Question

Possible Duplicate:
Should I learn C before learning C++?

As a professional (Java) programmer and heavy Linux user I feel it’s my responsibility to learn some C (even though I may never use it professionally), just to make me a better coder.

Two questions :

1. Should I try C or C++ first – I realise they are different languages with some common ground. Is it useful to learn a bit of both, or just try one? I hear C++ is a bit of a nightmare behemoth of a language.

2. What are the best resources (books, tutorials, practice programs, reference code) for a Java developer like myself.

Thanks

Answer 1

C is simple to learn, difficult to master. as a Java programmer the barrier will be memory and structure .. and undoing the damage Java may have done to the algorithm producing portions of your brain 😉

I would recommend getting familiar with the GCC toolchain on your Linux box, through tutorials on the Internet. Then read The C Programming Language, and a copy of Linux Application Development doesn’t hurt. Also, on Linux glib will save you from reinventing the wheel … but at least try to create your own linked-list, hashmap, graph and other API to learn. Pointer arithmetic, arrays and learning that elements such as structs are just named-offsets in a binary chunk are all important. Spend time with malloc and free and memcheck. With C, your tools and toolchain are very important and the IDE isn’t necessarily your friend when learning.

I would pick C over C++ as C is a good foundation to get used to the memory management and pointer usage of C.

The best thing you can do is apply what you learn to a real project. But be prepared to bash your head against the wall allot in Valgrind and GDB. I have been programming C for years, and I am still no C monk.

I do agree that C is a great language, it shows up a bad programmer. But remember:

Any sufficiently complicated C program contains an ad hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Common Lisp.

The moral of which is learn other languages too, rather than just C-derived ones! Consider some Lisp dialect, Erlang (which is cool at the moment), Haskell, etc. They will expand your horizons from the 2×2 cell of Java. Consider looking at SICP too.