Regarding C and C++ (64)

4 Name: #!/usr/bin/anonymous : 2008-05-04 23:48 ID:rX0YMtxO

>>1

Hey OP. You will surely get a lot of responses or different opinions on this,

and perhaps that will get you confused. >>2 concludes that you should skip C and
learn C++, based on that C is a subset of C++. However, that is not correct. C
has a lot of differences with C++, which are sometimes quite subtle. You will
find a wonderful page that explains all this here:
<a href="http://david.tribble.com/text/cdiffs.htm">Incompabilities between ISO C and ISO C++</a>
All these are too advanced for you, but just looking at the size of that page,
you can be sure that >>2 is wrong. That, however, does not mean that learning
C++ before C is wrong.

My suggestion is that you go with C first. C is a lot smaller than C++, so

you'll get to completely understand what happends in a C program a lot faster. C
is also more "stable". There's a new C++ standard coming out around 2009. If you
don't know what a standard is, it's okay. Just understand that what you might
learn now about C++ you might have to re-learn in 2009. By 2009, if you take the
C path, you should be a good C programmer, <i>if</i> you follow my advice on
what books to pick and read. Generally, learning either language is no easy
task. Learning a language doesn't mean to be able to write 10 or 20 lines of
code in it. It means to be able to read any code and being able to tell what
happends in every line. Not what the programmer intented to do, but what the
compiler will understand. There's <i>too</i> many C programmers out there that
don't really know C. At all. Which is sad, do not end up like them. Every time
you wonder whether you at last know C or not, ask yourself this:
<i>Do I know most of what's written in ISO 9899:1999?</i>
If you can, then you do. When that time comes, it's up to you to learn C++.

As for the advice, here's my advice:

Obviously go with C. Get books such as K&R - The C programming language, or H&S
C: a reference manual 5th edition. Read them, do the exercises, be patient. It
should take at least 6 months to learn C. When and if you feel like completely
mastering the language, click the third link, and get the C99 standard,
available for free in pdf form (should be called WG14 N1124).

<a href="http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/cbook/">The C programming language</a>
<a href="http://careferencemanual.com/">C: A reference manual</a>
<a href="http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/">ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22/WG14</a>

P.S. Don't give up. When this journey comes to its end a lot of doors will

open, you'll be able to read about most concepts around computers.

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