> I haven't really produced any programs in C before and Id like to learn.
> Does anyone have any suggestions on books which they found helpful when
> just starting out coding in the big bad world of C? Basically Id prefer
> something which makes it easy to learn rather than throws heaps of
> detail at you since it will be mostly in my own time.
Aaron,
Others have suggested some good books.
The way you'd approach this may depend on whether you've programmed
before. It sounds like you haven't, so a strict reference book
might not be a good starting point (although still useful to have).
Learning C can be fun and is certainly useful, even if
you don't use it much. It is certainly possible to do this
on your own from books, if you are motivated.
If you want to go deeper, there's the theory, the algorithms,
techniques; which are language independant but require a language
to implement. You have to implement (i.e. do the exercises) to
understand or use these.
If you like learning C and programming, I would seriously recommend a
Uni course, particularly if you think you would like this as a career.
One suggestion I would make is to study other C programs.
Maybe look at some projects on freshmeat or sourceforge.
Be careful with those which look as though they are written
by people starting out (there are some bad habits
to avoid!). (These are separate from the bad habits you
pick up yourself and come to enjoy!)
There are also some newsgroups, with FAQ's. comp.lang.c,
and I think a moderated one.
> Note: I'm planning on using my Linux machine for coding at home
> (deadrat & debian).. but at work it would be on a mix of HP-UX, AIX,
> DEC, and SUN-OS.
Start with just Ansi C. Once you get into it you'll
need other info about what Posix and extra features are provided.
These are function calls, an addition to what standard C
provides. For these, you are into the area of theory, techniques
etc, rather than language issues.
Good Luck
Jamie
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