When you're trying to learn something new, it can be real trying. Even when you have a little knowledge of the subject it can still be frustrating to learn all of the parts and pieces. There is a series from Sams Publishing that helps take the sting out of learning. The series is Teach Yourself [fill in the subject] In 21 Days. One of the latest books in that series is Sams Teach Yourself C In 21 Days. Peter Aitken and Bradley L. Jones wrote the book. This is the fifth revision to be published.

The first couple of chapters in the book were kind of a review for me. I had a class on C programming several years ago. Unfortunately, I didn't do well in that class. There were just a lot of things that I didn't understand about C. In looking at learning C once more, I decided that Sams Teach Yourself C In 21 Days might be what was needed to get me started.

The book is broken down into twenty-one separate lessons. They are set up like the days of the week, with a review at the end of each seven days. There is also a bonus week that has been added. The inside cover of the book has a table of all the days and what you are expected to learn in each.

The first day prepares you for things to come. It takes you through the reasons for programming in C. Two main reasons is that there are only a handful of terms to learn and that the programming modules can be transported between machines and even platforms. A program written in C for a Windows based computer would need little changing to work on a Unix machine.

The first day also takes you through the process of the development cycle of C programming. Write the code, compile it, check for errors, set up the object codes and source file, link everything together and spit out an executable program. The first day also teaches you a simple program, Hello World. The words, Hello World, appear on your computer screen at the execution of the program.

The second and third days are all about C components and what to do with them. Learn how to build a program line by line. Learn why braces are so important to your program lines. The book also takes you through a segment on the use of your computer's memory and how it ties into a C driven application.

Day 5 deals with functions. Things like What Is A Function? And How A Function Works are covered here. You are taught how some of the statements and expressions from earlier in the book are tied into the functions. At the end of the first week, you will also learn about the basic input and output functions.

The second week starts you out with some heavy stuff. Learn what an array is. Simply put, arrays are data storage locations for your program. Data is written to and stored in an array until it is needed. You also learn that a pointer is not just a dog or something a teacher uses at the blackboard.

Then it's on to characters and strings. You are taught how characters are used in a program and why strings are important. A character is a letter, number or symbol. A string is made up of characters.

By the time you're at the end of Week 2, you will have learned about things like data structure and variable scopes. You will learn about infinite program loops. You'll also learn about nested loops. You will find out that a stream holds more than just water. And the mighty world of printing functions is described as well.

The third week takes you into advanced topics like linking lists and writing disk functions into a program. You are taught how to compare strings for data and some advanced function performance. Day 19 takes you through the C Function Library and why you use what you will find there. Day 20 is about working with computer memory and how it can be used for program enhancement. The last part of the regular segments offer information about using the C complier.

The Bonus Week covers topics like C++ and Java.

This book has a wealth of information about C programming. The only thing that the book doesn't have is a companion CD. I would have liked to have some of the program files available to me without typing them. But I guess that's just being a little lazy on my part.

Sams Teach Yourself C In 21 Days is a good way to learn C programming. It has all of the basics needed to start out with and just enough advanced topics to make you want to go forward in programming in C.

The book lists for $ 29.99. It can be found at most booksellers in their computer programming section. You can also get it directly from Sams Publishing through their web site. It can be found at www.samspublishing.com.

Copyright © 2000 Bruce E. Von Stiers