21st Century C, 2nd Edition

Epilogue

Strike another match, go start anew—

Bob Dylan, closing out his 1965 Newport Folk Festival set, “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue”

Wait!, you exclaim. You said that I can use libraries to make my work easier, but I’m an expert in my field, I’ve searched everywhere, and I still can’t find a library to suit my needs!

If that’s you, then it’s time for me to reveal my secret agenda in writing this book: as a C user, I want more people writing good libraries that I can use. If you’ve read this far, you know how to write modern code based on other libraries, how to write a suite of functions around a few simple objects, how to make the interface user-friendly, how to document it so others can use it, what tools are available so you can test it, how to use a Git repository so that others can contribute, and how to package it for use by the general public using Autotools. C is the foundation of modern computing, so when you solve your problem in C, then the solution is available for all sorts of platforms everywhere.

Punk rock is a do-it-yourself art form. It is the collective realization that music is made by people like us, and that you don’t need permission from a corporate review committee to write something new and distribute it to the world. In fact, we already have all the tools we need to make it happen.