Resourceful Code Reuse

Arranging Source and Header Files (the C Way)

Proper code reuse can be challenging because it requires a specific mind-set. A common mistake that even professional programmers make is putting all their code in the same file like this:

jsontool.c

#include <stdio.h>   // For input/output
#include <stdlib.h>  // For EXIT_SUCCESS or EXIT_FAILURE
#include <stdbool.h> // For bool, false, and true

typedef struct JSON_Object {
  // Lots of lines of code here
  // ...
} JSON_Object;

// Lots of helper functions, data types, and global variables
int json_errno = 0;
bool read_boolean(FILE* infile) { /* ... */; return false; }
char *read_string(FILE* infile) { /* ... */; return NULL; }
void ...