Intro to Programming With C - Revision history

Tonyr: Add page to Classes category

2010-01-20T06:25:59Z

Add page to Classes category

Kurtk at 19:13, 11 January 2010

2010-01-11T19:13:19Z

Kurtk: add schedule section

2010-01-11T18:48:36Z

add schedule section

Kurtk: /* C vs. C++ */

2010-01-02T22:22:26Z

C vs. C++

Kurtk: /* Some Historic notes */

2010-01-02T18:04:36Z

Some Historic notes

Kurtk: First contribution, work in progress

2010-01-02T17:56:05Z

First contribution, work in progress

New page

== This is a work in progress ==

Contact is Kurt Krueger allez@att.net

At some time before the first class is taught, there will be
useful information in this Wiki.

However, unlike the page for the Bash class, there will be
no attempt to make this a web course.

== Why C ? ==

C can be defined as the root of all evil. It was developed in the 70's for the purpose of generating neat programs. One of the neat things created was the Unix operating system, Linux is a PC port of Unix. All languages developed under Unix have their roots in C. C is still widely used in the industry.

== C vs. C++ ==

C++ was developed later in the game when the Object Oriented language craze began. The most obvious difference is that C is procedural based and C++ is object based. However, C++ was implemented as a superset of C, so the entire C language is embedded in C++ including the procedural paradigm. In many cases the language is referred to as C/C++.

== Some Historic notes ==

In the days preceding the C language, operating systems were generally written in assembly code. This is a very low level and tedious, error prone way to write code. But since assembly code is one to one with the underlying processor's instruction set it created very fast and concise code. The coder also had full control of anything the processor could do.

About the time that C was conceived, a ground breaking computer architecture was created by Digital Equipment Company (DEC, bought by Compaq, in turn bought by HP) named the PDP-11. One of its claims to fame was a stack based instructions. The implementation of these instructions was native to the hardware. Competitor's hardware would require several instructions to accomplish the same thing. This was very important in the days where maximum computer memory was in kilobytes and clock speeds were under 1 Mhz. The PDP-11 could handle a maximum of 28K or memory.

The developers of the C language wanted something that was of a higher level, e.g. more readable and more productive. But they didn't want to lose any of the control that assembly languate

← Older revision		Revision as of 06:25, 20 January 2010
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	10. Introductory pointer arithmetic. Misc useful functions.		10. Introductory pointer arithmetic. Misc useful functions.
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		+
		+	[[Category:Classes]]

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 no attempt to make this a web course.
 == Why C ? ==
-C can be defined as the root of all evil.  It was developed in the 70's for the purpose of generating neat programs.  One of the neat things created was the Unix operating system, Linux is a PC port of Unix.  All languages developed under Unix have their roots in C.  C is still widely used in the industry.
+C can be defined as the root of all evil.  It was developed in the 70's for the purpose of generating efficient programs.  One of the neat things created was the Unix operating system, Linux is the PC port of Unix.  All languages developed under Unix have their roots in C.  C is still widely used in the industry.
 == C vs. C++ ==
-C++ was developed later in the game when the Object Oriented language craze began.  The most obvious difference is that C is procedural and C++ is object oriented.  C++ was implemented as a superset of C, so the entire C language is embedded in C++ including the procedural paradigm.  In many cases the language is referred to as C/C++.
+C++ was developed later in the game when the Object Oriented language craze began.  The most obvious difference is that C is procedural[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procedural_programming] while C++ is object oriented [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_programming].  C++ was implemented as a superset of C, so the entire C language is embedded in C++ including the procedural paradigm.  In many cases the language is referred to as C/C++.
 == Some Historic notes ==
@@ Line 23: / Line 32: @@
 In the days preceding the C language, operating systems were generally written in assembly code.  This is a very low level and tedious, error prone way to write code.  But since assembly code is one to one with the underlying processor's instruction set it created very fast and concise code.  The coder also had full control of anything the processor could do.
-About the time that C was conceived, a ground breaking computer architecture was created by Digital Equipment Company (DEC, bought by Compaq, in turn bought by HP) named the PDP-11.  One of its claims to fame was a stack based instructions.  The implementation of these instructions was native to the hardware.  Competitor's hardware would require several instructions to accomplish the same thing.  This was very important in the days where maximum computer memory was in kilobytes and clock speeds were under 1 Mhz.  The PDP-11 could handle a maximum of 28K or memory as it was created as a mini computer.
+About the time that C was conceived, a ground breaking computer architecture was created by Digital Equipment Company (DEC, bought by Compaq, in turn bought by HP) named the PDP-11.  One of its claims to fame was a stack based instructions.  The implementation of these instructions was native to the hardware.  Competitor's hardware would require several instructions to accomplish the same thing.  This was very important in the days where maximum computer memory was in kilobytes and clock speeds were under 1 Mhz.  The PDP-11 could handle a maximum of 28K of memory as it was created as a mini computer.
-The developers of the C language wanted something that was of a higher level, e.g. more readable and more productive.  But they didn't want to lose any of the control that assembly language afforded.  This resulted in  syntactic constructs that were strange to the mainstream programmers of the day (i.e.  *p++ = *t++, this resulted in a single hardware instruction that moved an item of data in memory AND set up to move the next data item).  You only had 28K of memory, you had to as much as possible with each code instruction so you had some memory left over for your data.
+The developers of the C language wanted something that was of a higher level, i.e. more readable and more productive.  But they didn't want to lose any of the control that assembly language afforded.  This resulted in syntactic constructs that were strange to the mainstream programmers of the day (e.g.  b = *p++, a &= 2).  With only had 28K of memory, one had to do as much as possible with each code instruction so some memory was left over for data.
 == Proposed schedule ==
 This schedule is subject to change based on the experience and desire of the students.
-Each class will have homework assignments with the associated material.  Lab time
+Each class will have homework assignments with the associated material, and a reading assignment.  Lab time
 will be provided at the end of each class, but students should not depend on lab time
 being sufficient to complete all the homework.

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:48, 11 January 2010
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	The developers of the C language wanted something that was of a higher level, e.g. more readable and more productive. But they didn't want to lose any of the control that assembly language afforded. This resulted in syntactic constructs that were strange to the mainstream programmers of the day (i.e. p++ = t++, this resulted in a single hardware instruction that moved an item of data in memory AND set up to move the next data item). You only had 28K of memory, you had to as much as possible with each code instruction so you had some memory left over for your data.		The developers of the C language wanted something that was of a higher level, e.g. more readable and more productive. But they didn't want to lose any of the control that assembly language afforded. This resulted in syntactic constructs that were strange to the mainstream programmers of the day (i.e. p++ = t++, this resulted in a single hardware instruction that moved an item of data in memory AND set up to move the next data item). You only had 28K of memory, you had to as much as possible with each code instruction so you had some memory left over for your data.
		+
		+	== Proposed schedule ==
		+
		+	This schedule is subject to change based on the experience and desire of the students.
		+	Each class will have homework assignments with the associated material. Lab time
		+	will be provided at the end of each class, but students should not depend on lab time
		+	being sufficient to complete all the homework.
		+
		+	Class Subject matter
		+	Number
		+
		+	1. Developing algorithms. Sample program. Data types, arithmetic operations.
		+
		+	2. Building and executing. Data conversions, data input/output
		+
		+	3. Decision statements. if, else, switch. Loops for, while, do
		+
		+	4. Arrays and structures
		+
		+	5. Review, catch up. Possible quiz.
		+
		+	6. Functions
		+
		+	7. C preprocessor, #define, #include, etc.
		+
		+	8. File manipulation, string functions, other useful stuff in standard libraries
		+
		+	9. Error checking, intro to pointers
		+
		+	10. Introductory pointer arithmetic. Misc useful functions.