Introduction to C
Up to this point you've learned about only one tool for doing engineering
problem-solving with computers: Maple. Maple is a very large and very powerful
system--as you certainly know by now!--but it is not the only system that you
should be familiar with.
Starting with this lesson you will be learning about another system for doing
computing: the programming language C.
There are many reasons that you might want to use C instead of Maple for
solving certain problems. And conversely, for other problems there are many
reasons that you might want to use Maple instead of C. We'll take a look at
some of these reasons in a few minutes.
Remember that every tool--Maple, C, or whatever--has its own strengths and
weaknesses. Each system is good at some things and not so good at others. So
when you're given a particular problem to solve, how can you know which tool is
best for the job?
Click here for an answer.
So let's get started. Click on the button below to copy today's example files
into your own examples directory (i.e., the directory named
examples inside your home directory).
Click to copy the example files.
The example files are also displayed in figures later on.
Eric N. Eide
Hamlet Project
Department of Computer Science
University of Utah