C programming basics

Lectures:

• Roles of preprocessor, compiler and linker
• Data types in C
• Expressions and statements
• Storage classes: automatic and static variables
• Process address space: stack and heap

Reading:

• K&R2 chapter 1, 2, 3, 4

Lab 1:

• Basic UNIX commands
• Remote login using ssh
• Setting up the shell environment
• Managing source files using Subversion
• Writing a Makefile

Arrays and pointers in C

Lectures:

• Basics of memory addresses, pointers and arrays
• Relationship between arrays and pointers
• Simulating call-by-reference using pointers
• char array, aka the string
• Heap memory allocation
• Pointer to pointer

Reading:

• K&R2 chapter 5, 6

Lab 2:

• Working with heap-allocated arrays of integers
• Working with char arrays
• Working with pointer to pointer: creating and destroying a copy of argv structure
• Debugging memory errors using Valgrind

Data structures in C

Lectures:

• Pointer to function
• Complicated declarations
• Struct and union
• Self-referential structure

Lab 3:

• Implementing a singly linked list
  - Holding any type of data using void*
  - Callback functions
• Creating and using libraries

I/O in C

Lectures:

• stdin, stdout and stderr
• I/O redirection and pipes in UNIX shell
• Formatted I/O
• File I/O

Reading:

• K&R2 chapter 7

Lab 4:

• Implementing mdb-lookup, a program to access a database of one-liners
  - Accessing a binary file of fixed-length records
• Creating files with holes
• Measuring the effect of I/O buffering

Introduction to UNIX and TCP/IP networking

Lectures:

• Roles of an operating system
• UNIX I/O using file descriptors
• Process control using fork() and exec()
• Inter-process communication using pipes and signals
• TCP/IP networking overview

Lab 5:

• Turning mdb-lookup into a network server using Netcat and a named pipe
• Working with fork(), exec() and waitpid()
• Creating orphan and zombie processes

Sockets API and HTTP protocol

Lectures:

• Simple TCP client/server example using sockets API
• HTTP protocol

Reading:

• Beej's Guide to Network Programming, Chapter 1, 2, 3, 5
• HTTP Made Really Easy, Using HTTP 1.0

Lab 6:

• Writing mdb-lookup network server using sockets API
• Writing a HTTP client, a web page downloader

Web-based software architecture

Lectures:

• Generating dynamic contents
  - User input through HTML forms
  - Managing sessions with cookie
• Software architectures
  - From stand-alone programs to web application servers
  - Architectural evolution of our mdb-lookup

Lab 7:

• Writing a web server from scratch
  - Serving static pages
  - Serving dynamic pages: mdb-lookup

Lab 8 (Optional):

• Writing an Apache module
  - Building and configuring Apache open-source web server
  - Writing mdb-lookup as an Apache module

Introduction to C++

Lectures:

• Basic-4: constructor, destructor, copy constructor and assignment operator
• Stack v. Heap allocations
• Pointer v. Reference
• Example: MyString class

Reading:

• C++ Primer 4th Ed., by Lippman, et al.
  - chapter 12: classes
  - chapter 13: copy control
  - chapter 14.1 - 14.5: operator overloading

Lab 9:

• Understanding object construction and destruction by tracing basic-4 calls
• Implementing some member functions in MyString class

Real-world C++

Lectures:

• Generic programming using templates
• Standard sequential containers: string, vector, list, deque
• Standard associative container: map
• Quintessential C++: Smart pointer using reference counting

Reading:

• C++ Primer 4th Ed., by Lippman, et al.
  (1) 3.1 - 3.4: string, vector and iterator
  (2) 16.1 - 16.4: Templates
  (3) 9.1 - 9.5: Sequential containers
  (4) 10.1 - 10.3: Associative container (map)

Lab 10:

• Wrapping the C linked list from lab 3 with a C++ class interface
  - From pointer-based interface to value-based interface
• Upgrading implementation without changing interface
  - Replacing the legacy C linked list with the standard container