[Coco] C Programming in General

[Rod Barnhart]

I tried to learn C several times before I finally grasped it. I think
what finally did it, for me, was when I finally managed to "forget"
everything I knew about BASIC, because the knowledge just doesn't
apply to other languages, and tried my hand at 80x86 Assembly. That
was extremely difficult, and while I managed to write a program that
would ID your CPU, memory, video card, etc, I never made it halfway
past the novice-level book I was using. However, it made the book on C
that I had previously purchased seem like an easy read.

As for motivation: back then I ran a registered WWIV 4.xx BBS. When
you registered, you got the source. As it was in Borland's Turbo C, it
was far from ANSI C. But there was a large modding community which
provided step-by-step instructions for specific changes to the board.
This was good for a beginner, as sometimes things didn't work as
advertised (usually because one mod conflicted with another). But it
did teach some nasty habits because it wasn't ANSI-compliant.

Now, I'm working on a rather large project in PHP for my employer.
Because PHP (like most modern languages) is similar to C, it was
rather easy to pick up. I stand to save my company several thousand
dollars a month by moving this particular function of our business
in-house instead of contracting it out. This could lead to a
substantial raise (not to mention a great bullet-point on a resume)
and money is never a bad motivator.

I agree with others on this thread that projects that challenge you,
but which are within your capabilities, are probably the best
motivator. There was a time when I would think "I wish I had a simple
utility to do this..." and I'd make that a project. Because the
utilities were simple, it was a great way to keep from getting
discouraged.

Rod


On 1/12/06, Alan Jones <w8oaj at verizon.net> wrote:
> I have tried to learn C several times but I always give up
> after a while. I am thinking about giving it another shot.
> How do you guys stay motivated?

--
Rod Barnhart aka Wintermute (http://www.nitemarecafe.com)