Learn C the Hard Way

Book excerpt: You Will Learn C! Zed Shaw has crafted the perfect course for the beginning C programmer eager to advance their skills in any language. Follow it and you will learn the many skills early and junior programmers need to succeed–just like the hundreds of thousands of programmers Zed has taught to date! You bring discipline, commitment, persistence, and experience with any programming language; the author supplies everything else. In Learn C the Hard Way, you’ll learn C by working through 52 brilliantly crafted exercises. Watch Zed Shaw’s teaching video and read the exercise. Type his code precisely. (No copying and pasting!) Fix your mistakes. Watch the programs run. As you do, you’ll learn what good, modern C programs look like; how to think more effectively about code; and how to find and fix mistakes far more efficiently. Most importantly, you’ll master rigorous defensive programming techniques, so you can use any language to create software that protects itself from malicious activity and defects. Through practical projects you’ll apply what you learn to build confidence in your new skills. Shaw teaches the key skills you need to start writing excellent C software, including Setting up a C environment Basic syntax and idioms Compilation, make files, and linkers Operators, variables, and data types Program control Arrays and strings Functions, pointers, and structs Memory allocation I/O and files Libraries Data structures, including linked lists, sort, and search Stacks and queues Debugging, defensive coding, and automated testing Fixing stack overflows, illegal memory access, and more Breaking and hacking your own C code It’ll Be Hard at First. But Soon, You’ll Just Get It–And That Will Feel Great! This tutorial will reward you for every minute you put into it. Soon, you’ll know one of the world’s most powerful programming languages. You’ll be a C programmer.