The programming adventure has its pitfalls and most C programmers can’t claim to be free of some mistakes. Many of them are common; the same mistakes, over and over. Even after decades of coding, C programmers often still find themselves doing stupid, silly things. Most often they’re done in haste — usually, simple things.

It’s difficult to narrow down the list of reminders and suggestions, especially for a topic as rich and diverse as programming. For example, an expert could suggest ways to fit in with other programmers, which movies to quote, which games to play, and even which foods to eat. A programming subculture exists — even today, though the emphasis on professional workplace attire has thankfully abated.

The best way to learn programming is to start with a fundamental language like C. Nearly every other popular language today borrows from C. Whether you’re curious about programming, need to pass a college course, or want to start your own app business, learning C is the right place to begin.Understanding the C Language SkeletonMost coding starts with a C language structure.

When you write an Objective-C program for your iOS or Mac OS X apps, all you're doing is providing a set of instructions for the computer to follow. Fundamentally, programs manipulate numbers and text, and all things considered, a computer program has only two parts: variables (and other structures), which "hold" the data, and instructions, which perform operations on that data.

Each program must have a starting point. When you run a program, DOS sends it off on its way — like launching a ship. As its last dock-master duty, DOS hurls the microprocessor headlong into the program. The microprocessor then takes the program's helm at that specific starting point. In all C programs, the starting point is the main() function.

Programming math functions with C is fairly straightforward: a plus sign works like any sixth-grader knows it should and does addition. The mathematical symbols and the function they serve in C are shown in the following table:

Object-oriented programming languages enable you to declare classes, create derived classes (subclass), and send messages to the objects instantiated from a class. This is the essence of object-oriented programming and part of the object-oriented extensions that Objective-C adds to C. To ensure that everything operates smoothly, compiler directives are available that enable you to inform the compiler of your classes by using @class and #import.

Another popular looping keyword in C programming is while. It has a companion, do, so programmers refer to this type of loop as either while or do-while. The C language is missing the do-whacka-do type of loop. How to structure a while loop in C programming The C language while loop is a lot easier to look at than a for loop, but it involves more careful setup and preparation.