somenath wrote:
Hi All,
I have some questions about the process of learning C language.
I see in this groups all expert most of the time quote from C
standard.
1) My question is do all of you study the C standard as the part of
your learning C language?
The Standard is not a teaching tool; I cannot imagine anyone
trying to learn C by reading the Standard. Trying to do so would
be like trying to learn carpentry by studying building ordinances.
2) Is it very much required to study line by line of the C standard to
gain expertise?
The carpenter mentioned above will do a lot of sawing and
hammering without ever consulting the ordinances; his skills and
experience serve him well. But on rare occasions he'll need to
refer to the authorities: He's working on a building that will
house a contagious disease laboratory and there are special
requirements for making the windows germ-tight, or he's making
bookshelves for an oxygen-rich environment where certain kinds
of glue must not be used. When he's doing something out of the
ordinary -- or outside his own ordinary experience -- he needs
to check the regulations to be sure he does it right.
In c.l.c. the regulations are read more frequently than in
the ordinary practice of programming in C. This is because the
sample is biased: Questions that appear here are fairly likely
to concern the murky and seldom-visited corners of the language.
Sometimes implementations (or programmers) disagree about what
the proper behavior is in this or that situation; it's then time
to refer to the Law.
I am trying to learn C language by studying K&R book thoroughly,
daily reading this news group and I write code in C as part of daily
work but I don't need to use most of the features of C for example bit
wise operator. But I am passionate about gaining expertise in C
language.
So could you please tell me if I am in correct direction or I need to
put extra effort?
Keep reading good books, keep reading good (and bad) code,
keep writing code: that's how you'll learn. Your knowledge of
C is likely to remain incomplete, but that's all right as long
as you're aware of where your ignorance lies and don't wander
into those areas inadvertently. (Personal example: I have never
used C's complex arithmetic, nor wide characters, nor snprintf(),
so I'm not familiar with them. But I know they exist, and I know
where to learn about them should the need ever arise -- that's
enough to get me by, and I imagine it'll work as well for you.)
--
Eric Sosman
es*****@ieee-dot-org.invalid
