From: furballs@sequent.com (Paul Penrod)
Subject: Re: Newbie wants advice on C-programming
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems, Inc.
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 92 01:37:10 GMT

In article <e4BDwB2w165w@tradent.wimsey.bc.ca> lord@tradent.wimsey.bc.ca (Jason Cooper) writes:
>Okay, I am _SURE_ I'm going to get flamed on this one, but be assured it 
>is not my intention to do so.  Some of the guys here, it would seem, want 
>you to buy what amounts to a couple of thousand dollars of books and 
>programs, and to invest YEARS.  Let me tell you this:  I went STRAIGHT 
>from QuickBasic to Borland C++, a step which took me about a week, as I 
>vowed to myself never to touch QB again (a step, as another poster said, 
>which was probably one of my best).  I bought ONE book (Teach Yourself C, 
>I told you about it in my mail-reply to you), and ONE program (Borland 
>C++, Proffessional version, w/ Application Frameworks ($800, but worth it 
>to me, and if you don't want that much power the price drops like a 
>rock)).  I am now (less than 2 or 3 months later) VERY ready to go 
>full-out into Object-Oriented programming, and appreciate ALL of C's 
>functions.  I programmed in Basic/Quick Basic for 8 years (which gave me 
>the ideas of structure, etc, but I'm sure you can pick it up elsewhere), 
>but I'm sure any reasonably intelligent person could pick up the same in 
>a year or less, and programmed in Assembler only in passing for fun (not 
>much at that, got my name outputted, that's about it).  
>
>The point of this WHOLE MESSAGE is this:  Though some may try to convince 
>you that the only way you're going to learn C (or C++) is through 
>thousands of dollars and a decade of hard work, what'll get you through 
>twice as quickly, and with your wallet still intact, is a little 
>determination and will power.
>
>                                                Jason Cooper

No flame here, just a clarification.

STANDARD C contains 28 keywords, and then you add the extensions
for the flavor of compiler you bought. (I use Borland C++ 3.0
professional). There is not much there to the language.

I learned C in 2 days of concentrated effort. It took me years to
become GOOD at it. Just like anything else, it takes practice.

It does not take thousands of dollars. I started with K&R bible
first addition and a piss poor Lifeboat Associates C V2.3 compiler
for MS-DOS. Couple hundred dollars spent.

You can become proficient enough at C within a few weeks to start
doing some pretty sophisticated things with it. However; to start
to undertand what you are doing, you need to have some assembler
background, only because a good programmer is one that knows the
limitations of his architecture and what it will do for him via the
language of choice.

These are basic tools. Once you know how to use your basic tools,
you can construct more sophisticated tools and extend your
abilities even further. That's what takes the time and investment.


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