What are some practical projects to consider in trying to learn C?

Question

I've seen a lot of questions and answers on SO about why I should learn C. I know that it's low level, it'll give me an understanding of how things work at that level, and it'll make me a better programmer. I know some good books to be reading to help me learn C.

What I don't feel like I know are some practical projects I can work on to help me learn how the language is used. There's a lot of examples in the books I'm reading, and they're absolutely useful as far as reinforcing knowledge gained about the language itself. But I don't feel as if I'm gaining any insight into "real life" examples of what I can do with C.

My background: I'm a recent college grad who's doing application programming in C#. I'm enjoying doing programming exercises in C -- but I just feel like they're exercises. I know obviously I'm not going to become an expert right away and start doing amazing things. I just want some ideas for things I can do to help me become better but that feel like more than just exercises. (I want to clarify that I'm not opposed to doing these kinds of tasks to help me learn about the language. I just think I'd get more excited about learning if I was doing something that seemed more practical in nature.)

If this is "not a real question," I truly do apologize, and I know questions about learning C are all over SO. I'm not trying to be repetitive. I'm sold on the idea that I should learn the language, I just want to be able to have some real ideas of how I can start applying the knowledge.

See Also

• What is a good first C app to build, besides “Hello World”

Answer 1

Here's some ideas for you to try:

1. Store a file containing hashes of every file in your music directory, and report on changes.
2. Solve a Sudoku in the shortest possible time.
3. Send a file using TCP to another computer. (Write both server and client).
4. A program that broadcasts a list of public files (configured in a text file) over UDP, and then accepts TCP connections to download them.
5. A command line POP3 client.
6. Write a memory allocator, and hook into malloc.

Congratulations on deciding to learn C. It is the most powerful language on Earth, and will give you the foundation you need to kick some programming butt.