Contents

* The Common Desktop Environment
* C/C++ Program Compilation
* C Basics
* Conditionals
* Looping and Iteration
* Arrays and Strings
* Functions
* Further Data Types
* Pointers
* Dynamic Memory Allocation and Dynamic Structures
* Advanced Pointer Topics
* Low Level Operators and Bit Fields
* The C Preprocessor
* C, UNIX and Standard Libraries
* Integer Functions, Random Number, String Conversion, Searching and Sorting: <stdlib.h>
* Mathematics: <math.h>

These notes are part of the UW Experimental College course on Introductory C Programming. They are based on notes prepared (beginning in Spring, 1995) to supplement the book The C Programming Language, by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, or K&R as the book and its authors are affectionately known. (The second edition was published in 1988 by Prentice-Hall, ISBN 0-13-110362-8.) These notes are now (as of Winter, 1995-6) intended to be stand-alone, although the sections are still cross-referenced to those of K&R, for the reader who wants to pursue a more in-depth exposition.

This book covers only the C language and is a bit out dated. However it still contains a lot of good advice.

Table of Contents    
Chapter 1: Style and Program Organization    
Chapter 2: File Basics, Comments, and Program Headings    
Chapter 3: Variable Names    
Chapter 4: Statement Formatting    
Chapter 5: Statement Details    
Chapter 6: Preprocessor    
Chapter 7: Directory Organization and Makefile Style    
Chapter 8: User-Friendly Programming    
Chapter 9: Rules

Table of Contets

1. Foreward
2. Programming Building Blocks
3. Variables, Expressions, and Statements (Oh My)
4. Building Blocks Revisited
5. Functions
6. Variables, The Sequel
7. Pointers--Cower In Fear!
8. Structures
9. Arrays
10. Strings
11. Dynamic Memory
12. More Stuff!
13. Standard I/O Library
14. String Manipulation
15. Mathematics
16. Complex Numbers
17. Time Library

This book is a guide to getting started with GCC, the GNU Compiler Collection. It will tell you how to use GCC as a programming tool. GCC is a programming tool, that's true--but it is also something more. It is part of a 20-year campaign for freedom for computer users. We all want good software, but what does it mean for software to be "good"? Convenient features and reliability are what it means to be technically good, but that is not enough. Good software must also be ethically good: it has to respect the users' freedom.

This document is intended to introduce pointers to beginning programmers in the C programming language. Over several years of reading and contributing to various conferences on C including those on the FidoNet and UseNet, I have noted a large number of newcomers to C appear to have a difficult time in grasping the fundamentals of pointers. I therefore undertook the task of trying to explain them in plain language with lots of examples.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1: What is a Pointer?

Chapter 2: Pointer Types and Arrays.