The Evolution of the C# Language

Writing Quality Code with C#: Common Gotchas

The Future of C#

If you’re going to be an engineer in the future, you have to learn multiple languages.

The Coding Environment Has Changed

The Importance of Learning New Coding Languages

You Should Be Learning Old Coding Languages, Too

Enhance Your Career With Each Coding Language You Learn

If you’ve worked in the world of the internet at any point in the past few years, there is a good chance you’ve heard of the hot new technology that is HTML5, and there is a similarly good chance that what you’ve heard is largely hype and buzzwords. While HTML5 does offer a great deal of flashy new technologies to the web toolbelt, there are subtle and more significant aspects which often go unnoticed. Before we get into that, though, let’s brush up on some HTML history.

Up until the early 1990s, the web was largely text based. There was little text formatting, no images, and no structure beyond what you could achieve in a plain text document. Then in the ’90s, HTML was adopted as a way to visually format and structure text within the web browser, which lead us into the era of table-based layouts.

For those of you who never had the fortune of building websites in the ’90s, table-based layouts were the equivalent of creating an entire website using an Excel spreadsheet. Tables were never meant for anything beyond displaying tabular data, but at the time they were the only HTML element that allowed us to create horizontal layouts. For example, sidebars and multi-column layouts were made possible thanks to HTML tables. It wasn’t until the early 2000s, when CSS was adopted, that we were able to move away from hacky, table-based layouts, and take on a more semantic approach to development.

The idea behind CSS (cascading style sheets) is that the structure of a web page and its design should be kept separate. This allows us to reuse more code, making our websites faster, and also swap out styles and designs quickly and efficiently. CSS also offered us more control over visual layout and formatting. Thanks to CSS we could create the multi-column layouts (and much, much more) we are used to today, and do it in a semantic way, meaning every HTML element had a role and it should only be used for that role (i.e. tables should be used for tabular data).

This shift to semantic web development allowed us to start defining what our webpages mean through proper use of HTML, which in turn allowed computers to make more sense of our content. This was only the beginning, however, and leads us directly to HTML5.

What is HTML5 ?

I get asked this question a lot, and it’s a hard question to answer. Technically HTML5 is a new language specification for HTML, but many other new technologies have been thrown under the HTML5 umbrella, which has turned HTML5 into a nebulous collection of technologies rather than any one thing in particular. For those of you who remember the Web 2.0 craze, HTML5 could be considered Web 3.0.

Some of the flashier technologies included under the HTML5 umbrella allow us to do things like manipulate the user’s webcam, render creepy 3D eyeballs, and create dynamic, 3D user interfaces. While these are all amazing and groundbreaking for the web, none of them are purely “HTML5”. They are HTML5 used in conjunction with other new technologies.

So what is HTML5 then ? 

The major contribution of HTML5, on its own, is that it allows us to further define the meaning of our content. In fact, HTML5 goes beyond meaning and allows us to define the intent of our content. Let me repeat that again, because this is the true importance of HTML5.

HTML5 allows us to define the INTENT of our content.

Not only can we define what an element on a page means (ie. this piece of content is a paragraph, or a heading, or a link to an external resource), but it allows us to define the purpose of our content. Computers don’t inherently know the difference between an “About Us” page and a blog post, or a blog post and a list of content related to said blog post. But, with HTML5, we can give computers hints.

For example:

1. The <article> element is used to specify content that is independent of the content around it, and is meant to be distributed by itself (think article or blog post).

2. The <aside> element is used to specify content that is tangentially related to the main content (think recent or related blog posts).

3. The <nav> element is used to specify a group of links that are used to navigate a site, as opposed to linking to resources that support the content.

If you’re still not convinced of HTML5’s importance, think of it this way: by defining what our content is, and what purpose it has, we allow search engines and possibly other, future technologies to make more sense of our content, which in turn improves content sharing, curation, and discovery in a huge, yet to be defined way. When combined with its umbrella technologies, HTML5 is the next leap in the evolution of the web and will fundamentally change how we communicate and interact with each other and our content.

Conclusion

So what’s the takeaway from all of this? The technologies associated with HTML5 are making the our content more dynamic and interactive, and are essentially improving the user experience of the web. The new HTML specification, on the other hand, is the scaffold. It provides more robust structure and organization. It is the means by which we classify the flora and the fauna of the web. New HTML elements may seem trivial, but the ability to better define our thoughts, content, and architecture improves our ability to connect and share content.

Pointers in C are easy and fun to learn. Some C programming tasks are performed more easily with pointers, and other tasks, such as dynamic memory allocation, cannot be performed without using pointers. So it becomes necessary to learn pointers to become a perfect C programmer. Let's start learning them in simple and easy steps.

As you know, every variable is a memory location and every memory location has its address defined which can be accessed using ampersand (&) operator, which denotes an address in memory.

Consider the following example, which prints the address of the variables defined −

#include <stdio.h>

int main () {

   int  var1;
   char var2[10];

   printf("Address of var1 variable: %x\n", &var1  );
   printf("Address of var2 variable: %x\n", &var2  );

   return 0;
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

Address of var1 variable: bff5a400
Address of var2 variable: bff5a3f6

What are Pointers?

A pointer is a variable whose value is the address of another variable, i.e., direct address of the memory location. Like any variable or constant, you must declare a pointer before using it to store any variable address. The general form of a pointer variable declaration is −

type *var-name;

Here, type is the pointer's base type; it must be a valid C data type and var-name is the name of the pointer variable. The asterisk * used to declare a pointer is the same asterisk used for multiplication. However, in this statement the asterisk is being used to designate a variable as a pointer.

Take a look at some of the valid pointer declarations −

int    *ip;    /* pointer to an integer */
double *dp;    /* pointer to a double */
float  *fp;    /* pointer to a float */
char   *ch     /* pointer to a character */


The actual data type of the value of all pointers, whether integer, float, character, or otherwise, is the same, a long hexadecimal number that represents a memory address. The only difference between pointers of different data types is the data type of the variable or constant that the pointer points to.

How to Use Pointers?

There are a few important operations, which we will do with the help of pointers very frequently. (a) We define a pointer variable, (b) assign the address of a variable to a pointer and (c) finally access the value at the address available in the pointer variable. This is done by using unary operator * that returns the value of the variable located at the address specified by its operand. The following example makes use of these operations −

#include <stdio.h>

int main () {

   int  var = 20;   /* actual variable declaration */
   int  *ip;        /* pointer variable declaration */

   ip = &var;  /* store address of var in pointer variable*/

   printf("Address of var variable: %x\n", &var  );

   /* address stored in pointer variable */
   printf("Address stored in ip variable: %x\n", ip );

   /* access the value using the pointer */
   printf("Value of *ip variable: %d\n", *ip );

   return 0;
}


When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

Address of var variable: bffd8b3c
Address stored in ip variable: bffd8b3c
Value of *ip variable: 20

NULL Pointers

It is always a good practice to assign a NULL value to a pointer variable in case you do not have an exact address to be assigned. This is done at the time of variable declaration. A pointer that is assigned NULL is called a null pointer.

The NULL pointer is a constant with a value of zero defined in several standard libraries. Consider the following program −

#include <stdio.h>

int main () {

   int  *ptr = NULL;

   printf("The value of ptr is : %x\n", ptr  );

   return 0;
}

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result −

The value of ptr is 0

In most of the operating systems, programs are not permitted to access memory at address 0 because that memory is reserved by the operating system. However, the memory address 0 has special significance; it signals that the pointer is not intended to point to an accessible memory location. But by convention, if a pointer contains the null (zero) value, it is assumed to point to nothing.

To check for a null pointer, you can use an 'if' statement as follows −

if(ptr)     /* succeeds if p is not null */
if(!ptr)    /* succeeds if p is null */

References :

Programming is one of the most valuable skills you can pick up in these modern times, whether for career prospects or to stretch your brain and create something awesome. If you're just getting started on your coding journey, here are ten tips and resources to set you off on the right foot.

10. Figure Out Why You Want to Learn to Code

The direction you go in will depend in large part on why you want to learn to code in the first place and how much time you have to devote to learning. If you want to be a professional programmer, signing up college courses might be your best bet. (Google has a list of suggested skills and courses for would-be software engineers.) If you want to build websites or games for fun (and possibly profit) in your spare time, interactive tutorials might be better. PAL App has a career buddy feature which will better answer your question about which course to go while keeping in mind the time and duration.

9. Choose the Right Language

There's no one "best" programming language, and once you've learned one, it's fairly easy to pick up another, so don't get hung too up on choosing your first language. That said, some languages are more beginner-friendly than others. The language you choose to start with might depend, again, on your purpose. (For example, if you want to write an iOS app, you'll need to learn Swift.) There's a case for starting with C if you're serious about programming, although higher-level languages, like Python, are easier to jump into right away.

8. Start Small (and Be Patient)

No matter which language or learning method you choose, you should start at the very beginning (a very good place to start). When David Sinsky taught himself to code in eight weeks, for example, he spent one weekend getting an introductory grasp of Python and one weekend getting an introductory understanding of Django—going through the tutorial, deleting all of the tutorial code, and working through the tutorial again from scratch. Start with the basics and be patient with yourself as you progress. To take your first coding project from start to finish, break down the project into simple steps. And if one method of learning isn't working for you (e.g., books), try another method before giving up.

7. Try a Kids App

Even toddlers are learning to code these days. That's actually a great thing for all of us. Although many of the programs designed to teach kids to code are very simplistic, many of them, like Scratch, are suitable for all ages. It doesn't matter how old you are; even kids' animation apps can get you started with the basics of programming (Try Phoenix - PAL APPS which offers video tutorials and basic training on different programming languages).

6. Use Free Online Training Sites

Free online training sites like Codecademy and other Hour of Code participants can help you write your first computer program. Tutorials from PAL Apps, Code.org, and many other organizations will introduce you to the basics of programming—all while creating a new game, site, or other project. Find the resources you need according to the language you're learning with PAL. These are good starting points, but you'll need to take the initiative to further or continue your learning after these introductions.

5. Take a Coding Course

Online computer science courses offer a bit more of rounded educational experience compared to online training sites focusing on one language. These courses are designed to teach you fundamental skills over several months in college-level classes.

4. Grab Some Free Programming Books

When you get stuck on a problem or just need to look something up, reference books come in very handy. There's a huge collection of over 500 free programming books posted on GitHub.

3. Play Coding Games

Often the best way to learn is through games. While plenty of coding tutorials have you building simple or complex games yourself, a couple of teaching apps are literally games: PAL Learn Python or any series of PAL Apps are full of online challenge and game that will help you learn programming while playing.

2. Get a Mentor (or Teach Someone Else)

The programming community is full of people who are willing to help the next generation of programmers. Hack.pledge() is one site that will connect you to a mentor, or you can sign up to mentor someone else. Even just planning to teach what you've learned can help you retain the information better.

1. Hack Someone Else's Code

When you reverse engineer someone else's code, testing each line to see how it works, you get a better understanding of the big picture. Thanks to tons of open source code, you can learn just about anything—and keep learning through the incremental-hacking cycle. Just remember to share your code back with the community if you improve on a program.