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Brief Information about the Sept '08 CSIG Meeting

Introduction to the C Language

Wikipedia Text

Welcome to the CSIG, a Special Interest Group of the ACGNJ, and let me welcome everyone back from their Summer activities.

The subject for this month is a general review and introduction to the C Language. We will be discussing the following sub-topics:

All of those assorted names: C, C++, C#, MFC, C-sharp, C-.net, etc.
Short history of the language.
Reasons for programming in C as opposed to other languages.
Computer systems that use C based applications.
Available tools or "compilers".
Further reading.

Small Example of the Power of C

Text processing is an area that C++ programs shine above all other languages. The code produced is usually quite compact and ultra fast. Last year I wrote a program for doing text replacement in a data file. The user had to convert extra characters from a Mainframe dump into readable text. The source was a 10 Megabyte text file and the processing took about 1 hour of actual computer time to accomplish the replacement using Notepad. The operation was repeated daily. My program, using normal C++ functions, took about 20 seconds! The user was dumbfounded.

This is an exciting time for the C Language programming since Microsoft now has 4 different language compilers: C++, C++ Express, C-Sharp, and C-Sharp Express. These are all capable of creating Windows (tm) programs and the "Express" versions are free !

Microsoft is now advertising it's newest versions designated Visual Studio 2008. There are "Express" versions otherwise know as "Free" as well as the commercial versions. The Express versions are fully functional. Unless you work in a large program development company, you probably won't need the broader features of the commercial versions. Additionally, there are other companies making free and almost free compilers. Here's a link with many compilers: http://www.willus.com/ccomp.shtml
(See below for other language and tutorial links.)


The following PDF files contain more detailed information about the C and C++ language as well as an extensive list of web sites showing free programs and tutorials for both Windows (tm) and Linux.


The beginning of the evening (starting at 7:30pm) will be a RANDOM ACCESS discussion. The main presentation will follow.

Our download site has code and programs from most of our meetings. ( Source Code Files )

Sample Code

Sample Code
===========
#include <stdio.h>
main()
	{
	printf ("Hello World!\n");
	return 0;
	}

"Random Access" questions start at 7:30 Tuesday night.

SOURCE CODE

Source Code Files

For help, email me at b a r n o l d @ i e e e . o r g
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