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 project?
EDIT: Zig is also something I’m interested in learning. Same question, different language.


C is the lingua franca of computing, having a basic understanding of it is in my opinion an essential skill. So I would disregard the recommendations of learning Zig or Rust for now. These languages have their place but they aren’t as entrenched and universal as C. To learn C you could try a few of the exercises on the exercism C learning track. Another good project, to learn a new programming languages in general, is building a calculator that parses an expression like
2 + 3 / (5 - 1)and outputs the result while respecting the correct order of operations.