Re: [MLUG] Resources for intro to C programming

[Stephen Montgomery-Smith <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Christian M. Cepel wrote:
> Stephen Montgomery-Smith wrote:
>
> > Phillip Kelchen wrote:
> >
> > > I'd like to learn to write C at least well enough to be able make a 
> > > relatively simple iterative-mathematical-function program (used in a 
> > > fluid modeling experiment.) If anybody knows of a good guide for how 
> > > to write C, preferably with examples and exercises, that would be 
> > > very helpful. I took a class in Visual BASIC as part of the 
> > > engineering requirements and I know that programming is not very easy 
> > > nor super quick to learn, but I am willing to put in the time to 
> > > learn some, and learn how to do it well.
> > >
> > > Phillip
> >
> >
> > I don't have a good answer to your direct question - I learned from 
> > the original book by Kernigan and Richie.  I think that it is well 
> > written, and sweet and succint, but it might not be what you are 
> > looking for.
>
>
> By the way, the title of the book he's referring to, if you wanted to 
> try to procure it is, "The C Programming Language." The authors are 
> Dennis Ritchie and Brian Kernighan.
>
> The book really is as great as he says.  It's even earned it's own 
> Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%26R
>
> It's the bible (for C)

Go with the 2nd edition (because it is more up to date).  This book does 
a really good job teaching C, but I don't recall that it actually taught 
"how to program."  But if you already know Visual Basic, you will 
probably find this book fine.  Used copies seem to be about $15 on 
amazon.com, so it is surely worth a try.

I was so impressed by this book, that when I decided to learn C++ I also 
tried out the "original."  But the book on C++ by Stroustrup was a 
disappointment.  I still haven't found a decent primer on C++, and I 
don't know C++ at all well.

For scientific programing, my impression is that C++ gives little or no 
advantage over C.

Many scientific programmers still use Fortran.  I think that part of the 
reason is that a lot of effort was put into making Fortran compilers 
produce extremely efficient code.  However if you are using gcc on 
Linux, C should be just as good as Fortran (since the first thing the 
Fortran compiler does is to convert the code into C).

If you need high speed code (and fluids simulations generally do) and 
you are using Intel hardware, try out the Intel C, C++ and Fortran 
compilers.  They are free for non-commercial use.  I have used the Linux 
versions, but I think that they also have Windows versions, although I 
am not certain what the licensing for these versions is.

Stephen

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