10 ms·

Open-source interactive C tutorial in the browser

256 points by Buttons840 1y ago

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
orionblastar 1y ago
We need more resources like this. Thank you.
Buttons840 1y ago
Saw this mentioned in a HN comment and thought it deserved more attention: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34106174 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34106174
dbacar 1y ago
They host lots of other languages as I see. https://www.learnshell.org/ https://www.learnshell.org/ https://www.learnjavaonline.org/ https://www.learnjavaonline.org/ ...
- mdaniel 1y ago
  The full list, although the reason I found that link is that the "Special commands" of learnshell is "this section is missing, please fork and contribute" so .. I doubt they're all populated: https://github.com/ronreiter/interactive-tutorials#interactive-tutorials https://github.com/ronreiter/interactive-tutorials#interacti... (Apache 2)
anovikov 1y ago
Unbearable with ads all around.
- commandersaki 1y ago
  The interactive editor seems to only use a quarter of the screen space and isn't resizable. Quite vexing to use.
- zerr 1y ago
  Surprising that there are still people without ad-blockers. Just install uBlock Origin.
herewulf 1y ago
As great as this looks, I think it should heavily emphasize moving on to using GCC (or maybe LLVM). I learned C in the mid nineties using a copy of Visual C++ 1.0 that a friend had gotten from his father (and probably he got it from work). It was the only compiler I knew of and once I was ready to move beyond toy programs, I was seriously hampered by the fact that this compiler couldn't produce text mode executables (any call to printf opened its own new window that definitely wasn't cmd.exe) and it couldn't set the graphics mode for blitting pixels. It was heavily oriented around this new fangled MFC thing but I was a teenager so I wanted to program games not business apps or whatever. That meant I wanted text mode or graphics mode. My high school CS class had Borland C++ and I could set mode 0x13 with that in DOS. But I had no way of obtaining this compiler as a kid. And it probably didn't work on Windows 95 anyway. Anyways, it wasn't until the early 2000s that I finally learned about GCC, a free as in beer and freedom compiler and the simplicity of it would have been amazing for learning.. If only I had known.
- auselen 1y ago
  Probably same years… whenever we got a new computer I was removing OS shipped and installing a previous MS OS. Win3.1? Nah I want DOS, win95 nah… I want 3.1. That’s where my tools were. Funny thing I still use win10.
  - giordanol 1y ago
    funny how much the tools you first get comfortable with shape everything after. even today, setting up a simple clean c environment is way harder than it should be for beginners. tutorials like this help, but eventually pointing people toward gcc or clang early on makes a huge difference long term.
    - auselen 1y ago
      I totally see what you mean but after 30 years of experience, I couldn’t put it that way. Even the simplest editor and a command line was enough for the “hello world!”.
- 1y ago
fuhsnn 1y ago
> Defined using char, int, short, long or long long > Note that C does not have a boolean type `_Bool` and `long long` are both introduced in C99, this is mixed up info. Edit: probably tailor-made for old MSVC, which didn't support _Bool until VS2013.
- PaulRobinson 1y ago
  Ironic that you've drawn the eye to the thing that needs to be front and center of any C tutorial, and also the thing that makes C so tricky to work with. When somebody says "This program is written in C", my initial thought is "Which C?". There is no one, single C. I don't write C daily. Heck, I don't write it monthly any more. And so my grey cells are struggling with which versions introduced what, and you've spotted something I would have missed on a first read. And this is a problem. Can you list all the undefined behaviours, and which language features came into which version across ANSI, C99, C11, C17 and C23? The last one feels a little brighter in my mind, but I definitely can't, and if I was writing a C tutorial - like many that have been written - I'd probably be explicit about choosing a version and sticking with it, and good luck and godspeed to everything outside that version. Of course this is one of the reasons learning C is harder than other languages, and why languages like Zig and Odin have a decent chance: ergonomically simpler than Rust, all the power and flexibility, (much) less of the head scratching.
  - card_zero 1y ago
    Because Zig et al won't have future versions with new features?
    - jononor 1y ago
      Of course. But they are starting with 40 years less baggage. And can reasonably assume a modern hardware architecture, for example.
      - uecker 1y ago
        You could also just use the newest C standard. I would personally trust that C23 code written today still works in ten years and still has excelelnt support in compilers a lot more than that this is the case for any code written in Zig, Odin, or Rust.
arcmechanica 1y ago
no thanks
immibis 1y ago
We should call things free software if they're free software and open source if they're not. Also, what's this cookie consent dialog about? Are those 999 business partners open source?
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
kubb 1y ago
Good luck to the author with the tutorial. I'm really beginning to accept that despite all of the new languages, like Rust and Zig being available, they won't be able to displace C for the next couple of decades at least. A good programmer will need to learn all the techniques for working with C code safely, efficiently and reliably, with all the inconveniences that implies.
- doublerabbit 1y ago
  Most older C developers I've spoken to find Go and Python as a fresh breath of air and refuse to head back. The younger generations totally sideline C completely. Myself a non-coder but experienced SysAdmin who can write cool Perl, TCL scripts, C almost feels almost natural when reading it. I just haven't had the time available to dive in. It could be that I was exposed to it at 14 (2003) but chose perl because MSN/Y!M/AOL messenger bots were the discord bots of today. Still, eager to dive in. Some reason Java too.
doublerabbit 1y ago
The issue I always find with these tutorials that they never seem explain the finer details. On the Array Page: /* print the 7th number from the array, which has an index of 6 */ printf("The 7th number in the array is %d", numbers[6]); There is no mention of what %d is or does. Once you know, it's fine, it's the display placeholder for the variable but that's what throws me off on tutorials.
larfus 1y ago
Had a bunch of inconsistencies last time i checked. Not quite comprehensive nor does it have much clarity. I also could hardly see when I disabled my ad block momentarily. Moral of the story: books are better for learning when it comes to C.
throw432196 1y ago
[flagged]
codr7 1y ago
The more, the merrier, here is another one I've been working on lately: https://github.com/codr7/hacktical-c https://github.com/codr7/hacktical-c
alabhyajindal 1y ago
I need to brush up on C for my dissertation. How does this compare to Head First C? I read the first chapter of that book and loved it! Very unlike other books on C which dedicate an entire chapter to `for` loop for instance. How do other programmers even read a book like that? Isn't it tiring to read through how a `for` loop works for the 70th time.
- mdaniel 1y ago
  > I need to brush up on C for my dissertation My condolences on the first part, but congratulations on your dissertation!
atiedebee 1y ago
Skimming through the pages, there is some things that aren't really accurate. > Integers - whole numbers which can be either positive or negative. Defined using char, int, short, long or long long char is either signed or unsigned depending on the platform/implementation. Use signed char if you want signed integers. Telling people who are new to C to define booleans with macros is not a good idea, as they have had a proper implementation since c99. It also feels weird to treat structs and pointers as advanced topics. They are basically required to be productive in the language. stdint.h was introduced in c99, not c11. Explaining bitwise operators as "bitmasks" is also quite weird. Bitmasking is just one of the few things you can do with them. > In C, functions must be first defined before they are used in the code. They can be either declared first and then implemented later on using a header file or in the beginning of the C file, or they can be implemented in the order they are used (less preferable). This paragraph reads weird. I haven't found any place where the tutorial mentions how to properly write header files. It might be because of the interactive part, but if that is the case then this tutorial doesn't really teach you how to program in C because the tooling around it is an important part of actually using the language. It is also fairly common to declare functions in order of use. Discouraging that is like telling people they need to use tabs over spaces instead of actually focussing on language semantics.
eigenvalue 1y ago
When I see a page filled with junky ads like that, I instantly close it. On mobile especially, it’s unusable. I’m amazed something like this gets traction here.
- user432678 1y ago
  Most of the users of this website probably run ad blockers, thus the traction. Bu I agree.
- xnickb 1y ago
  I didn't see any ads. Thanks for letting me know
- shric 1y ago
  I get no ads as I've been using ad blockers for as long as I can remember. It is, however, a terrible tutorial (it's full of beginner errors made by people who don't understand C but think they do based on behavior by whatever compiler they're using at the time). There is presumably some correlation between sites riddled with ads and having terrible content. Perhaps ad-blockers should show how many ads they have blocked more prominently.
Borzadaran 1y ago
Interactive tutorials are great for lowering the entry barrier, but technical accuracy is crucial for beginners. It's suggested to stick to a single C standard (like C99), properly cover essential topics like structs and pointers, and prefer _Bool over macros for booleans. Overall, the effort is appreciated.
dalton_zk 1y ago
C is a great language to learn if you want understand the fundamentals of computer. Personally, C was on of the first language that I learned, and until today help me if I want to learn a new language! I loved the interactive tutorial!!!
- cies 1y ago
  I'd say it's a bit crufty/quirky. Zig seems to be a good modern alternative. Basically a very similar language in the core, with a much more pleasant syntax. Wondering how long it will take before Linux can be ported to Zig by LLMs. Supposedly subset of it already builds with the Zig compiler (which also compiles C), with some minimal adjustments.
BiraIgnacio 1y ago
I love initiatives like this one. Thanks for working on it.

256 points by Buttons840 1y ago

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

orionblastar 1y ago

We need more resources like this. Thank you.

Buttons840 1y ago

Saw this mentioned in a HN comment and thought it deserved more attention: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34106174 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34106174

dbacar 1y ago

They host lots of other languages as I see. https://www.learnshell.org/ https://www.learnshell.org/ https://www.learnjavaonline.org/ https://www.learnjavaonline.org/ ...

mdaniel 1y ago
The full list, although the reason I found that link is that the "Special commands" of learnshell is "this section is missing, please fork and contribute" so .. I doubt they're all populated: https://github.com/ronreiter/interactive-tutorials#interactive-tutorials https://github.com/ronreiter/interactive-tutorials#interacti... (Apache 2)

anovikov 1y ago

Unbearable with ads all around.

commandersaki 1y ago
The interactive editor seems to only use a quarter of the screen space and isn't resizable. Quite vexing to use.
zerr 1y ago
Surprising that there are still people without ad-blockers. Just install uBlock Origin.

herewulf 1y ago

As great as this looks, I think it should heavily emphasize moving on to using GCC (or maybe LLVM). I learned C in the mid nineties using a copy of Visual C++ 1.0 that a friend had gotten from his father (and probably he got it from work). It was the only compiler I knew of and once I was ready to move beyond toy programs, I was seriously hampered by the fact that this compiler couldn't produce text mode executables (any call to printf opened its own new window that definitely wasn't cmd.exe) and it couldn't set the graphics mode for blitting pixels. It was heavily oriented around this new fangled MFC thing but I was a teenager so I wanted to program games not business apps or whatever. That meant I wanted text mode or graphics mode. My high school CS class had Borland C++ and I could set mode 0x13 with that in DOS. But I had no way of obtaining this compiler as a kid. And it probably didn't work on Windows 95 anyway. Anyways, it wasn't until the early 2000s that I finally learned about GCC, a free as in beer and freedom compiler and the simplicity of it would have been amazing for learning.. If only I had known.

auselen 1y ago
Probably same years… whenever we got a new computer I was removing OS shipped and installing a previous MS OS. Win3.1? Nah I want DOS, win95 nah… I want 3.1. That’s where my tools were. Funny thing I still use win10.
- giordanol 1y ago
  funny how much the tools you first get comfortable with shape everything after. even today, setting up a simple clean c environment is way harder than it should be for beginners. tutorials like this help, but eventually pointing people toward gcc or clang early on makes a huge difference long term.
  - auselen 1y ago
    I totally see what you mean but after 30 years of experience, I couldn’t put it that way. Even the simplest editor and a command line was enough for the “hello world!”.
1y ago

fuhsnn 1y ago

> Defined using char, int, short, long or long long > Note that C does not have a boolean type `_Bool` and `long long` are both introduced in C99, this is mixed up info. Edit: probably tailor-made for old MSVC, which didn't support _Bool until VS2013.

PaulRobinson 1y ago
Ironic that you've drawn the eye to the thing that needs to be front and center of any C tutorial, and also the thing that makes C so tricky to work with. When somebody says "This program is written in C", my initial thought is "Which C?". There is no one, single C. I don't write C daily. Heck, I don't write it monthly any more. And so my grey cells are struggling with which versions introduced what, and you've spotted something I would have missed on a first read. And this is a problem. Can you list all the undefined behaviours, and which language features came into which version across ANSI, C99, C11, C17 and C23? The last one feels a little brighter in my mind, but I definitely can't, and if I was writing a C tutorial - like many that have been written - I'd probably be explicit about choosing a version and sticking with it, and good luck and godspeed to everything outside that version. Of course this is one of the reasons learning C is harder than other languages, and why languages like Zig and Odin have a decent chance: ergonomically simpler than Rust, all the power and flexibility, (much) less of the head scratching.
- card_zero 1y ago
  Because Zig et al won't have future versions with new features?
  - jononor 1y ago
    Of course. But they are starting with 40 years less baggage. And can reasonably assume a modern hardware architecture, for example.
    - uecker 1y ago
      You could also just use the newest C standard. I would personally trust that C23 code written today still works in ten years and still has excelelnt support in compilers a lot more than that this is the case for any code written in Zig, Odin, or Rust.

arcmechanica 1y ago

no thanks

immibis 1y ago

We should call things free software if they're free software and open source if they're not. Also, what's this cookie consent dialog about? Are those 999 business partners open source?

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

kubb 1y ago

Good luck to the author with the tutorial. I'm really beginning to accept that despite all of the new languages, like Rust and Zig being available, they won't be able to displace C for the next couple of decades at least. A good programmer will need to learn all the techniques for working with C code safely, efficiently and reliably, with all the inconveniences that implies.

doublerabbit 1y ago
Most older C developers I've spoken to find Go and Python as a fresh breath of air and refuse to head back. The younger generations totally sideline C completely. Myself a non-coder but experienced SysAdmin who can write cool Perl, TCL scripts, C almost feels almost natural when reading it. I just haven't had the time available to dive in. It could be that I was exposed to it at 14 (2003) but chose perl because MSN/Y!M/AOL messenger bots were the discord bots of today. Still, eager to dive in. Some reason Java too.

doublerabbit 1y ago

The issue I always find with these tutorials that they never seem explain the finer details. On the Array Page: /* print the 7th number from the array, which has an index of 6 */ printf("The 7th number in the array is %d", numbers[6]); There is no mention of what %d is or does. Once you know, it's fine, it's the display placeholder for the variable but that's what throws me off on tutorials.

larfus 1y ago

Had a bunch of inconsistencies last time i checked. Not quite comprehensive nor does it have much clarity. I also could hardly see when I disabled my ad block momentarily. Moral of the story: books are better for learning when it comes to C.

throw432196 1y ago

[flagged]

codr7 1y ago

The more, the merrier, here is another one I've been working on lately: https://github.com/codr7/hacktical-c https://github.com/codr7/hacktical-c

alabhyajindal 1y ago

I need to brush up on C for my dissertation. How does this compare to Head First C? I read the first chapter of that book and loved it! Very unlike other books on C which dedicate an entire chapter to `for` loop for instance. How do other programmers even read a book like that? Isn't it tiring to read through how a `for` loop works for the 70th time.

mdaniel 1y ago
> I need to brush up on C for my dissertation My condolences on the first part, but congratulations on your dissertation!

atiedebee 1y ago

Skimming through the pages, there is some things that aren't really accurate. > Integers - whole numbers which can be either positive or negative. Defined using char, int, short, long or long long char is either signed or unsigned depending on the platform/implementation. Use signed char if you want signed integers. Telling people who are new to C to define booleans with macros is not a good idea, as they have had a proper implementation since c99. It also feels weird to treat structs and pointers as advanced topics. They are basically required to be productive in the language. stdint.h was introduced in c99, not c11. Explaining bitwise operators as "bitmasks" is also quite weird. Bitmasking is just one of the few things you can do with them. > In C, functions must be first defined before they are used in the code. They can be either declared first and then implemented later on using a header file or in the beginning of the C file, or they can be implemented in the order they are used (less preferable). This paragraph reads weird. I haven't found any place where the tutorial mentions how to properly write header files. It might be because of the interactive part, but if that is the case then this tutorial doesn't really teach you how to program in C because the tooling around it is an important part of actually using the language. It is also fairly common to declare functions in order of use. Discouraging that is like telling people they need to use tabs over spaces instead of actually focussing on language semantics.

eigenvalue 1y ago

When I see a page filled with junky ads like that, I instantly close it. On mobile especially, it’s unusable. I’m amazed something like this gets traction here.

user432678 1y ago
Most of the users of this website probably run ad blockers, thus the traction. Bu I agree.
xnickb 1y ago
I didn't see any ads. Thanks for letting me know
shric 1y ago
I get no ads as I've been using ad blockers for as long as I can remember. It is, however, a terrible tutorial (it's full of beginner errors made by people who don't understand C but think they do based on behavior by whatever compiler they're using at the time). There is presumably some correlation between sites riddled with ads and having terrible content. Perhaps ad-blockers should show how many ads they have blocked more prominently.

Borzadaran 1y ago

Interactive tutorials are great for lowering the entry barrier, but technical accuracy is crucial for beginners. It's suggested to stick to a single C standard (like C99), properly cover essential topics like structs and pointers, and prefer _Bool over macros for booleans. Overall, the effort is appreciated.

dalton_zk 1y ago

C is a great language to learn if you want understand the fundamentals of computer. Personally, C was on of the first language that I learned, and until today help me if I want to learn a new language! I loved the interactive tutorial!!!

cies 1y ago
I'd say it's a bit crufty/quirky. Zig seems to be a good modern alternative. Basically a very similar language in the core, with a much more pleasant syntax. Wondering how long it will take before Linux can be ported to Zig by LLMs. Supposedly subset of it already builds with the Zig compiler (which also compiles C), with some minimal adjustments.

BiraIgnacio 1y ago

I love initiatives like this one. Thanks for working on it.