Thursday, August 24, 2006

C Programs, Functions, Arrays, structs, and Pointers

Topics

• How to create a program in C (not C++ yet), and some of the differences with Java.
• Header files.
• Constants - the old C way with #defines
• Constants - the new C++ with the keyword const
• Procedural code - no classes just functions  (also called procedures in the old days)
• All functions must be outside of one another - similar to a single class in Java
• Pointers in C  (no references - we'll see C++'s references soon)
• Pass by value and pass by reference, using pointers, in C and how it compares with Java
• Arrays in C and how they are different from Java.
• structs, the precursor to classes.  Cannot have functions, just data.

Readings

None:  Deitel and Deitel gives extensive coverage of the fundamentals of C in the first four chapters. Over this weekend and the long weekend next week, read or skim through these first chapters, concentrating on what is new  for you. 

Reading Deitel's little "tips" boxes is often extremely useful.