How To Avoid the Two Most Common C Programming Errors

'21st Century C' author Ben Klemens would like you to know and to do two things immediately, before you write another line of C.

First:

• Use designated initializers!
Say that you have a structure, like

typedef struct{
double length, width, height;
} a_box_struct;

In the 1980s, we'd declare a box 1 foot tall by 2.5 feet long by 2
feet wide with this
line:

a_box_struct bigbox = {1, 2.5, 2};

Wait, did I do that right? I think it should be {2.5, 2, 1}. Wow, is
that ever confusing. Better would be to use designated initializers,
and spell it out:

a_box_struct bigbox = {.height=1, .length=2.5, .width=2};

Simply using designated intializers will rid the world of thousands of
bugs a day.

Second:

• Use a makefile!

The make utility remembers how to assemble the compiler command line,
so you don't have to. Say that you have a program, named bookburner,
that is compiled from paper.c, brick.c, and kindle.c, and that must be
linked to the math library. What's the command line to build the
project? I don't remember, but here is a two-line makefile specifying
the library and object file dependencies for the main program:

-------
LDLIBS=-lm
bookburner: paper.o brick.o kindle.o
-------

Now, instead of working out the long and error-prone compiler
invocation, I can compile the project by typing

make

(Ta da!)

[bookisbn]9781449327149[/bookisbn]