Useful little things for the assignment

Enumerations

Enumerations are useful if you've variables which take on values from a small set. We looked at two examples for enumerations in class: Also, we coded the two programs e1.c and week.c during the session.

Function Pointers

We looked at the two example programs

Queues

Many people were trying to use linked lists in order to implement their queues. In our situation it might be easier to use simply an array and two variables for the begin and the end of the queue.

Debugging

You might want to use the debugger gdb in case you're stuck with segmentation faults, bus errors, etc. If you never had any of these problems, you can try the program bug.c. In order to use the debugger, you should compile your code with option -g.
gcc -g bug.c
and run the executable a.out to get the segmentation fault. Next, start the debugger with
gdb a.out
The most useful commands in the debugger are
  • run
  • list
  • break
  • where
  • next
  • step
  • help
I recommend that you get familiar with this powerful tool! (Also, check out the man page for gdb and dbx).

XServer

It's possible to allow an unix machine to open a window on a Windows95/98 or NT computer. However, you would need to install some software to do so - but you'll have lots of benefits. Check out
http://www.microimages.com/freestuf/mix/mix.htm and http://www.hummingbird.com/
Also, I'll check with people who are using PCs more frequently than me...

.emacs

Here's a downsized version of my .emacs file. If you want your emacs to come up with similar key-bindings and syntax highlighting you should put this file in your home directory as .emacs