In last week’s Lesson, the Code::Blocks debugger helped examine the values of two variables, short int a and short int pointer p. Pointer p revealed a memory location inside the computer, which you can examine by using Code::Block’s Memory dump window.
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Back in the microcomputer days, hobbyists used the BASIC language to program their proto-PCs. BASIC is easy to learn, sloppy and forgiving. It also hints at some low-level language attributes, primarily with the PEEK and POKE commands.
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Five years (plus eight days) ago, this blog went public with its first post. It was several months before the companion book, Beginning Programming with C For Dummies appeared, but I wanted the blog to be well-stocked with posts for those first, eager readers.
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A function that reads a string of 1s and 0s to generate an integer value output just screams to be called binput(). Yet, because my new version of the binbin() function (to display a binary value as a string) is called binString(), I decided to call its companion function stringBin(). Sorry to disappoint you.
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In my books, I use the binbin() function to display binary values. It’s a good way to demonstrate some of the C language’s low-level bitwise functions: The binbin() function lets you see the effect of bitwise operations at a binary level, all those ones and zeros.
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Oh, I could have fun with the term “standard error device.” It could be any PCs running Windows 8. [rimshot] See? Tech humor! It’s nerdy, but that’s not the point of the standard error device with regards to C programming.
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The process of opening, reading, writing, and closing files is basic C language stuff. For specific details about a file, the stat() function is used to fill a stat structure. Unfolded are the nitty-gritties about the file itself, such as its size, ownership, and up to four time-date stamps.
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Reader Chris pointed out a fun and common C language inconsistency in last week’s Lesson: The constant M_PI isn’t always available. It’s not defined as part of the C standard, which means your compiler may lack this handy shortcut, located in the math.h header file. What to do, what to do?
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Mathematic geeks of the world celebrate March 14 as “pi day.” The logic is that the date is 3/14, which are the first three digits of the value π, or 3.14159….∞
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Of all the C language keywords you don’t use, auto is probably the most memorable. That’s because it’s listed first among the canonical table of 32 C language keywords. Yet, in all the code you’ve written or seen, auto is seldom used if at all. So what does it do and is it even necessary?
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