The best way to learn computer programming is by typing your code in keystroke-by-keystroke, not by file copying an example from a CD or downloading from the Internet. Go on www.abebooks.com, a used book website, and do a title search for "C Programming" without the double quotes. Do not buy a book whose title contains C++, C# or Objective-C even if it also includes C in the title. There are many used C programming language books for under $10. Buy one and bring it to class. I will pick out a good example from your book for you to start with on your own at home.

There are no grades or tests, but there is homework. I will hand out a worksheet at the beginning of each class which will be the guide for that day's lesson. Right now there are only two courses, "Fundamental Course A" and "Fundamental Course B", which will cover the following topics:

Fundamental Course A

• What is a computer doing when it starts up?
• What does 32-bit, 64-bit and GHz mean?
• Data types, range, sizeof() addresses and various integers.
• Internal binary representations.
• Variable declarations and their scope.
• "Hello, World!"
• Operator precedence, similar to PEMDAS in arithmetic.
• Write, then call a function.
• Input and output.
• If-statements and other conditionals.
• Looping constructs.
• Coding style and naming conventions.
• Arrays.
• 8 Queens Problem.
• Recursion: Factorial.

 

Fundamental Course B

• Recursion: General.
• Dynamic memory allocation.
• Pointers.
• Linked lists.
• Binary trees and other data structures.
• Sorts and traversals.
• TCP/IP programming.