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submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by hellfire103@lemmy.ca to c/programming@programming.dev

I have always had a great deal of respect for C, and I would like to start writing in it. However, while I am skilled in other languages, I basically don't know any C off the top of my head.

I find that I learn better and faster by attempting projects, rather than working through a book ir taking a class. For example, to learn Perl, I am working on a basic disk image writer that's coming along nicely.

So, what do you think might be a good idea for my first C project?

EDIT: Zig is also something I'm interested in learning. Same question, different language.

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[-] mrmaplebar@fedia.io 4 points 3 days ago

I'm totally with you on this.

C is a fantastic language for people who want to develop for existing C projects. But there are very few reasons to develop new software projects in C today. As such, for anyone learning C, the best first project would probably be whatever existing C project you want to work on.

Maybe the main exception to that is probably embedded systems stuff for microcontrollers and the like, but I don't know enough about that space to say whether that is even still the case or whether you'd be better off with something else.

this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
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