Ask HN: Is there a main site for C programming language? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is there a main site for C programming language?

1 pointkalimatas4 comments

Every more or less popular programming language has its main site, which serves as a main entry point for everybody who wants to learn the language or find any information. Usually those site have links to documentation, tutorials for beginners, reference materials and so on.

C programming language is one the most commonly used nowadays, and still it doesn't have its "entry point". I mean, there are plenty of resources out there, but none of them serves as a source of truth.

Is there anything like that for C?

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I think the answer you're looking for is "no".

Because C was developed at Bell Labs in the pre-internet 70s, the first "official" documentation was the book by K&R. Due to the language's popularity, it was standardized first by ANSI, then by ISO. So these days, the closest thing to a "source of truth" for the language is the standard published by ISO. That working group's website is here: http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/

Of course, standards documents are not really entry points, as they are extremely dry, technical documents. Which is why I think the answer to your question is "no".

I think your best bet would be to start with the second edition of "The C Programming Language" by Kernighan and Ritchie, then work your way "into the future" by looking at books on C published in the last decade.

HTH

comp.lang.c still used to be the one true place for c programmers to hang out at back when I started learning it in the 90s, not sure if that's the case these days.

Still active. Dennis Ritchie stopped posting in the early 2000s, I think, years before his death. I believe a C committee member or two still contribute regularly.

I think the group FAQ is at http://c-faq.com/index.html

Newbies tend to get upset about the strict topicality voluntarily enforced--strict C, no discussion of platform or compiler extensions except in contrast. It's a large part of what has kept the group useful for so long, though, especially considering there's no moderator.

There's also comp.std.c, but that's for discussing the C standard specifically. Not really for learning the language.

comp.unix.programmer is also still active and useful.

https://www.reddit.com/r/cprogramming/

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