CS2022: Introduction to C

Fall 2009

Announcements

• Sunday 9/20: Third assignment released on CMS. Due Friday 9/25 Sunday 9/27
  • Solution: iManip.c
• Monday 9/14: Second assignment released on CMS. Due Friday 9/18
  • Solution: charfreq.c
• Monday 9/7: First assignment released on CMS. Due Friday 9/11
  • Solutions: fib1.c, fib2.c, anagram.c
• Welcome to the class!

Overview

This course provides a brief introduction to the C programming language and standard libraries for students with programming experience at the CS1110 level. We will cover basic syntax, programming paradigm, standard libraries, and debugging for C on the GNU/Linux platform.

Organization

• When & Where: MWF, 12:20-13:10, 08/27/09 - 09/25/09 (Thurston Hall 205)
• Instructor: Hussam Abu-Libdeh [first name @cs.cornell.edu]
• Office Hours: Mondays after class until 2pm, or by appointment.
  • Time: 13:10-14:00
  • Location: 4139 Upson Hall

Assignments & Grading

The homework assignments will be released and submitted through the Course Management System.

As this is a S/U course, to complete it successfully you need a "pass" on all of the homework assignments on C# programming.  This course follows the Cornell University Code of Academic Integrity. Each student in this course is expected to abide by the Cornell University Code of Academic Integrity. You should not discuss solutions to the assignments with your classmates.  This not only implies that you should have written them but also that you should understand them! You are free to consult books and online resources, but you will have to properly cite them. If there is enough interest, a more elaborate "final" project might be an option for completing the class, provided that it covers all features in the homeworks.

Development Environment

The class will use Linux as an environment for development and testing. Programs will be compiled with gcc and debugging will be done with gdb. You can do the homeworks on other platforms, but testing will be done on Linux and thus it is recommended to try to use Linux.

Assignments

Syllabus and Lecture Slides

1. General Introduction
2. Basic Syntax, Hello World
   • examples shown in class: Hello World, Vars, Functions, Conditionals, Loops, Recursion, Command Line Arguments
3. Pointers
4. Memory Model
5. Arrays & Strings
   • class example: simple Sudoku Maker
6. Complex Types
   • class examples: function pointers, structs and unions, and typedef
7. Debugging
   • class example: simple tracing
8. The Preprocessor
   • class examples: project.c, mylib.h, mylib.c. (The project.c file uses functions declared in mylib.h and impleneted in mylib.c. Compile with gcc -DDEBUG -o project project.c mylib.c to use the custom malloc and free. Compile without the -DDEBUG option and you will use the default malloc and free).
9. File & Network IO
   • class examples: Terminal IO (keyboard), File IO, Network Server, Network Client (run the server first then the client).
10. Serialization & Bitwise Operations
    • class examples: exercise1.c, exercise2.c, iteration1.c, iteration2.c
11. Threads
    • class examples: threads.c, counters.c (demonstrating race conditions). Remember, compile these examples with the -pthread flag for gcc.
12. GoTo, Exceptions, and Inline Assembly
13. Course Recap