CS50 - week 1 - C

This lecture took me back to my high school days where I studied programming, starting with C, bringing a small tear to my eye. 😢

C is a general-purpose programming language (as Wikipedia says 😂) created in the 1970s. Like every programming language, it allows humans to give instructions to a computer in a more (or less 😅) "user-friendly" way, delegating the decoding task to the compiler.

The lecture started with writing the first program in C called "Hello, world," which simply prints the text on the screen. Prof. Malan explained some language concepts by comparing it to SCRATCH. He talked about functions, types, conditionals, and variables. Then we saw different types of loops, and after that, we learned about the Linux Command-line Interface (CLI), which is used a lot during the course to create files, folders, and execute programs. After covering some other important informations, the teacher made some examples and reminded us of three important aspects of good coding practices: correctness, design, and style.

This lecture's problem set was more difficult than the first one. After submitting two introductory programs, you have to solve two different groups of problems based on your familiarity with coding. The less comfortable problems are easier but enough to pass, while the more comfortable problems are more challenging but not necessary to get the certification. I wanted to exercise more, so I submitted both the less comfortable and more comfortable problems. The last one, called "credit," was very difficult at the beginning, but after a couple of hours, I reached the solution and this one of the most incredible thing about solving problems: at the beginning, you are disoriented, but the more you think, the closer you get to the solution.

Thank you for reading the post and following me on this journey.

As Wannabe dev says in her podcasts: Happy coding!

Leave me comments if you want, and I will be happy to answer you.