For programmers raised on high-level languages like Perl, Java and PHP, working on a C project can be daunting. Still, many open source projects work at a low-level in C to take advantage of the power and speed of working close to the machine. Whether it’s Perl, Postgres or Linux, C is what makes it run.

This session will provide a high-level overview of C, aimed specifically at the programmer wanting to get involved in a C-based open source project. We’ll cover:

• Nothing in C is DWIM (“Do what I mean”)
• Numeric types, strings and structures
• Memory management: the heap, the stack, and pointers
• Using the preprocessor
• Understanding compiler warnings
• Memory checking with valgrind
• How to navigate a large C-based open source project (ctags, etc)
• Security, or, how the Bad Guys smash the stack

Sign up at mchenry.softwarecraftsmanship.org.