Speaker 1: Welcome back everyone to the deep dive. You know, we
Speaker 1: get a lot of requests, and this one was pretty interesting.
Speaker 1: This time we're going deep on C programming.
Speaker 2: Oh nice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so many listeners are I think curious, you know,
Speaker 1: about how C programming is actually used in the real
Speaker 1: world and what kind of practical applications it has. And
Speaker 1: we happen to have a well not happen to have
Speaker 1: We got a C programming textbook. Oh cool, and we
Speaker 1: also have the table of contents, which is really cool,
Speaker 1: I think. So. I mean we can kind of get
Speaker 1: like a cheat sheet overview of this without having to
Speaker 1: read through pages and pages. Code love it. So we
Speaker 1: can already tell this deep dive is going to be
Speaker 1: pretty interesting.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Sea is everywhere, even if people don't realize it,
Speaker 2: So this will be fun to like reveal the sea
Speaker 2: behind the curtain.
Speaker 1: I guess, yes, exactly. So the book is called Practical
Speaker 1: C Programming Solutions for Modern Sea Developers. I can get
Speaker 1: this ready for this. It's dedicated to Gudo van Rossom.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, who is the Python.
Speaker 1: The creator of Python. Yeah, it's like finding out that
Speaker 1: you know, your favorite modern artist was inspired by like
Speaker 1: a Renaissance master.
Speaker 2: You know, totally. I mean that says a lot. You know.
Speaker 2: You think Python is like, you know, so easy to
Speaker 2: use everything, but it all goes back to C. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Like understanding C is almost like seeing how the gears
Speaker 2: really turn.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah under the hood.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, totally. Okay, So the author B. M. Harwani
Speaker 2: has written about like everything I'm talking jQuery, Python, Wow,
Speaker 2: Android clearly knows his stuff, definitely, And I love that
Speaker 2: the book takes a kind of a cookbook approach, you know,
Speaker 2: like practical solutions, ready to use, kind perfect for a
Speaker 2: deep dive.
Speaker 1: You said you wanted to see see an action, not
Speaker 1: just theory, right, I think this is going to work
Speaker 1: really well.
Speaker 2: I think so too. Even just glancing at the table
Speaker 2: of contents, We've got embedded software and IoT, which is
Speaker 2: you know, huge these days, improving the performance of your code.
Speaker 2: Who wouldn't want that, right?
Speaker 1: Yeah? And it just keeps going And.
Speaker 2: Those are great examples of why C is still relevant today.
Speaker 2: You know, like IoT, that's all about interacting directly with hardware,
Speaker 2: which C excels at, right. And when it comes to
Speaker 2: you know, speed and efficiency, nothing beats C pretty much.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm hearing Okay, so now I'm looking at
Speaker 1: the recipes. These are like a little mini projects. Look,
Speaker 1: and there's one called toggling the port of a micro
Speaker 1: controller in embedded C. Okay, in parentheses blinking LED.
Speaker 2: I love that one. Everyone loves LED's classic. Gotta love it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, I mean it might seem simple, but it shows
Speaker 1: how C controls hardware at such a basic level, right,
Speaker 1: which is I think why it's used in so many
Speaker 1: devices exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like think of I don't know, the little LED
Speaker 2: on your router that blanks to show it's working, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: probably C code run that.
Speaker 1: Okay, this next one is a little more, a little
Speaker 1: more complex, finding the transpose of a matrix using pointers.
Speaker 1: I get that matrices are like these grids of numbers,
Speaker 1: But what exactly are pointers and why are they so
Speaker 1: important in C?
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a good question. Pointers. They're really powerful, Yeah,
Speaker 2: but people often find them confusing.
Speaker 1: I can imagine.
Speaker 2: Basically, they let you work with memory addresses. Yeah, like
Speaker 2: the exact location of data in the computer's memory.
Speaker 1: So instead of just knowing like the street name, you
Speaker 1: have the exact GPS coordinates of a house.
Speaker 2: Perfect analogy. Yeah, and that means C code can jump
Speaker 2: right to the data it needs, okay, without having to
Speaker 2: search through like a whole neighborhood of memory, which is
Speaker 2: one reason why SEE is so efficient.
Speaker 1: So efficient, And I see another recipe that caught my eye. Okay,
Speaker 1: encrypting a file sounds kind of spy movie ish, right.
Speaker 2: But honestly that one is super relevant to like everyone's life.
Speaker 2: How so well, encryption is what keeps our online transaction secure, oh,
Speaker 2: protects our passwords, make sure digital communication is private.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, gotcha. So this recipe shows how C can
Speaker 1: like scramble of file's contents, make it unreadable without.
Speaker 2: A key exactly. It probably uses math operations like bitshifting
Speaker 2: and xor it shiftingah to transform the data so only
Speaker 2: someone with the right key can reverse it.
Speaker 1: Wow, so we've gone from blinking LEDs to encrypting files.
Speaker 1: It's kind of blowing my mind how much C is
Speaker 1: involved in all this tech.
Speaker 2: It really is foundational.
Speaker 1: Yeah all right. So there's this diagram early in the book,
Speaker 1: figure one point ten. It shows how matrix elements are
Speaker 1: stored in memory. Maybe we can use this to illustrate
Speaker 1: some of these concepts.
Speaker 2: Ooh good idea visualizing this stuff is always helpful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, A picture's worth a thousand lines of code exactly.
Speaker 1: So let's dive into that matrix.
Speaker 2: All right, let's see how C sees those elements. So
Speaker 2: figure one point ten. It's it's a grid like a spreadsheet,
Speaker 2: the matrix. But the way C stores this in memory,
Speaker 2: it's actually a sequence like one element after the other
Speaker 2: row by row.
Speaker 1: Okay, So it's not like C sees the neat rosen
Speaker 1: columns like we do when we look at the diagram, right.
Speaker 2: C doesn't like inherently get rose and columns. It just
Speaker 2: sees this long line of elements in memory, like imagine
Speaker 2: a line of people waiting for a concert.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, I get that. But then how to C
Speaker 1: know where one row ends and the next one begins
Speaker 1: if it's all one big line.
Speaker 2: Well, when you define a matrix in C, you tell
Speaker 2: it how many rows and columns it has, like two
Speaker 2: by three for example, right right, And using that, C
Speaker 2: can actually calculate the exact memory address of each element.
Speaker 1: So if I want to grab the element in say
Speaker 1: the first row, second column, C does some math behind
Speaker 1: the scenes to figure out exactly where it is, and
Speaker 1: that memory line yep.
Speaker 2: It's like having a seating chart for that concert line.
Speaker 2: You know. Yeah, Row one, seat two C knows exactly
Speaker 2: where to go. And this is where pointers come.
Speaker 1: In, right right, like those GPS coordinates you were.
Speaker 2: Talking about, exactly. It gives you direct access. You can
Speaker 2: just jump to that memory location, no need to like
Speaker 2: walk down the whole line.
Speaker 1: Oh I see. So it's like having backstage passes.
Speaker 2: Haha. Yeah, you get to bypass the line and go
Speaker 2: right to where you need to be. So in that
Speaker 2: matrix transpose recipe, C can use pointers to swap elements
Speaker 2: around without having to copy entire rows or columns. Super efficient.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. But earlier you said pointers can be a
Speaker 1: bit tricky too, Like what's the downside of having this
Speaker 1: much control over memory?
Speaker 2: Well, you gotta be careful. One classic sea pitfall is
Speaker 2: the buffer overflow. Imagine you have like a container. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it has a fixed size, that's your memory buffer. But
Speaker 2: then you try to put more stuff in.
Speaker 1: Oh, it overflows, like everything crashes.
Speaker 2: It can yeah, data gets corrupted the program like crash,
Speaker 2: and it can even create security holes that hackers can
Speaker 2: take advantage of.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, okay, so it's like with great power comes
Speaker 1: great responsibility. Even in C programming.
Speaker 2: Definitely, you have the power to directly work with memory,
Speaker 2: which you really need to know what you're doing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it makes sense. It's like having a super powerful
Speaker 1: sports car, exciting to drive, but you better know how
Speaker 1: to handle it.
Speaker 2: Perfect analogy. To really master C, you need to understand
Speaker 2: what's going on at the memory level.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's deep. Okay, This whole memory and pointers thing
Speaker 1: is really making me appreciate how C works under the hood.
Speaker 2: It's fascinating, right, and this is just the tip of
Speaker 2: the iceberg.
Speaker 1: Really, I know we still have all those other recipes
Speaker 1: to explore. I'm really curious about that encryption one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, me too. I think it's a good example of
Speaker 2: how c's low level control can be used for security.
Speaker 1: Stuff exactly, making sure only the right people can access
Speaker 1: the data.
Speaker 2: Yep, exactly. Like think about when you enter your credit
Speaker 2: card info online, oh right, or send a confidential email.
Speaker 2: Encryption is working behind the scenes to protect that information.
Speaker 2: And a lot of the time that encryption is built
Speaker 2: on C code.
Speaker 1: That's incredible. C is like the secret language of cybersecurity.
Speaker 2: You could say that it's great for these complex encryption algorithms.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, let's switch gears for a second and talk
Speaker 1: about that chapter on embedded software and IoT. I want
Speaker 1: to see how C plays into the world of like
Speaker 1: smart devices and all these connected systems.
Speaker 2: Yeah, great idea. So remember how C is really good
Speaker 2: at working directly with hardware. Yeah, well, with embedded systems,
Speaker 2: we're talking about programming things like micro controllers, okay, sensors,
Speaker 2: all the components that are like the brains of those devices.
Speaker 1: So that blinking LED recipe, that's like a simple example
Speaker 1: of C controlling a device.
Speaker 2: Exactly, but think bigger instead of just an LED. Okay,
Speaker 2: you could be controlling motors, reading data from temperature sensors, right,
Speaker 2: processing GPS signals, all sorts of things, making decisions based
Speaker 2: on real time input.
Speaker 1: Wow. So things like I don't know my smart thrmostat,
Speaker 1: my fitness jrugger, even my cars engine could all be
Speaker 1: running C code.
Speaker 2: Very likely. Yeah. C is perfect for these tiny, resource
Speaker 2: constrained environments, you know, limited marine, limited processing power. It's
Speaker 2: the workhorse behind a lot of the Internet of Things.
Speaker 1: It's amazing to think this language that's been around for
Speaker 1: so long is still powering so much of our modern world.
Speaker 2: It really is. Yeah. C might not be flashy, but
Speaker 2: it gets the job done and it does it well.
Speaker 2: It's like having a set of really well made tools
Speaker 2: that can build anything.
Speaker 1: I'm really starting to see the influence of C everywhere.
Speaker 1: It's like I'm seeing the code behind everything.
Speaker 2: It's eye opening, isn't it. Okay, Well, before we wrap
Speaker 2: things up with this deep dive into C programming, I
Speaker 2: think we should talk a bit about what it's actually
Speaker 2: like to work with this language.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, SE can seem pretty cryptic. It's kind of
Speaker 1: like we've pulled back the curtain on this whole hidden world,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, running behind the scenes of our digital lives.
Speaker 2: It's fascinating, it is, it is, And you know, C
Speaker 2: might be old, but it's definitely not outdated.
Speaker 1: No, not at all.
Speaker 2: People think it's intimidating, and it can be, but it's
Speaker 2: also elegant, you know, like there's a simplicity to it
Speaker 2: and once you to understand it, it's really satisfying.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I bet. But let's be real. See, he's got
Speaker 1: this reputation for being like tricky, prone to errors, especially
Speaker 1: with all this low level stuff. We've been talking about.
Speaker 1: What kind of challenges do C programmers actually run into.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to be very precise with C. One
Speaker 2: tiny mistake can cascade into a whole bunch of problems,
Speaker 2: bugs that are super hard to find. It's a language
Speaker 2: that requires, you know, a lot of discipline, a deep
Speaker 2: understanding of how it works.
Speaker 1: So one wrong step and the whole thing could fall
Speaker 1: apart pretty much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, remember that buffer overflow.
Speaker 1: We talked about, Yeah, with the container and then overfilling it.
Speaker 2: Right exactly, trying to cram too much data into a
Speaker 2: memory space that's too small. That's one common pitfall that
Speaker 2: can lead to you know, data corruption, crashes, even security vulnerabilities,
Speaker 2: and that's.
Speaker 1: How hackers get into systems right a.
Speaker 2: Lot of the time. Yeah, it's why C programmers have
Speaker 2: to be super careful about security, especially when they're dealing
Speaker 2: with anything from outside the program, user input, or network communication.
Speaker 2: You got to make sure the data is clean.
Speaker 1: So it's not just about making the code fast, it's
Speaker 1: got to be safe too, exactly.
Speaker 2: And another big challenge is memory management.
Speaker 1: Right, we talked about that a bit, but like, remind
Speaker 1: me why is that so tricky.
Speaker 2: So in a lot of modern languages, memory is handled automatically,
Speaker 2: but in C, yeah, the programmer has to do it manually.
Speaker 1: Right, right, So what kind of problems can that cause?
Speaker 2: It's really easy to mess up, Like you might forget
Speaker 2: to release memory that you're not using anymore, and that
Speaker 2: leads to what's called a memory leak.
Speaker 1: Oh right, memory leaks. What happens then, Well.
Speaker 2: It's like it's like a slow drip from a leaky faucet.
Speaker 2: Each little leak might not seem like a big deal, right,
Speaker 2: but over time it wastes a ton of water. Same
Speaker 2: with memory leaks. You use up more and more memory,
Speaker 2: and eventually your program might slow way down or even crash.
Speaker 1: It's like digital clutter, just building up over time. Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, good analogy. So to be a good sea programmer
Speaker 2: it takes technical skill obviously, but also a lot of discipline.
Speaker 2: You have to be really meticulous, right because finding those
Speaker 2: bugs can be a real pain. It's almost like detective work.
Speaker 2: You know, your piece together clues trying to figure out
Speaker 2: what went wrong.
Speaker 1: I never thought about it like that, but that makes sense. Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: this deep dive has honestly been really really eye opening.
Speaker 1: C might not be the most like trendy language, but
Speaker 1: it's clearly essential.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and as rewarding too. Once you understand it, you
Speaker 2: can do so much with it.
Speaker 1: Okay, before we go, one last question. The book mentions
Speaker 1: something called loop unrolling as a way to make code
Speaker 1: run faster. What is that?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, so loop unrolling. It's basically a way to
Speaker 2: reduce the overhead that comes with loops. So instead of
Speaker 2: repeating instructions over and over, you just write them out explicitly.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like streamlining a factory process. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: instead of having one worker do the same thing ten times. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you give each step.
Speaker 1: Its own station, right, right, so things move faster, I
Speaker 1: guess exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it can also make the code harder to read.
Speaker 1: It's a trade off, right, So programmers have to decide
Speaker 1: what's best for each situation.
Speaker 2: Yep, It's all about finding the right balance.
Speaker 1: This has been amazing. We've gone from blinking LEDs to
Speaker 1: encrypting files, from memory leaks to debugging mysteries.
Speaker 2: It's been fun. I hope everyone listening has learned something
Speaker 2: new about this, this amazing language that shapes so much
Speaker 2: of our digital world.
Speaker 1: Me too, and for all our listeners out there, keep exploring,
Speaker 1: Try writing some C code yourself. See what you can create.
Speaker 2: Yeah, get your hands dirty, dive into those recipes we
Speaker 2: talked about, and never stop asking questions until next time.
Speaker 2: Happy coding, everyone, Happy coding,