Summary

The aim of this book is to provide a rapid introduction to the C programming language. In a computing world that is increasingly full of C++ and Object Oriented methods, C still has an important role to play, particularly in the implementation of engineering and scientific calculations. This book is biased towards those features of C that make it useful for these types of application. This makes the book particularly relevant to students on various engineering and scientific courses where the role of C programming may range from being an important supportive topic to a core discipline.Neither C nor any other programming language can be learned simply by reading about it. Consequently, each chapter is further divided into 'key points', or more focused sections that involve the reader in various programming activities guided by tutorial questions. These are accompanied by tutorial problems at the end of each chapter that aim to integrate the chapter topic into the wider framework of C programming and technical applications. The two key features of this book are its focus on those aspects of C that are of most general use, and presentation of these features in a way that is particularly accessible by students on engineering and science based courses. The pace of the book is quite rapid, covering a lot of C functionality in a relatively small number of pages. This is achieved through concise but carefully thought-out explanations of key points. This approach is a strong contrast to the majority of books on C that typically run to several hundred pages and, consequently, require significant commitment from the reader. This is especially important when C programming may only be, perhaps, one of six subjects studied in a fifteen week semester.