Re:Ask HN: Should I use K&R to learn C?
by tokenrove on Tuesday April 07, 2015 @09:16AM
(#9333745)
If you're serious about reverse engineering, you might consider learning assembly language and C side-by-side. Learn an assembly language (with the Art of Assembly Language Programming or similar) while working through K&R (or another introduction to C), but compiling everything with gcc -S and reading the assembly output (initially, compile with -O0; optimization will obscure the output too much). This would be slow going, but you'd really solidify the connection between the low-level and the higher level, which is presumably what you are really looking for when you say you want to learn C. (A lot of things you're going to reverse engineer will have to be reverse engineered at the assembly level, not the C level.)
K&R would be fine for this purpose, I think. As a more general introduction to C, I think it's still great, but really needs to be paired with something more modern if you're planning to actually develop applications in C.
Re:Ask HN: Should I use K&R to learn C?
by __revrs__ on Tuesday April 07, 2015 @09:19AM
(#9333762)
What you described is exactly how I want to learn C: together with ASM but wasn't sure how to go about it. But know you have gave me a general idea on how to go about it, thanks.
K&R would be fine for this purpose, I think. As a more general introduction to C, I think it's still great, but really needs to be paired with something more modern if you're planning to actually develop applications in C.