Programming on an UNIX platform?

[Solid Fro]

I have a friend attending a university here in CA and supposedly, for her major, she has to take a programming class using UNIX. She is writing the code in C and is having an extremely hard time with it. Are there any websites or books that would be helpful for a newbie? I know some C websites but, I wouldn't call them "user friendly."

A second thought; I'm absolutely blown away that a programming class would start out with high level language like C. It took me a while to learn C++ and I could probably pass as an intermediate user. I'm worried about her. She knows nothing about computers or how they work, which I think, should be required knowledge for programming in C.

I'm trying to be a gentlemen, any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[TurboSmoke]

Hi Viper...

i think C is an excellent place to start....from there you learn all the basics that you'll need in C++ and Java, Perl, PHP...everything really...

its easy to learn too...

as for Unix, there is very little difference...just with file names you "/" in your path declerations instead of "\" ie.

unix: root/myfiles/cprograms
windows: c:\myfiles\cprograms

there are a few other special keys which i cant remember off hand...but learning C on a unix platrorm is well worth the time and effort...i am a big advocate of using C as a primer into the world of computing...

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Yes, C is a great language, and will generate lots of transferable skills - PHP, for example, is a less strict version of C. But more importantly, because C is quite a strict language in terms of variable types and scopes, it teaches a valuable lesson in being a decent programmer.

Is your friend's problem with C, or is it with UNIX? C is a cross-platform language, so there is a clear distinction. Does your friend know if her problem is with C or with UNIX?!

 

[Solid Fro]

I'm pretty sure she is using C on a Unix system. She sent me a piece of code and it was written in C. I'll ask her later today to be sure.

I did not know that C was a good place to start. I started with VB, maybe I was deprived of a good learning experience?

I have Visual C++ installed, so I could compile her code with few changes from Unix to Windows?