"Learn C The Hard Way" by Zed A. Shaw

• The C programming language’s only failing is giving you access to what is really there, and telling you the cold hard raw truth.
• The act of trying will make you a better programmer.
• No matter what your background, you are probably bad at four skills:
• Reading and Writing: You can fix this by forcing yourself to slow down and be meticulous about your reading and writing.
• Attention to Detail: Double check your work. Assume everything you write is wrong until you prove it’s right.
• Spotting Differences: A key problem people from other languages have is their brain has been trained to spot differences in that language, not in C.
• Planning and Debugging: C is harder on you because it requires you to plan out what you’ll create first.
• Attention to detail is the biggest cause of bad software.
• Even just a little planning can smooth things out down the road.
• The advantage of C is it’s a simple language you can figure out on your own, which makes it a great language for learning about the machine and getting stronger in these core programming skills.
• C is harder than some other languages, but that’s only because C’s not hiding things from you that those other languages try and fail to obfuscate.
• C came from Unix and is much easier on a Unix platform.
• Do not get stuck picking the perfect editor. Just pick one, stick with it, and if you find something else you like try it out. Don’t spend days on end configuring it and trying to make it perfect.
• Do not use an IDE. An IDE, or “Integrated Development Environment,” will turn you stupid. They are the worst tools if you want to be a good programmer, because they hide what’s going on from you, and your job is to know what’s going on.