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Re: Good bootstrap application to learn C for what C is intended for?

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On 06/05/2013 07:22 AM, Tinxx wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I want to get myself a bit into C. I already worked from "C how to
> program" by Deitel. Now I'm looking for some good "bootstrap
> application" or sparetime project to work on to improve skills. Some

I think you mean "starter" rather than "bootstrap". The term uses
something that's literally impossible to do (lifting oneself up by one's
own bootstraps) as a metaphor to describe situations where getting
started requires very careful planning: early steps need to install
functionality required for later steps - do the steps in the wrong order
and everything fails. Learning C isn't as tricky as bootstrapping - you
can fail and start over, benefiting from what you learned from the failure.

> kind of little "research vehicle". What I found were good books about
> image processing in C or socket programming or driver programming.
> For the book about driver programming you already need to understand
> C quite well. My question is what kind of application is typically
> written in C from the given list above (or maybe aditional ones not
> on my list ...) so that you learn to use the language for what it was
> designed. Don't really know ...

C is a general-purpose language, though a very low-level one, so there's
no well-defined typical C application. When C was first being developed,
the two main things it was used for were implementing the C compiler,
and also Unix, the OS where the C compiler was running  (that's true
bootstrapping). It's still often used to implement higher-level
languages, and for systems programming, so if forced to identify
"typical" C applications, I'd identify those.

However, I personally have almost never used C for either of those
purposes; I've used it almost exclusively for scientific data
processing, and I know other people who have written financial software
in it. You'll get better guidance for your choice of starter application
by looking at your own interests, rather than at "typical" C programs.

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Good bootstrap application to learn C for what C is intended for? Tinxx <jeti789@web.de> - 2013-06-05 04:22 -0700
  Re: Good bootstrap application to learn C for what C is intended for? Öö Tiib <ootiib@hot.ee> - 2013-06-05 04:59 -0700
  Re: Good bootstrap application to learn C for what C is intended for? Bart van Ingen Schenau <bart@ingen.ddns.info.invalid> - 2013-06-05 14:45 +0000
    Re: Good bootstrap application to learn C for what C is intended for? Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2013-06-05 21:17 +0000
      Re: Good bootstrap application to learn C for what C is intended for? Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2013-06-06 11:07 +1200
    Re: Good bootstrap application to learn C for what C is intended for? Tinxx <jeti789@web.de> - 2013-06-06 01:22 -0700
      Re: Good bootstrap application to learn C for what C is intended for? Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2013-06-06 15:26 +0000
        Re: Good bootstrap application to learn C for what C is intended for? Seebs <usenet-nospam@seebs.net> - 2013-06-07 22:19 +0000
          [OT] Lua Ivan Shmakov <oneingray@gmail.com> - 2013-06-08 17:31 +0000
            Re: [OT] Lua Tinxx <jeti789@web.de> - 2013-06-09 12:00 -0700
            Re: [OT] Lua David Brown <david@westcontrol.removethisbit.com> - 2013-06-10 09:29 +0200
              Re: [OT] Lua "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2013-06-10 09:48 +0100
            Re: [OT] Lua David Brown <david@westcontrol.removethisbit.com> - 2013-06-10 09:30 +0200
  Re: Good bootstrap application to learn C for what C is intended for? James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2013-06-05 10:55 -0400
  Re: Good bootstrap application to learn C for what C is intended for? "osmium" <r124c4u102@comcast.net> - 2013-06-05 10:02 -0500
    Re: Good bootstrap application to learn C for what C is intended for? Rosario1903 <Rosario@invalid.invalid> - 2013-06-05 21:55 +0200

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