What does this line of code do?

[wyerd]

I’m reading the C programming guide C-Manship Complete and have come across a line that I don’t understand what it’s doing:-

Code: Select all

year = year % 100;

This is part of the date and time example in chapter 23. I understand that it’s getting the date from the ST, converting the bits and adding 80 to get the year, but what does the above code do?

Thanks!

[TheNameOfTheGame]

Gets the modulo (remainder of division) of the year. For example 1999 would return 99.

If you want the century part, would be year = year / 100; example 1999 would return 19.

[wyerd]

Ok, but at the end of the previous line :-

Code: Select all

year = ((date >> 9) & 0x007f) + 80;

If the the date returned for example is 19 (years from 1980) add the 80 = 99 already.

[TheNameOfTheGame]

Yes, it looks like that. Maybe they made an error. But I guess not.

[czietz]

Well, consider what happens if ((date >> 9) & 0x007f) is for example 21 (years from 1980, i.e. 2001). Then it becomes obvious why the modulo 100 operation is indeed required.

[TheNameOfTheGame]

Oh ok, makes sense now. 21+80 = 101 so the modulo would be 1.

[wyerd]

Thanks. Yes, I understand now. So, looking at the part of the code that sets the clock to the new date won’t work after the year 1999 as it’s subtracting 80:-

Code: Select all

strncpy ( s, &string[4] );
 h= atoi ( s ) - 80;
 h = h << 9;
 date = date | h;

Let me see if I can figure it out myself

[czietz]

That code won't work anyway, because strncpy takes three arguments, not two: https://www.tutorialspoint.com/c_standa ... trncpy.htm

Maybe this book isn't the best way to learn C?

[wyerd]

You’re correct. It’s missing the value for n.

Code: Select all

strncpy ( s, &string[4], 2  );

I’ll stick with it. I find debugging programs helps the learning process!!

[czietz]

OK, I looked at the sample from chapter 23 of the C-Manship Complete book. It has a much more subtle but potentially much more disastrous bug! It does things like...

Code: Select all

char s[3]; /* Temporary string storage. */
[...]
/* Extract "hours" portion and convert to integer. */
strncpy(s, string, 2);
h = atoi(s);


Note that strncpy here copies two characters and no null terminator. This code relies on the last byte in s, i.e. s[2] not being a number, so that atoi will stop its conversion. Since the memory used by s is however never initialized, if by chance s[2] is a number, the result will be completely wrong.

This is an error that is incredibly hard to spot, especially for a new C programmer. I'm afraid, I still don't think this book constitutes a good example to learn from.

[wyerd]

What is the correct method of converting a string to an integer? Can you recommend any good C guides? Thanks.

[czietz]

atoi is not the problem here, strncpy is. Although in this particular case (parsing of the time and date from a string) one might use sscanf instead of all these manual string extractions and conversions.

As for good guides: If you want to learn programming [1], the C language, its standard library or basic algorithms, there surely are good modern books. I can't recommend any, though, because it's been a long time since I had a look at what's available. Others might be able to post some suggestions.

If you want to learn Atari/GEM programming though, there won't be any modern books, obviously. There is Peter Lane's GEM programming guide [2], but it expects that you already know how to program in C. Also it doesn't go into the same amount of detail as the C-Manship book. So, sorry, I can't help with recommendations.


[1] Some people say -- and with good arguments, imho -- that one should not teach C anymore to beginners but modern C++ instead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnWhqhNdYyk. C++ however might not be the best choice on the Atari.
[2] http://peterlane.info/gemguide/html/index.html

[wyerd]

Yes, the sscanf function does look a much neater approach.

I’ve programmed in other languages before, but I want to develop an accessory for my STe and C appeared to tick the box.

Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll take a look at them.