I enjoy programming a computer the old fashioned way, in the text mode terminal window. Yes, it’s now a sad little “app” floating on a graphical screen. This burden doesn’t remove the charm, but it does raise an interesting issue when you try to get text mode output just right: How many rows and columns are there in the terminal window?
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A for loop statement contains three parts: initialization, termination, and while-looping. If you omit any part, the compiler assumes the value one, or TRUE, as the value, so the statement for(;;) becomes an endless loop. The opposite of omitting is loading up: You can state multiple initialization and while-looping expressions in the statement, which can make a for loop truly compact.
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The clock() function has nothing to do with human time. Nope. It returns a value from the computer’s CPU, the processor time. You can use this value to determine the amount of time it takes your programs to run.
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You would think that the various C compilers deal with C code in the same manner. After all, they adhere to the same C standards, right? This compatibility makes it possible to compile and cleanly build C programs regardless of which compiler you use, right? Well, maybe not.
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Perhaps the most hilarious keyword in the C language is volatile. It’s a data type qualifier, which I discussed in last week’s Lesson. But this qualifier doesn’t mean that the data is unstable or risky to use, unlike other things described as “volatile.”
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The challenge for this month’s Exercise is to return a file’s size without using the stat() function. My goal is to get you to think about various file tools and how they can be useful beyond their intended purpose.
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When describing data, the C language offers data types and data qualifiers. The data type is well known to any C programmer, defining the kind of data stored: char, int, float, and so on. The qualifier describes additional aspects of the data, such as how it’s used or whether the compiler should optimize the data’s storage.
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The stat() function returns various tidbits about a file, including its timestamp, permissions, file type, and the file’s size in bytes. This value can also be obtained without without using the stat() function, which is this month’s Exercise.
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Modern programming languages have libraries rich with routines, functions, and methods — plenty to pull together and craft the code you want without getting into the nitty-gritties or reinventing the wheel. As a mid-level language, C often requires that you craft your own functions, a task I undertake with eager glee.
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It’s Christmas time, nerds rejoice! Welcome this festive season with a bit of programming acumen to festoon your old CRT monitor with some yuletide cheer.
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