book

Expert C Programming

Name: Expert C Programming
Author: Peter van der Linden
ISBN: 9780131774292

by Peter van der Linden

June 1994

Intermediate to advanced

384 pages

9h 28m

English

Pearson

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Cover Page
About This eBook
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
The $20 Million BugConventionSome Light Relief—Tuning File Systems
1. C Through the Mists of Time
The Prehistory of CEarly Experiences with CThe Standard I/O Library and C PreprocessorK&R CThe Present Day: ANSI CIt’s Nice, but Is It Standard?Translation LimitsThe Structure of the ANSI C StandardReading the ANSI C Standard for Fun, Pleasure, and ProfitHow Quiet is a “Quiet Change”?Some Light Relief—The Implementation-Defined Effects of Pragmas . . .

2. It’s Not a Bug, It’s a Language Feature
Why Language Features Matter—The Way the Fortran Bug Really Happened!Sins of CommissionSins of MissionSins of OmissionSome Light Relief—Some Features Really Are Bugs!
3. Unscrambling Declarations in C
Syntax Only a Compiler Could LoveHow a Declaration Is FormedThe Precedence RuleUnscrambling C Declarations by Diagramtypedef Can Be Your FriendDifference Between typedef int x[10] and #define x int[10]What typedef struct foo { ... foo; } foo; MeansThe Piece of Code that Understandeth All ParsingSome Light Relief—Software to Bite the Wax Tadpole...
4. The Shocking Truth: C Arrays and Pointers Are NOT the Same!
Arrays Are NOT Pointers!Why Doesn’t My Code Work?What’s a Declaration? What’s a Definition?How Arrays and Pointers Are AccessedDiagram A A Subscripted Array ReferenceDiagram B A Pointer ReferenceDiagram C A Subscripted Pointer ReferenceMatch Your Declarations to the DefinitionOther Differences Between Arrays and PointersSome Light Relief—Fun with Palindromes!
5. Thinking of Linking
Libraries, Linking, and LoadingThe Benefits of Dynamic LinkingFive Special Secrets of Linking with LibrariesWatch Out for InterpositioningGenerating Linker Report FilesSome Light Relief—Look Who’s Talking: Challenging the Turing Test
6. Poetry in Motion: Runtime Data Structures
a.out and a.out FolkloreSegmentsWhat the OS Does with Your a.outWhat the C Runtime Does with Your a.outWhat Happens When a Function Gets Called: The Procedure Activation RecordThe auto and static keywordsThreads of Controlsetjmp and longjmpThe Stack Segment Under UNIXThe Stack Segment Under MS-DOSHelpful C ToolsSome Light Relief—Programming Puzzles at CMUFor Advanced Students Only
7. Thanks for the Memory
The Intel 80x86 FamilyThe Intel 80x86 Memory Model and How It Got That WayVirtual MemoryCache MemoryThe Data Segment and HeapMemory LeaksBus Error, Take the TrainSome Light Relief—The Thing King and the Paging Game
8. Why Programmers Can’t Tell Halloween from Christmas Day
The Potrzebie System of Weights and MeasuresMaking a Glyph from Bit PatternsTypes Changed While You WaitPrototype PainfulnessGetting a Char Without a Carriage ReturnImplementing a Finite State Machine in CSoftware Is Harder than Hardware!How and Why to CastSome Light Relief—The International Obfuscated C Code Competition
9. More about Arrays
When an Array Is a PointerWhy the Confusion?Why C Treats Array Parameters as PointersIndexing a SliceArrays and Pointers Interchangeability SummaryC Has Multidimensional Arrays......But Every Other Language Calls Them “Arrays of Arrays”How Multidimensional Arrays Break into ComponentsHow Arrays Are Laid Out in MemoryHow to Initialize ArraysSome Light Relief—Hardware/Software Trade-Offs
10. More About Pointers
The Layout of Multidimensional ArraysAn Array of Pointers Is an “Iliffe Vector”Using Pointers for Ragged ArraysPassing a One-Dimensional Array to a FunctionUsing Pointers to Pass a Multidimensional Array to a FunctionUsing Pointers to Return an Array from a FunctionUsing Pointers to Create and Use Dynamic ArraysSome Light Relief—The Limitations of Program Proofs
11. You Know C, So C++ is Easy!
Allez-OOP!Abstraction—Extracting Out the Essential Characteristics of a ThingEncapsulation—Grouping Together Related Types, Data, and FunctionsShowing Some Class—Giving User-Defined Types the Same Privileges as Predefined TypesAvailabilityDeclarationsHow to Call a MethodInheritance—Reusing Operations that Are Already DefinedMultiple Inheritance—Deriving from Two or More Base ClassesOverloading—Having One Name for the Same Action on Different TypesHow C++ Does Operator OverloadingInput/Output in C++Polymorphism—Runtime BindingExplanationHow C++ Does PolymorphismFancy Pants PolymorphismOther Corners of C++If I Was Going There, I Wouldn’t Start from HereIt May Be Crufty, but It’s the Only Game in TownSome Light Relief—The Dead Computers SocietySome Final Light Relief—Your Certificate of Merit!Further Reading
Appendix: Secrets of Programmer Job Interviews
Silicon Valley Programmer InterviewsHow Can You Detect a Cycle in a Linked List?What Are the Different C Increment Statements For?How Is a Library Call Different from a System Call?How Is a File Descriptor Different from a File Pointer?Write Some Code to Determine if a Variable Is Signed or NotWhat Is the Time Complexity of Printing the Values in a Binary Tree?Give Me a String at Random from This FileSome Light Relief—How to Measure a Building with a BarometerFurther Reading
Index
Code Snippets

Content preview from Expert C Programming

Dedication

I hereby dedicate this book to pizza, Dalmatian dogs, Sunday afternoons in a hammock, and comedy. The world would be a lot better off if there were more of these. I plan to become reacquainted with them all now the book is done.

In fact, I think I’ll spend next Sunday afternoon swinging in a hammock, and laughing at my Dalmatian dog’s attempts to eat pizza.

I would also like to acknowledge the fine products of the Theakston Brewing Company, Yorkshire, England.

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Expert C Programming

by Peter van der Linden

Dedication

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
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