important FREE?

gcc meets both requirements. It isn't unique in this regard.

2) Moving on I want to use either Visual C or MetroWerks CodeWarrior.
Which is better, and why?

Why do you want to use either? Neither is necessary, and neither is
free.

3) Good advice for the beginner?

Read comp.lang.c every day. Learn to distinguish between your Kirbys
and Toreks on the one hand, and your Tisdales and alexes on the
other. Don't get involved in technical "discussions". And learn
how to apologise. (Yes, we've all had to learn this.)

Don't make the mistake of confusing "it compiles" with "it's correct".

Crank up your compiler's warning level as high as it will go, more or
less. If using gcc, at the very least you should specify

-W -Wall -ansi -pedantic

Any reference books?

Apart from K&R which you already have, Harbison & Steele is good.
You might want to get hold of the ISO C Standard (18 dollars,
last time I checked, from the ANSI webstore).

Websites?

The comp.lang.c FAQ is posted at
http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html

Less authoritative, but still useful: http://www.iso-9899.info/

 

[Wayne Farmer]

3) Good advice for the beginner? Any reference books? Websites?

I recently purchased the C Primer Plus, 5th Edition, by Steven Prata, and
I'd say it is very well-suited for both the beginner who is learning C, and
the experienced programmer who needs a reference on the current state of C.
Discussion of the latest ISO and ANSI C99 standard is interwoven effectively
into the text, so that you can choose to use those features or not,
depending upon the support offered by your compiler for the C99 features.
Many source code examples, and they're available for free download from the
Web. ISBN 0672326965, 984 pages, US$34 at www.amazon.com .

Wikipedia has an excellent introductory article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_language

Wayne