Steve Oualline - Practical C programming

1. Multiply and divide come before add and subtract.

2. Put parentheses around everything else.

You must crawl before you walk. In , we take you on a complete tour of the software life cycle to show you how real programs are created.

In .

gives a brief description of the C language and its use. This chapter includes some background on the history of the language.

explains the basic programming process and gives you enough information to write a very simple program.

discusses programming style. Commenting a program is covered, as well as writing clear and simple code.

introduces you to simple C statements. Basic variables and the assignment statement are covered in detail, along with arithmetic operators +, -, *, /, and %.

covers arrays and more complex variables. Shorthand operators such as ++ and %= are also described.

explains simple decision statements including if, else, and for. A discussion of == versus = is presented.

takes you through all the necessary steps to create a simple program from specification through release. Structured programming, fast prototyping, and debugging are also discussed.

describes additional control statements. Included are while, break, and continue. The switch statement is discussed in detail.

introduces local variables, functions, and parameters.

describes the C preprocessor, which gives the programmer tremendous flexibility in writing code. The chapter also provides the programmer with a tremendous number of ways to mess up. Simple rules that help keep the preprocessor from becoming a problem are described.

discusses the logical C operators that work on bits.

explains structures and other advanced types. The sizeof operator and the enum type are included.

introduces C pointer variables and shows some of their uses.

describes both buffered and unbuffered input/output. ASCII and binary files are discussed, and you are shown how to construct a simple file.

describes how to debug a program, as well as how to use an interactive debugger. You are shown not only how to debug a program, but also how to write a program so that it is easy to debug. This chapter also describes many optimization techniques for making your program run faster and more efficiently.

uses a simple decimal floating-point format to introduce you to the problems inherent in floating point, such as roundoff error, precision loss, overflow, and underflow.

describes advanced uses of pointers for constructing dynamic structures such as linked lists and trees.

shows how to split a program into several files and use modular programming techniques. The make utility is explained in more detail.

describes the old, pre-ANSI C language and associated compilers. Although such compilers are rare today, a lot of code was written for them and there are still a large number of programs out there that use the old syntax.

describes the problems that can occur when you port a program (move it from one machine to another).

describes the do/while statement, the , operator, and the ? and : operators.

details the steps necessary to take a complex program from conception to completion. Information-hiding and modular programming techniques are emphasized.

lists some programming adages that will help you construct good C programs.

lists the octal, hexadecimal, and decimal representations of the ASCII character set that is now in almost universal use.

lists the limits you can expect to come up against in handling numbers with various sizes of memory allocation.

lists those impossible-to-remember rules, to help you when you encounter code written by rude people who didnt use enough parentheses.

, illustrates the manipulation of floating-point (real) numbers, which did not receive complete attention in the rest of the book.