[Noisebridge-discuss] Seeking info about Intro to C Programming class

[Erik Schneider]

Thanks all you wonderfully helpful people!

I am learning C because I wanted also to learn Objective-C and
eventually develop for OS X and iOS. That's a long ways off though--I
am self-taught in programming and have not yet made the leap from
simple command-line toys to GUI application programming. Also I know
it is not necessarily necessary to learn C before Objective-C but I am
a nuts-and-bolts kind of person and like to start at relatively low
levels. Relatively. I know I could go lower still, but I have only so
many lifetimes to live.

I have the K&R and will probably go back to it soon. It was a bit
terse for a relative newbie; it was also frustrating that all the
examples in the first few chapters are for processing input but they
do not teach you how to input input until much later, so I was not
happy not being able to test my code. I could have looked ahead I
suppose, but I have a thing for starting with Chapter One and
following with Chapter Two, etc. unless I am reading poetry, in which
case starting in the middle is always recommended.

Thanks for the video links. I will check those out!

Erik

On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 19:19, ashish makani <ashish.makani at gmail.com> wrote:
> My suggestions :
>
> 1.If you like video lectures, here is a harvard course where all the video
> lectures & assignments, are available online for free.
> They are a bit long, but are pretty engaging , in both content & delivery,
> IMHO.
> http://cs50.tv/
>
> 2. If you are trying to learn programming , and don't care about the
> language, MIT's introductory programming course 6.00 is also a great place
> to start.
> http://mit600.mit.edu/blog/course-info/
> http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-00-introduction-to-computer-science-and-programming-fall-2008/video-lectures/
>
> All the Best,
>
> cheers
> ashish
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 6:01 PM, Brian Morris <cymraegish at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> To me, the advantage of K&R is that it is small and can work / review
>> through it quick.
>> It is maybe hard to find newer books which go into relevant topics which
>> are not huge and heavy.
>>
>> For me, C++ is an advanced language to work with, tools have been
>> developed to make it easier to work with large projects, eg cmake and QT but
>> not everybody uses and there are other choices. It was the first OO language
>> and IMHO compromise between C and the higher level OO languages such as Java
>> and Python, which have become standard for learning OOP.  Also most other
>> languages have OO extensions.
>>
>> C is close to the metal as they say and that may be kind of interesting.
>> Also fast. Depending on your interests you could find possibly an
>> application oriented book to go along with K&R. In general many langs have a
>> foreign function interface (FFI) for speed or hardware interface which
>> people mostly use C functions. So you can look there at small functions that
>> do specific things. To give you some motivating or interesting examples.
>>
>> What is your motivation for learning C ? Mine was originally for numerical
>> programming (because required for a job), then later as a bridge to C++
>> (which I found disappointing, wish I had gone with Python).
>>
>> One approach to learning a new programming language which may work for you
>> is to translate something. For instance take a Python function that is
>> central to your/ some code and rewrite it in C, simply plug it in and see if
>> it works, and see if it is any faster. I don't know how common this is in
>> Python (being new to it) but it is pretty ubiquitous in Perl (which can have
>> slow downs pretty bad).
>>
>> On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 12:12 PM, Erik Schneider <eriktrips at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi I'm kind of new but not entirely but enough so that I don't know if
>>> this is the right place to ask but since they do not have a list of
>>> their own that I can find:
>>>
>>> Is anyone from the Intro to C Programming class reading who could
>>> answer questions like could I start attending next week?
>>> And if yes:
>>> Is the class using a text or texts, and if so what is/are the text(s)?
>>> And is there a particular thing the class is working on for next week?
>>>
>>> If you can answer my questions but it would be more polite to email me
>>> the info than to use this list, then:
>>> eriktrips at gmail.com
>>>
>>> Thanks!
>>>
>>> Erik JM Schneider
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
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>
>



-- 
Erik JM Schneider, PhD
blog.eriktrips.com
eriktrips at gmail.com