Introduction to C Programming

Course Syllabus

Introduction
    What is C?
    Compilers, Linkers, Precompilers (make and lint)
    Basic Structure
    hello.c
    fahr.c
    printf() and fprintf()

Types, Operators and Expressions
    The Programmer's Memory Model
    Variables, Declarations and Data Types
    Constants
    Intro to Arrays, Structures and (gasp!) Pointers
    Arithmetic, Logical and Assignment Operators
    Type Conversions
    Increment, Decrement and Bitwise Operators
    Expressions
        +=, -=, ...
        ()?: syntax
    Precedence and Order of Evaluation

Control Flow
    Statements and Blocks
        include 4.8
    if...else if...else
    while, for and do
        break and continue
        for loop w/o stmts on p69
    switch
    goto and Labels (Boo!  Hiss!)

Functions and Program Structure
    Function Basics
    Procedures (= void Functions)
    External (global) Variables
    Scope Rules, Externs and Statics
        static and externs guarenteed zero
        mention register again because it appears in book here
    Multiple Module Programs
    The Preprocessor
        #define macros
            hazards
        #undef
        ## concatenation
            need good example for this
        #if, #if defined, #ifdef, #elif, #else, #endif
        __LINE__, __FILE__, __DATE__, __TIME__, __STDC__

Pointers and Arrays I
    Pointers and Addresses
    Pass by Reference - Pointers in Function Args
    Pointers, Arrays and Address Arithmetic (Review)
    The alloc familly

Data Structures
    Stacks and Queues
    Linked Lists
    Basic Binary Trees
        upside-down orientation
        root, node, subtree, parent (father), child (son), leaf
        ancestor, descendant, left child/descendant, right child/descendant
        level - root is level 0
        *Introduce Example*
        all nodes of same type, don't use pq ticks
        recursion
        tree in array (n, 2n, 2n+1)
        thread links to speed traversals
        game trees

Pointers and Arrays II
    Character Pointers and Functions - Another Look at Strings
    Pointer Arrays; Pointers to Pointers
    Multi-dimensional Arrays vs. Pointer Arrays
    argc and argv
    Pointers to Functions - Woo Hoo!
    "Complicated" Declarations

Structures
    Structures and Functions
    Arrays and Structures
    Pointers to Structures, Structures with Pointers
    Typedef (Review)
    Unions
    Bit-fields

Input and Output
    Standard Input and Output
    Variable Length Argument Lists
    File I/O
    Error Handling - stderr and exit()
        read from Plauger
    Line Input and Output
    A Brief Tour of the Standard Libraries
        string.h
        ctype.h
        ungetc()
        system()
        math.h
        random numbers

The UNIX System Interface?
    File Descriptors
    Low Level I/O - read() and write()
    open(), creat(), close() and unlink()
    lseek()
    Some Practical Examples
    The Guts of Malloc

Programming Style and Standards

Advanced Topics
    bsearch
    qsort
    Priority Queues and Simulators
    Tracking Memory Allocation
        Vesp method
        shareware libraries
    Object Oriented Programming in C
    signals
    event/interupt driven programming
        client server
        X

Course Materials

• Assignment 3: hw3.txt - You also need hw3.h to do this assignment.
• Assignment 4: hw4.txt - This assignment introduces the Class Coding Standard
• Assignment 5: hw5.txt
• Assignment 6: hw6.txt
• Assignment 8: hw8.txt
• Assignment 12: hw12.txt
• hw12_test1.in - Test input for Assignment 12 solutions.
• hw12_test2.in - Test input for Assignment 12 solutions.

Homework Solutions:
Whenever possible, if I hadn't previously written such a program I tried to do the programming assignments in advance to make sure that they where possible, not unfairly difficult, and didn't involve techniques I hadn't covered yet. These are the results. Although now that the're open for public inspection, I suppose I should go back and comment them.

• Assignment 3: hw3.c is the basic solution, hw3a.c is an expanded version of the solution that I used to illustrate structure assignments and references.
• Assignment 4: sqr.c
• Assignment 6: hilo.c, passtest.c, and

Sample Code:

• airline1 was the example of stack use that I presented in class. It simulates meal service on a Smallfry Airlines domestic flight.
  • airline1.c
  • flight1a.txt
  • flight1b.txt
• airline2 was principly a demonstration of a simulator that is built around a priority queue, but it also demonstrates the use of basic queues and balanced binary trees. It simulates the movement of Smallfry Airlines airplanes from city to city in the course of a single day's schedule.
  • airline2.c - the main code
  • This is a collection of test inputs:
    • air2.in
    • air2.in2
    • air2.in3
    • air2.in4
    • air2.in5
    • air2.in6
  • The citytree module implements the (mostly) balanced binary tree of city information. It was not presented in class because I felt that balanced binary trees were well beyond the scope of a straight C Programming class, but the source code and test program were made available for curious students.
    • citytree.c
    • citytree.h
    • citytreetest.c
• arr.c - a simple illustration of address mathmatics
• bintree is an illustration of the Binary Tree data structure. It implements most of the standard "primitve functions" used with binary trees.
  • bintree.c
  • bintree.h
  • bintreetest1.c
  • bintreetest2.c
• The dog series is a collection of programs that all do the same thing: look for the word "dog" in a file. The first two tried to stick to techniques that had been covered in class, the third one was the "And if you already knew the whole language..." superversion.
  • dog1.c
  • dog2.c
  • dog3.c
• fahr.c - one of the first code samples presented in class. fahr.c is taken almost directly from K&R. I was using it to illustrate basic program structure and the class standard for file headers.
• init_test.c
• limits.c
• list1.c
• list1.h
• list2.c
• list2.h
• listtest.c
• listtest.in
• listtest.out
• numcount.c
• opener.c
• opener.h
• ops1.txt
• ops2.txt
• parser.c
• parser.h
• platetest.c
• pqtest.c
• pqueue.c
• pqueue.h
• queue1.c
• queue1.h
• remove_prot.c
• stack1.c
• stack1.h
• stackqueue.h
• strtest.c
• test.c
• vectormath.c