This is a tutorial on the ISO C language. It is not yet a replacement for a good C book (although it may become so), but it is at least a useful introduction for programmers who are looking for a simple handle on the C language.

For first-time programmers, this tutorial is not yet the best place to start. Although the clc editors try to make things simple, this is not possible in all cases. The target group of this tutorial is primarily programmers who already have experience in one or more other languages, and wish to add C to their repertoire.

We have tried to design this tutorial in such a way that it shouldn't take you much more than five minutes to absorb the information on any one page (not including the time it takes to read). In some cases, it may take you less time than that. If you find yourself taking longer than five minutes to understand the content on a single page, it may be that the page is too complicated, and needs breaking down into smaller chunks, so please add an entry to the page's discussion section suggesting such a division.

The tutorial is organised in such a way that you don't have to deal with complicated stuff straight away. Rather, it begins with the simplest possible C program, and then adds relatively small amounts of information in each chapter. Because of this, especially in the early chapters the example programs are quite limited in what they can do. With every chapter, however, we show you more and more of what you achieve in C. Stick with it until at least the section on arrays (currently Chapter 6), which is where the power of C starts to become apparent.

C is a simple, powerful language that is well worth taking the trouble to learn. It is our hope that this tutorial will enable you to accomplish this in a simple and logical way that makes sense to you at every stage.