6.8. Summary
You now understand structures and unions. Bitfields and enumeration types
really are not very important and you could manage quite well without
them.
It is hard to emphasize how important is the use of structures, pointers
and malloc in serious programs. If you aren't familiar with the use of
structured data in the form of lists, trees and so on, get a good book now.
Better still, try to enrol on a good course. Except in very specialized
applications, it is usually the ability to structure data well, not the
ability to write complicated algorithms, that makes it possible to construct
clean, small and maintainable programs. Experienced software designers often
say that once the right structure of the data has been determined, the rest
is ‘simple’.
Undoubtedly, one of the reasons for the popularity of C among experienced
software specialists is the freedom that it gives in the structuring of
data, without sacrificing speed.
Initialization should not be overlooked. Although simple in concept, it is
surprising how inconvenient many other languages make this. The ludicrous
extreme is to insist on the use of assignment statements; C has a practical
and convenient approach. If the concept of ‘fully bracketed
initializers’ seems a bit unpleasant, don't worry. It is rare that you
have to do it in practice; all that you need is to know how to do simple
initialization and to know a book that describes the more complex
initialization. To get the full low-down read the Standard, which is
uncharacteristically penetrable when it discusses the matter; verging at
times on lucidity.
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