Textbook Access

• Visit the SFU Bookstore and navigate to the correct course

C Programming

• Essential C, from Stanford University. Covers the basics of the C language.
• Programming in C (online notes).
• Brian W. Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie, The C Programming Language, 2nd edition, 1988.
  • SFU Library (free)

Linux Programming

• Brian Fraser's YouTube videos on Linux Programming: VM, editors, C programming, Makefiles, pthreads/mutex, and Valgrind
• Linux shell tutorial from Software Carpentry: For shell beginners
• Threads: POSIX thread library documentation
• Unix Programming Tools, from Stanford University: the gcc compiler, make, emacs, and summary of shell commands
• Running Linux, 4th edition: from SFU library
• Xemacs Reference Card, from Stanford University, a two-page summary of the Xemacs commands.
• Free materials to learn Linux
• Makefile Guide: Covers the basics of makefiles
• Free Makefiles book

Software Setup and Tools

• Accessing CSIL remotely
  • Note: You must register for SFU Multi-Factor Authentication to access CSIL remotely
  • How to access the CSIL Linux machines
  • To access one of the Linux machines in CSIL using the SFU VPN, you can use RDP, or SSH to a particular machine
• Virtual Machines
  • VirtualBox: Free virtual machine, installed in Linux lab, runs under most OS's
  • VM Ware Player: Free virtual machine, use for Linux development under Windows
• Ubuntu Linux: Download 64-bit ISO to run in VM Ware or Virtual Box
• VS Code IDE/editor

Helpful Topics from CMPT 295

Overall, CMPT 295 gives you a good mental model for what is going on inside your computer system. Below are some of the specific topics from CMPT 295 that are relevant for this course:

• Basics of the binary number system
• Von Neumann architecture and the fetch/decode/execute cycle
• Basics of assembly/machine language instructions
  • You don't need to remember any specific assembly language, just the details of how the generated machine code is executed
• Basics of memory architecture
  • Understanding memory addresses
  • Main memory (RAM)
  • Cache memory and locality of reference