The book focuses on systematic software design approach in C for applications in engineering and science following the latest standard developed by the ANSI and ISO C Standard Committees called C99, which resolved many deficiencies of C89 for applications in engineering and science.

The book includes a companion CD which contains the cross-platform C/C++ interpreter Ch for use as an instructional tool to help teaching and learning C and C++. Ch is the most pedagogically effective interactive computing environment for instructors to make interactive presentations in a classroom to illustrate difficult concepts such as loops, functions, arrays, and pointers. Ch is also the most user-friendly for beginners to learn computer programming and problem solving in C/C++ so that they can focus on improving their program design and problem solving skills, in collaboration with fellow students in a class who very likely may use different platforms. The book also describes how to use Visual C++ and gcc/g++ compilers to compile and link C/C++ programs with special considerations to get the programs to work properly with these compilers in different platforms.

• Clear explanation of working principles of scientific computing in C for solving engineering and science problems featuring the most complete coverage of new features in C99.
• Over 350 well-documented complete sample programs and 500 carefully designed exercises are included. Many use simple graphical plotting functions for visualization in engineering and science.
• Extensive coverage of cross-platform software development and 64-bit programming as well as introductions to object-based programming in C++, and numerical computing in Ch and MATLAB.
• Comprehensive supplementary teaching resources including Solutions Manual for exercises in each chapter, Instructor's Guide, and 1,600 PowerPoints for lectures and discussions. These are included in the companion website for instructors.
• The C/C++ interpreter Ch and Integrated Development Envrionment (IDE) is included on a companion CD with each copy of the text. The CD also includes references for all functions in the standard C libraries with a sample application program for each function.

After using this textbook and the Ch interpreter, I have a new respect for the role of interpreters as an alternative to traditional compilers for introducing computer programming."

--- Excerpts from the book review by Professor Thomas M. Huber, "An Introduction to C and Ch: Your One-Stop Shop for Scientific Computing", IEEE Computing in Science and Engineering, Vol. 12, No. 4, July/August 2010.

Table of Contents

Special Features of the Book

Complete C coverage. This book completely covers the C language in Part I with more 700 pages, which is organized cumulatively so that each chapter builds information presented in the earlier chapters. Each chapter itself is organized cumulatively so that each section uses information provided in the previous sections. A single topic is presented in a section first, and then reinforced and cross-referenced in other sections and chapters. Beginners can skip sections and chapters marked with the double dag symbol in the title without hindering the learning of the later chapters. These materials, however, are very useful for those who plan on serious software development in C or intend to take other advanced courses. The text is logically organized, and heavily cross-referenced and indexed to serve as a reference for serious programmers.

Only two programs in Part I used extended features in Ch over C for simplicity of programming. Program 4.6 uses the format specifier "%b" in Ch to print out data in binary number. Program 4.7 is a much compplicated equivalent C program. Program 10.30 uses the function linsolve() in Ch to solve a system of linear equations. Program 10.31 is an equivalent version in C.

Extensive coverage of major C99 features. C99 features of variable length arrays (VLA), type generic functions, IEEE 754 floating-point arithmetic, complex numbers, and new data types bool and long long are used for numerical computing. They overcome the shortcomings of C89 for solving problems in engineering and science.

Plotting for visualization. A picture is worth a thousand words. Graphical plotting is essential for applications in engineering and science. A plotting C++ library is used for visualization for solving many problems in engineering and science in both the text and exercises. All plots including those in exercises were generated using simple functions or member functions in this plotting library.

Multiple forms of presentation. Many illustrations are used to clarify difficult concepts and programming features such as expression evaluation order, pointers, arrays, structures, byte order, and dynamic data structures (singly linked list, doubly linked list, circularly linked lists, stacks, queues, and binary trees). Flowcharts, pseudocode, and procedures are used to describe complicated algorithms.

Multiple versions for example programs. Earlier example programs are gradually rewritten to make them more concise, efficient, powerful, useful, or user friendly. This way, students do not struggle with trying to understand new features and new programs at the same time.

Teaching and learning by examples with over 350 well-documented complete sample programs of more than 14,000 lines of code. These programs show various features of C and a disciplined approach including how to document source code on-line, programming style, modular programming, code reuse, how to overcome the numerical inaccuracy of floating-point numbers, and algorithm development for solving problems in engineering and science. Many of these programs are derived from the real-world production code. In addition, many succinct C code and statements are executed interactively with output in Ch to illustrate numerous programming features and concepts.

Over 500 carefully designed exercises as homework problems. These exercises for solving many problems in engineering and science reinforce concepts presented in the text. Each chapter contains exercises asking students to find potential trouble spots and likely errors. Abundant exercises are designed for teaching multiple sessions without repeating problems.

Cross-platform software development. All code examples in Parts I and II have been tested in Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, HP-UX, FreeBSD, and QNX in both the C/C++ interpreter Ch and C/C++ compilers. The implementation and platform-specific issues are presented with examples throughout the book in sections titled "Making It Work" at the end of each chapter in Parts I and II. These sections illustrate how to use C/C++ interpreter Ch and ChIDE to execute C and C++ programs. They describe the processes and options on how to compile and link C/C++ programs using Visual C++ in Windows, gcc and g++ in Linux, and cc and CC in Solaris through ChIDE, command shell and make files. Building and distributing static and dynamic libraries using make files on these different platforms is also demonstrated.

64-bit programming. 64-bit machines are becoming increasingly popular. This book addresses how to write portable C code for machines with a different number of bits. Whenever the code produces different results for 32-bit and 64-bit machines, it is pointed out in the text.

Extensive coverage and unique presentation of difficult concepts. Difficult topics such as arrays, pointers (pointers to pointers, pointers to functions, pointers to arrays, arrays of pointers, dynamical allocation of multi-dimensional ararys, passing arrays of variable length using poiners to pointers, generic pointers, how to find if a program has a memory leak in different platforms), binary and text mode for accessing files, byte order (endianness), structure alignment, dynamic data structures (singly linked list, doubly linked list, circularly linked lists, stacks, queues, and binary trees), developing and distributing static and dynamic libraries in Windows and Unix, and hardware interfaces are thoroughly covered using multiple forms of presentation with many sample application programs.

Top-down and bottom-up software development is presented with real-world application examples. The book is culminated by three interactive menu-driven GPA programs gradually rewritten with structures, arrays, dynamic data structures of singly linked lists, and data files using static and dynamic GPA libraries. Old application programs would still work without any modification whereas the underlying GPA library is gradually rewritten with new features for new applications. The modular programming and code reuse are clearly illustrated by these application programs.

LAPACK (Linear Algebra PACKage) written in Fortran and its C version, CLAPACK, are introduced. How to use this most commonly used numerical library for linear systems is presented with examples. Mixed-language programming with both row-wise and column-wise arrays is addressed.

Commonly used Unix commands are used for cross-platform software development. Commonly used Unix commands such as cc, gcc, g++, c++, CC, ld, make, ls, cd, mkdir, pwd, cp, rm, chmod, man, more, diff, wc, hexdump, ps, grep, xhost, ar, ranlib, ln, zip, unzip, gzip, and tar are introduced in the book for cross-platform software development. In addition, the input/output redirection and pipeline are introduced at the beginning for using data files in programs.

Object-based programming in C++ is introduced in Part II. Essential features of C++ for applications in engineering and science are covered. A C++ class for graphical plotting is introduced as an example of application of C++.

Numerical computing in Ch using computational arrays as first-class objects and advanced numerical functions are introduced in Part III. They can be used conveniently to solve ODE, non-linear equations, linear algebra, etc. for complicated problems in engineering and science.

MATLAB is introduced in Part IV as a second programming language in comparison with C and Ch. Part IV contains a thorough introduction to MATLAB and comparison study with C and Ch for numerical computing. With a solid foundation in computer programming in C, students can pick up any other languages and mathematical packages such as MATLAB or Mathematica quickly. Part IV can also serve as a quick reference for programming in MATLAB for C programmers.

Fortran is introduced as a second programming language in comparison with C. The chapter is available in a PDF file from the website for the book. Once you have learned C, you will be able to quickly learn Fortran by reading this chapter. The comparison study presented in this chapter will also be very useful for those who have the prior programming experience in Fortran to learn C.

Companion CD contains C/C++ interpreter Ch Student Edition including the user-friendly ChIDE. A C/C++ interpreter Ch can be used for interactive execution of C expressions, statements, functions, and programs. It can be used by students or instructors in classrooms for quick testing and trying difficult C features such as pointers and arrays. It is especially suitable for beginners to learn internal representation of integral and floating-point numbers, programming concepts of selection statements, loops, functions, arrays, and pointers. Ch environment for Windows also contains nearly 250 commonly used Unix commands such as vi, ls, rm, make, awk, sed, zip, unzip, gzip, and tar. It can also be used by students to learn Unix in a familiar Windows environment for a smooth transition from Windows to Unix. ChIDE is especially developed for beginners without any previous programming experience to learn how to design and debug C/C++ programs. It allows the user to edit and interpretively execute C/C++ programs in a user-friendly integrated development environment. It can execute functions and programs with detailed line-by-line and step-by-step traces. It can also invoke C and C++ compilers to compile and link C/C++ programs, then run the created binary executable programs. The CD also contains a complete reference manual in a PDF file and sample demo C source programs for all functions in the C standard libraries.

Using multiple colors in the book. For clarity of the presentation, multiple colors are used in the book. Programs are displayed with the light blue background. Interactive executions of programs, functions, statements, and expressions are displayed with the dark blue background. The output from programs are displayed with the grey background. Practical application examples are separated from the main text by two thick horizontal blue lines, one at the beginning and the other at the end.

Prerequisites

Using this Book as a Textbook

Instructor's Teaching Resources