Josh Wieder

Requirements | Framework | POSIX Recently I have been spending quite a bit of time learning how to program in C. It has been quite a few years since I have had anything to do with C, spending most of my time in a very different OSI layer entirely. Even when I did come across it some time ago, I was never anything but barely competent - this ignorance on my part has always disturbed me, and so I have endeavored to do something about it. Currently I am taking a few computer science classes at Harvard University; it is my plan to summarize a portion of what I have taken from those classes concerning the C programming language here on my website for readers who are interested. For readers with an advanced knowledge of C, these readings could be viewed as refresher courses. The content, although filtered through my humble brain, will be entirely the result of knowledge acquired through Harvard, so my hope is that even for the experienced C hacker there may be something of interest. ...

As time goes on, having a knowing how to write in a programming language is becoming less of an odd and obscurantist lifestyle choice and more of a necessity for gainful employment. Already, anyone wanting to pursue a career in the hard scientists will be finding themselves either developing or working with custom applications. But even entry-level and intern positions frequently have a "please help us with our website / CMS / database" component to them. The trouble is, people are terrified of code; even very smart people. It looks like ancient greek. For students of ancient greek it looks like Farsi. For Persian students of the Asiatic classics it looks like, err, English, probably. My point is that going from using the internet for Facebook and using the internet for push requests on Github has a very steep learning curve. So steep that most people fall right the hell off the curve. Enter Scratch . Scratch is an object oriented programming language developed by the Sma...