[dev] C talk

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Florian Limberger

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Feb 29, 2012, 6:06:33 PM2/29/12
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Greetings list,

I think about giving a short talk about C and why to use it on a small
student event at my local university this weekend.
Does anybody have pointers to some stuff like that?

Thanks,

flo

Calvin Morrison

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Feb 29, 2012, 6:08:03 PM2/29/12
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On 29 February 2012 18:06, Florian Limberger

pointers... avoid mentioning pointers at all costs :-)

Kurt H Maier

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Feb 29, 2012, 8:19:49 PM2/29/12
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On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 06:08:03PM -0500, Calvin Morrison wrote:
>
> pointers... avoid mentioning pointers at all costs :-)
>

Sure. Also avoid mentioning int, char, float, preprocessing, compiling,
and functions.

Andrew Hills

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Feb 29, 2012, 9:22:21 PM2/29/12
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On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 8:19 PM, Kurt H Maier <khm-su...@intma.in> wrote:
> Sure. Also avoid mentioning int, char, float, preprocessing, compiling,
> and functions.

Don't forget to avoid those dangerous operators.

--Andrew Hills

Jacob Todd

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Feb 29, 2012, 9:23:38 PM2/29/12
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Whatever you do, don't mention arithmetic. That stuff is hard.

Antonio Hernández Blas

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Feb 29, 2012, 9:34:39 PM2/29/12
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On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 8:23 PM, Jacob Todd <jaket...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Whatever you do, don't mention arithmetic. That stuff is hard.

Seriously? what about logic? Dealing with true || false just blows your mind.

--
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Andrew Hills

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Feb 29, 2012, 9:39:58 PM2/29/12
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As an exercise, have the students parse this:

http://www.ioccc.org/2006/toledo2/toledo2.c

--Andrew Hills

Jacob Todd

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Feb 29, 2012, 9:52:39 PM2/29/12
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Woah, getting a little too technical. Tone it down.

Hank Donnay

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Feb 29, 2012, 9:56:09 PM2/29/12
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The thing I would harp on is the mindset. If you keep in mind when
moving into C from another language that C is portable asm and not an
actual high-level language, you're closer to thinking about problems in
the proper terms.

--
--hank

Christoph Lohmann

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Mar 1, 2012, 4:49:13 AM3/1/12
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Greetings.

Florian Limberger wrote:
> I think about giving a short talk about C and why to use it on a small
> student event at my local university this weekend.
> Does anybody have pointers to some stuff like that?

As mentioned before: C is the higher-level Assembler and it should
be seen like that. This will then easily show the pros and cons of
using it in a project, like low footprint but much work for complex
data structures.

If someone still follows you, then show the magic of pointer in-
direction and afterwards the difference of runtimea and footprint
of maybe some Python script vs. C.

The last step would be to show them the suckless manifesto and tell
them, that only C programmers get chicks and have free time. Java
will force you into business and a suit.


Sincerely,

Christoph Lohmann

Paul Onyschuk

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Mar 1, 2012, 7:11:36 AM3/1/12
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On Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:06:33 +0100
Florian Limberger wrote:

>
> I think about giving a short talk about C and why to use it on a small
> student event at my local university this weekend.
> Does anybody have pointers to some stuff like that?
>

You could start with less technical overview. I used some random
quotes from Games of Thrones to make it more interesting.

> Daenerys Targaryen: He was no dragon. Fire cannot kill the dragon.

I would say that C is hype free. If you're looking for fairy tales and
promises of magical tool to resolve all your issues, C is the wrong
place. Look somewhere else for that.

> Tyrion Lannister: Let me give you some advice, bastard: never forget
> what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor,
> and it can never be used to hurt you.

C has own weakness and quirks. Most C programmers are well aware of
that, probably more that users of other languages (and weaknesses that
comes with them).

> Master Luwin: The things you speak of, they've been dead for
> thousands of years.
> Osha: They wasn't dead, old man; they was only sleeping. And they
> ain't sleeping no more.

C was pronounced obsolete and dead through years. I hate statistics
most of the times, but TIOBE [1] and LangPop [2] are suggesting
something completely opposite, when it comes to state of C programming.

> Robert Baratheon: That's all the realm is: backstabbing and
> plotting. Sometimes I don't know what holds it together.

Even if you're using other language and/or hate C, keep in mind that C
is everywhere. Sooner or later you'll find yourself in situation,
where you will need to reuse some C software. In the end C is a glue,
that holds everything together.

> Old Nan: Don't listen to it. Crows are all liars. I know a story
> about a crow.

Just try it yourself and make your own opinion on C.


[1] http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html
[2] http://www.langpop.com/

Paul Onyschuk

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Mar 1, 2012, 7:16:56 AM3/1/12
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>
> I used some random quotes from Games of Thrones to make it more
> interesting.
>

That was bad mistake on my side. Apologies for every fan of George R.
R. Martin. Of course it should be "Game of Thrones", silly me.

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