Comment by 🚀 argyle
Re: "Suggestions for first project"
Something that solves a problem you have is always a motivation to finish.
2025-12-18 · 5 months ago
2 Later Comments ↓
It's been a long while since I've done any, but I enjoyed bare metal C on microcontrollers. You get a real feeling for C's strong points and a greater appreciation for how (simple) CPUs work.
I remember that Arduino (or really any microcontroller development board) could be programmed in C using open source toolchains. So maybe a project with one of the kits you can buy?
📻 Christopher · Dec 19 at 18:20:
@stack makes an excellent point—do what brings you joy. I personally find joy in reimplementing existing software and possibly improving upon them. I think it's because I like to prove to myself that I can, and I also learn how stuff works by doing. (I also enjoy recreating software for other platforms, sometimes esoteric platforms, than the original was made for.) But you may not find joy in it, and that's OK.
What sort of things are you interested in? Networking? Gaming? Let your interests guide you. But whatever you do I recommend starting with a simple enough project that you can complete it in a reasonably short time, where "reasonably short time" depends on your attention span (mine can be as short as a weekend for some projects).
Original Post
Suggestions for first project — I have always had a great deal of respect for C, and I would like to start writing in it. However, while I am skilled in other languages, I basically don't know any C off the top of my head. I find that I learn better and faster by attempting projects, rather than working through a book ir taking a class. For example, to learn Perl, I am working on a basic disk image writer that's coming along nicely. So, what do you think might be a good idea for my first C...