- Dedication
- Advance Praise for Head First C
- Praise for other Head First books
- Authors of Head First C
- How to use this Book: Intro
- 1. Getting Started with C: Diving in
- C is a language for small, fast programs
- But what does a complete C program look like?
- But how do you run the program?
- Two types of command
- Here’s the code so far
- Card counting? In C?
- There’s more to booleans than equals...
- What’s the code like now?
- Pulling the ol’ switcheroo
- Sometimes once is not enough...
- Loops often follow the same structure...
- You use break to break out...
- Your C Toolbox
- 2. Memory and Pointers: What are you pointing at?
- C code includes pointers
- Digging into memory
- Set sail with pointers
- Set sail sou’east, Cap’n
- Try passing a pointer to the variable
- Using memory pointers
- How do you pass a string to a function?
- Array variables are like pointers...
- What the computer thinks when it runs your code
- But array variables aren’t quite pointers
- Why arrays really start at 0
- Why pointers have types
- Using pointers for data entry
- Be careful with scanf()
- fgets() is an alternative to scanf()
- Anyone for three-card monte?
- Oops...there’s a memory problem...
- String literals can never be updated
- If you’re going to change a string, make a copy
- Memory memorizer
- Your C Toolbox
- 2.5. Strings: String theory
- 3. Creating Small Tools: Do one thing and do it well
- Small tools can solve big problems
- Here’s how the program should work
- But you’re not using files...
- You can use redirection
- You can redirect the Standard Input with <...
- ...and redirect the Standard Output with >
- But there’s a problem with some of the data...
- Introducing the Standard Error
- By default, the Standard Error is sent to the display
- fprintf() prints to a data stream
- Let’s update the code to use fprintf()
- Small tools are flexible
- Don’t change the geo2json tool
- A different task needs a different tool
- Connect your input and output with a pipe
- The bermuda tool
- But what if you want to output to more than one file?
- Roll your own data streams
- There’s more to main()
- Overheard at the Head First Pizzeria
- Let the library do the work for you
- Your C Toolbox
- 4. Using Multiple Source Files: Break it down, build it up
- Don’t put something big into something small
- Use casting to put floats into whole numbers
- Oh no...it’s the out-of-work actors...
- Let’s see what’s happened to the code
- Compilers don’t like surprises
- Split the declaration from the definition
- Creating your first header file
- If you have common features...
- You can split the code into separate files
- Compilation behind the scenes
- The shared code needs its own header file
- It’s not rocket science...or is it?
- Don’t recompile every file
- First, compile the source into object files
- It’s hard to keep track of the files
- Automate your builds with the make tool
- How make works
- Tell make about your code with a makefile
- Your C Toolbox
- C Lab 1: Arduino
- 5. Structs, Unions, and Bitfields: Roll your own structures
- Sometimes you need to hand around a lot of data
- Cubicle conversation
- Create your own structured data types with a struct
- Just give them the fish
- Read a struct’s fields with the “.” operator
- Can you put one struct inside another?
- How do you update a struct?
- The code is cloning the turtle
- You need a pointer to the struct
- (*t).age vs. *t.age
- Sometimes the same type of thing needs different types of data
- A union lets you reuse memory space
- How do you use a union?
- An enum variable stores a symbol
- Sometimes you want control at the bit level
- Bitfields store a custom number of bits
- Your C Toolbox
- 6. Data Structures and Dynamic Memory: Building bridges
- Do you need flexible storage?
- Linked lists are like chains of data
- Linked lists allow inserts
- Create a recursive structure
- Create islands in C...
- Inserting values into the list
- Use the heap for dynamic storage
- Give the memory back when you’re done
- Ask for memory with malloc()...
- Oh, no! It’s the out-of-work actors...
- Let’s fix the code using the strdup() function
- Free the memory when you’re done
- Exhibit A: the source code
- An overview of the SPIES system
- Software forensics: using valgrind
- Use valgrind repeatedly to gather more evidence
- Look at the evidence
- The fix on trial
- Your C Toolbox
- 7. Advanced Functions: Turn your functions up to 11
- Looking for Mr. Right...
- Pass code to a function
- You need to tell find() the name of a function
- Every function name is a pointer to the function...
- ...but there’s no function data type
- How to create function pointers
- Get it sorted with the C Standard Library
- Use function pointers to set the order
- Automating the Dear John letters
- Create an array of function pointers
- Make your functions streeeeeetchy
- Your C Toolbox
- 8. Static and Dynamic Libraries: Hot-swappable code
- Code you can take to the bank
- Angle brackets are for standard headers
- But what if you want to share code?
- Sharing .h header files
- Share .o object files by using the full pathname
- An archive contains .o files
- Create an archive with the ar command...
- Finally, compile your other programs
- The Head First Gym is going global
- Calculating calories
- But things are a bit more complex...
- Programs are made out of lots of pieces...
- Dynamic linking happens at runtime
- Can you link .a at runtime?
- First, create an object file
- What you call your dynamic library depends on your platform
- Your C Toolbox
- C Lab 2: OpenCV
- 9. Processes and System Calls: Breaking boundaries
- System calls are your hotline to the OS
- Then someone busted into the system...
- Security’s not the only problem
- The exec() functions give you more control
- There are many exec() functions
- The array functions: execv(), execvp(), execve()
- Passing environment variables
- Most system calls go wrong in the same way
- Read the news with RSS
- exec() is the end of the line for your program
- Running a child process with fork() + exec()
- Your C Toolbox
- 10. Interprocess Communication: It’s good to talk
- Redirecting input and output
- A look inside a typical process
- Redirection just replaces data streams
- fileno() tells you the descriptor
- Sometimes you need to wait...
- Stay in touch with your child
- Connect your processes with pipes
- Case study: opening stories in a browser
- In the child
- In the parent
- Opening a web page in a browser
- The death of a process
- Catching signals and running your own code
- sigactions are registered with sigaction()
- Rewriting the code to use a signal handler
- Use kill to send signals
- Sending your code a wake-up call
- Your C Toolbox
- 11. Sockets and Networking: There’s no place like 127.0.0.1
- The Internet knock-knock server
- Knock-knock server overview
- BLAB: how servers talk to the Internet
- A socket’s not your typical data stream
- Sometimes the server doesn’t start properly
- Why your mom always told you to check for errors
- Reading from the client
- The server can only talk to one person at a time
- You can fork() a process for each client
- Writing a web client
- Clients are in charge
- Create a socket for an IP address
- getaddrinfo() gets addresses for domains
- Your C Toolbox
- 12. Threads: It’s a parallel world
- Tasks are sequential...or not...
- ...and processes are not always the answer
- Simple processes do one thing at a time
- Employ extra staff: use threads
- How do you create threads?
- Create threads with pthread_create
- The code is not thread-safe
- You need to add traffic signals
- Use a mutex as a traffic signal
- Your C Toolbox
- C Lab 3: Blasteroids
- Write the arcade game Blasteroids
- Your mission: blast the asteroids without getting hit
- Allegro
- What does Allegro do for you?
- Building the game
- The spaceship
- The blast
- The asteroid
- The game status
- Use transformations to move things around
- The finished product
- Leaving town...
- It’s been great having you here in Cville!
- A. Leftovers: The top ten things (we didn’t cover)
- B. C Topics: Revision roundup
- Index
- About the Authors
- Copyright
To Dennis Ritchie (1941–2011), the father of C.
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