General description
The main objectives of this course are to teach the basic features of the C programming language, the structure of the UNIX operating system and the UNIX interface to the programmer.

The facilities of C will be introduced by comparison with those of Java, the emphasis being on the rationale behind the language design decisions for the two programming languages. Emphasis will also be placed on C programming incorporating good modular design, readability, portability, and use of appropriate tools.

The second part of the course will address the structure of the UNIX operating system and the interface presented by functions and system calls for use from C.

The module will also consider the relevance of standards, both in C and in UNIX.

Aims
The aim of this course is to teach the student the fundamentals of the C language. In order to compare the facilities and underlying philosophy of C with that of Java, the first part of the course will draw closely on the material that is covered in CS21120 .

The UNIX operating system is studied as an example of the operating systems material covered in CS22210 and also as an application of the C language.

• The first part of the course will cover the C language, paying special attention to its differences in facilities and philosophy to those of Java.

• The second part of the course looks at the UNIX operating system as an example of an operating system programming interface and also at the binding that the UNIX operating system presents to the C programmer.

Learning outcomes
The detailed objectives of this module are:

• To provide students with enough facility in C programming that they are able to read, write and debug C programs.

• To examine the philosophy behind the creation of the C language.

• To examine the similarities and differences between C and Java.

• To examine the structure of the UNIX operating system.

• To examine the philosophy behind the creation of UNIX.

• To examine the programming interface to UNIX from C.

• To give the student practice in understanding operating system facilities.

• To underline the importance of standards.

Syllabus
1. Basic Concepts - 1 Lecture
History of the C language, philosophical differences between C language design and Java. Basic form of a C program compared with that of a Java program. Using the compiler.

2. Control Structures - 2 Lectures
Sequence, branching and iteration in C compared with that of Java.

3. Basic Data Structures - 1 Lecture
Review of basic data types and operators in C.

4. Subprograms - 1 Lecture
Discussion of ways in which functions are implemented, and used in C, including parameter passing mechanisms.

5. Composite Data Structures - 1 Lecture
A first discussion of Arrays in C. Input/Output.

6. Software Support Tools - 1 Lecture
Make, Lint, Debuggers. Libraries and library utilities. Static/Dynamic analysers.

7. C Programming Style and Portability - 1 Lecture
Language standards. Portability. Programming standards.

8. Arrays, Pointers and Functions - 2 Lectures
A discussion of pointer data types, how they relate to arrays, and how they contrast with Java objects.

9. Dynamic Data Structures - 2 Lectures
Implementation of various record structures and dynamic structures. Pointers. Malloc. Examples in C. Parallels will be drawn with how the internals of Java do this for you.

10. Pitfalls - 1 Lecture
Major problem areas. Design rationale of C and of Java in problem areas.

11. Further Features - 1 Lecture
C preprocessor, header files, conditional inclusion, macro substitution, bitwise operators, casts, enumeration, scope, static and external declarations, separate compilation.

12. The Structure of UNIX - 1 Lecture
An overview of the structure of the UNIX operating system and a description of the major components, including: the kernel, device drivers, the filesystem, the process, interprocess communication, the terminal. An introduction to the programming interface to UNIX.

13. The Filesystem and Files - 1 Lecture
The structure of the filesystem and associated operations. The types of file and the operations on files.

14. The Terminal - 1 Lecture
A study of the general interface.

15. Standards - 1 Lecture
ANSI 'C'; IEEE POSIX; UNIX International SVID; XOPEN XPG; COSE

16. Window systems and Event-Driven Programming - 1 Lecture
An appreciation of some of the problems involved in the programming of applications which interact with the X window system. Includes studying event-driven programming techniques.