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This is a great list of books - at least, I found the same ones were the most excellent. Also I really learnt a lot from 21st Century C (The author here said th

This is a great list of books - at least, I found the same ones were the most excellent. Also I really learnt a lot from 21st Century C (The author here said they wanted to stick to C89, which is fair enough.) >To read great C code will help tremendously. But then he just gives examples of games I don't know and am not really interested in. Anyone know some non-game C that is, I suppose, well-known and wonderfully-written? Also, am learning about writing APIs, any good books or talks about that people could recommend, or examples of particularly good ones in C? (I'm particularly interested in maths/graphics-type stuff.) Thanks!

jraph 7y ago
I find the source code of the Netsurf browser really beautiful: - https://netsurf-browser.org/ https://netsurf-browser.org/ - https://source.netsurf-browser.org/netsurf.git/tree/ https://source.netsurf-browser.org/netsurf.git/tree/ Including the sub projects, for instance: - https://source.netsurf-browser.org/libcss.git/tree/ https://source.netsurf-browser.org/libcss.git/tree/ - https://source.netsurf-browser.org/libdom.git/tree/ https://source.netsurf-browser.org/libdom.git/tree/ It feels immediately obvious and understandable, which is quite impressive for a browser. Everything is well documented, well separated, the code is clean and seems simple, functions are small, etc. I am really impressed. I'd want to work on such code. I have never worked on it though, and I am not connected in any way to this project.
- needs 7y ago
  Very well written code indeed. Thanks for the links. They could make error management less bug prone by using goto, but it's definitely high quality C code nonetheless.
rhoyerboat 7y ago
recently I started working on a module for nginx and have developed a full-blown crush on the module loader and its relationship with core functionality. haven't seen anything else quite like it, in C, that is. major newb talkin' also plan9, its nice to read some kernel code that hasn't been tortured by practical requirements for decades.
fabiensanglard 7y ago
I recommend git source code which was pretty neat last time i checked.
eindiran 7y ago
The sqlite codebase is well-known for being a large, well-written C codebase: https://github.com/sqlite/sqlite https://github.com/sqlite/sqlite The tests in particular are very impressive. Some other notable C codebases: Redis, LuaJIT, FreeBSD, Memcached --> https://github.com/antirez/redis https://github.com/antirez/redis https://github.com/LuaDist/luajit https://github.com/LuaDist/luajit https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd https://github.com/memcached/memcached https://github.com/memcached/memcached
- jacquesm 7y ago
  Varnish and the Linux kernel should be in that list as well I think.
  - eindiran 7y ago
    Nice! Here are the links: Varnish --> https://github.com/varnishcache/varnish-cache https://github.com/varnishcache/varnish-cache Linux Kernel --> https://github.com/torvalds/linux https://github.com/torvalds/linux
- fanf2 7y ago
  PostgreSQL’s source code is also really good. https://git.postgresql.org/gitweb/?p=postgresql.git;a=tree https://git.postgresql.org/gitweb/?p=postgresql.git;a=tree
atq2119 7y ago
The core Linux kernel is well-known and mostly well-written C.
- ndesaulniers 7y ago
  I'd say "advanced" C, not necessarily "well-written" C. There's certainly a lot of C in it, and I'd bet it's the largest open source C codebase.
  - cesarb 7y ago
    They go beyond C, it's actually C + GCC extensions. The only reason clang can compile it (in some configurations) is that they painstakingly implemented each of the GCC extensions the kernel uses (and when they were almost done, the kernel started requiring a few more).

jraph 7y ago

I find the source code of the Netsurf browser really beautiful: - https://netsurf-browser.org/ https://netsurf-browser.org/ - https://source.netsurf-browser.org/netsurf.git/tree/ https://source.netsurf-browser.org/netsurf.git/tree/ Including the sub projects, for instance: - https://source.netsurf-browser.org/libcss.git/tree/ https://source.netsurf-browser.org/libcss.git/tree/ - https://source.netsurf-browser.org/libdom.git/tree/ https://source.netsurf-browser.org/libdom.git/tree/ It feels immediately obvious and understandable, which is quite impressive for a browser. Everything is well documented, well separated, the code is clean and seems simple, functions are small, etc. I am really impressed. I'd want to work on such code. I have never worked on it though, and I am not connected in any way to this project.

needs 7y ago
Very well written code indeed. Thanks for the links. They could make error management less bug prone by using goto, but it's definitely high quality C code nonetheless.

rhoyerboat 7y ago

recently I started working on a module for nginx and have developed a full-blown crush on the module loader and its relationship with core functionality. haven't seen anything else quite like it, in C, that is. major newb talkin' also plan9, its nice to read some kernel code that hasn't been tortured by practical requirements for decades.

fabiensanglard 7y ago

I recommend git source code which was pretty neat last time i checked.

eindiran 7y ago

The sqlite codebase is well-known for being a large, well-written C codebase: https://github.com/sqlite/sqlite https://github.com/sqlite/sqlite The tests in particular are very impressive. Some other notable C codebases: Redis, LuaJIT, FreeBSD, Memcached --> https://github.com/antirez/redis https://github.com/antirez/redis https://github.com/LuaDist/luajit https://github.com/LuaDist/luajit https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd https://github.com/memcached/memcached https://github.com/memcached/memcached

jacquesm 7y ago
Varnish and the Linux kernel should be in that list as well I think.
- eindiran 7y ago
  Nice! Here are the links: Varnish --> https://github.com/varnishcache/varnish-cache https://github.com/varnishcache/varnish-cache Linux Kernel --> https://github.com/torvalds/linux https://github.com/torvalds/linux
fanf2 7y ago
PostgreSQL’s source code is also really good. https://git.postgresql.org/gitweb/?p=postgresql.git;a=tree https://git.postgresql.org/gitweb/?p=postgresql.git;a=tree

atq2119 7y ago

The core Linux kernel is well-known and mostly well-written C.

ndesaulniers 7y ago
I'd say "advanced" C, not necessarily "well-written" C. There's certainly a lot of C in it, and I'd bet it's the largest open source C codebase.
- cesarb 7y ago
  They go beyond C, it's actually C + GCC extensions. The only reason clang can compile it (in some configurations) is that they painstakingly implemented each of the GCC extensions the kernel uses (and when they were almost done, the kernel started requiring a few more).