Well I want to learn C...

[linkgoron]

Well, I know old/er languages and thought that C is something I'd like to learn... Can you guys give me links to some good sites? I know some Pascal and some Java and really a bit of VB, so do you think C is a good start (then I guess I'll move to C++?)
Oh can you guys give me a link to a free and good compiler?
EDIT:
Should I learn C before starting C++?

 

[EagleKeeper]

Run a search for such information.

Many previous threads have adressed this topic.

 

[Whitecloak]

Kernighan & Ritchie

 

[icelazer]

Kernighan and Ritchie is the definitive C book. It might help to learn c++ first..it's easier to learn OO and a superset of C. From there, learning c is just restricting yourself to using a subset of C++ and using a few different c functions (printf instead of cout, etc).

 

[EagleKeeper]

Originally posted by: icelazer
Kernighan and Ritchie is the definitive C book. It might help to learn c++ first..it's easier to learn OO and a superset of C. From there, learning c is just restricting yourself to using a subset of C++ and using a few different c functions (printf instead of cout, etc).

Learning C++ could prevent you from having a better understanding of how C works and also hide from you some of the problems that can bite you with poor design.

 

[Stuxnet]

It's tough to say which you should learn first... it depends no your long-term goals. Unless you have a definitive need for C, I would learn C++ and forget C for now.

JMO

 

[Thyme]

If you want to really *learn* the language and not just how to use it to do a few things, learning C first would be a good investment. It won't take you long.

 

[Ryland]

Originally posted by: Thyme
If you want to really *learn* the language and not just how to use it to do a few things, learning C first would be a good investment. It won't take you long.

I second the "learn C first". It is very easy to shoot yourself in the foot with C/C++ but if you learn C first you should be able to figure out what NOT to do whereas C++ hides some of it from the programmer.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Much more embedded real work is done in C vs C++.

Trying to convert from C++ to C for embedded could be a royal pain to unlearn ideas.

 

[xtknight]

C++ will immensely confuse you if you don't learn C first, especially when you need to troubleshoot.

 

[linkgoron]

Thanks guys! Well, I don't think I'll find books where I live, so can you guys give me any links to good sites and a free compiler?

 

[EagleKeeper]

Originally posted by: linkgoron
Thanks guys! Well, I don't think I'll find books where I live, so can you guys give me any links to good sites and a free compiler?

See my first post in this thread.

Also, you can usually find K&R online via Amazon, etc.

 

[xtknight]

http://www.cplusplus.com/ is where I've learned/am learning.

 

[linkgoron]

Originally posted by: EagleKeeper

Originally posted by: linkgoron
Thanks guys! Well, I don't think I'll find books where I live, so can you guys give me any links to good sites and a free compiler?

See my first post in this thread.

Also, you can usually find K&R online via Amazon, etc.

I looked around bt couldn't find any topics... Only "help me here" and stuff.. So that site is a C++ site, are there any good C sites?

 

[Bulldog13]

New C Primer Plus FTW

 

[homercles337]

Originally posted by: linkgoron
Thanks guys! Well, I don't think I'll find books where I live, so can you guys give me any links to good sites and a free compiler?

Google for Bloodshed. Best free IDE out there.

 

[linkgoron]

Originally posted by: homercles337

Originally posted by: linkgoron
Thanks guys! Well, I don't think I'll find books where I live, so can you guys give me any links to good sites and a free compiler?

Google for Bloodshed. Best free IDE out there.

OK I'll try it, is Cprogramming.com a good C/C++ site?
BTW, what does DEV-C++ mean, and I can use it for both C and C++?

 

[Sureshot324]

Since you already know Java it would probably be easier to transition to C++ since you're already used to OO programming. If you port a Java program to C++ the structure of your code stays the same, but if you port to C it's completely different since you don't have classes.

I don't agree that you'll get bad habits from learning one before the other.

 

[bersl2]

Originally posted by: whitecloak
Kernighan & Ritchie

Make sure to get the second edition, which was updated for the ANSI standard. Try not to use the old K&R syntax.

Other than that, the book is the definitive reference. You might want to use another source for learning, but always reconcile with K&R.

 

[kevinthenerd]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_programming#Memory_allocation

I started with C++ and had a hell of a time with C afterwards. I'm too much of a BASIC guy to make an informed decision for you on that one.

I do have one tip for you, though. Comment the ends of your curly braces.

foo {
bar;
} // foo

When you get a long tree of them going, you'll forget what you're ending. In BASIC, I always put the variable names on the ends of my For loops to make the code easier to edit months later.

For x = 1 to 10
Print "Hello world!"
Next x


If you know Java, you'll find C++ to be the easiest choice.