Ask HN: Learning C: Books, Tools, Community

4 points by neuland ↗ HN
TL;DR: What are the good books, tools, and community places? I'm a Linux user interested in user-level C applications like NGINX, Redis, SQLite, and Python bindings for some C libraries.

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I'm in the process of learning C and am hoping that you all can help in the discovery process. It took me a while to figure out that the best material for learning is in books. And, that has me wondering: What else is obvious to everyone else except me?

For a general idea of where I'm at, I am intested in working with for user-level applications, especially in the networking and database area like NGINX, Redis, and SQLite. I'm also interested in writing Python bindings for some C libraries that I use often.

I'm a linux user and generally do everything in the terminal. So far, I've written a couple programs (a couple CLI programs for processing text and a simple HTTP service using Kore) and am looking to get into something a little bigger.

In terms of books/sites, I've read the following already:

- K&R

- The Standard C Library

- 21st Century C

- Expert C: Deep C Secrets

- Python 3 C API Docs

- The Linux Interface (reading now)

For tools, I'm already using:

- Vim

- GCC

- GDB

- Make

- Valgrind

- Autotools

- `man 3 {some-libc-thing}`

- `man 2 {some-syscall-thing}`

So, what am I missing? I'm especially wondering where all the community is.

- Where do people that write C gather and talk? Forums, Mailing lists, etc.

- What books/websites are best for learning C?

- What tools should I be using? Strace, something for profiling?

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