How to write C programs to connect to MySQL

From Chapter 6 of MySQL Third Edition by Paul DuBois. Download it here.

A Nice 3D World

Download the C code from PixelMachine and explore. Some background knowledge of matrices (and linear algebra) would help.

Recursive Sudoku Solver

For Sudoku lovers out there, please see Solving Sudoku at Scratch Projects.

Writing, Compiling, and Executing a Program in your mind

Paul Graham talks about how good programmers are able to hold a program in their head. This is the reason why it is useful to spend more time away from the computer rather than starting to code without thinking through a problem first.

So, spend time toying with your code when you are taking a bath, riding the bus to school, eating, or jogging. Don’t waste idle times, use your built-in massively multi-core Terahertz CPU!

Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures

If you are in love with algorithms and data structures as most people do, then you definitely have to put this link into your Favorites folder.

Enjoy!

Nice explanation of data structures

Follow this link. Pretty but it has not been updated.

Programming Languages as Cars

Follow this link and read about it. I don’t know what he means by breaking down every fifty miles though. Some programs written in C has been running for more than 10 years without breaking down.

Comic of the Week

Credits go to xkcd.

Not valid in C but most modern compilers now accept this.

3 Quotes for today

When I speak about computer programming as an art, I am thinking primarily of it as an art form, in an aesthetic sense. The chief goal of my work as an educator and author is to help people learn how to write beautiful programs… My feeling is that when we prepare a program, the experience can be just like composing poetry or music… Some programs are elegant, some are exquisite, some are sparkling. My claim is that it is possible to write grand programs, noble programs, truly magnificent ones! Programmers who subconsciously view themselves as artists will enjoy what they do and will do it better.

- Donald Knuth (Turing Award Speech 1974)

Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability

- Edsger W. Dijkstra

Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.

- Albert Einstein

Programming as an art form

If you wonder why we have Donald Knuth over at the Blogroll at the right side of this page, he is the man who elevated programming into an art form. Don Knuth is best known for his The Art of Computer Programming series, of which the first volume was published in 1968. He is now working on Volume 4, which has not yet been released but he has already spent 30 years doing so. He is a perfectionist and invented the TeX typesetting system to make sure his books come out beautifully.

Read more about the master programmer artist.