HackerTube

How I program C

Eskil Steenberg8 HN recommenders · recommended in 9 months, 2017–2025
YouTube
talk · intermediate · evergreen · 2017–2025 on HN

Eskil Steenberg's two-hour talk on his personal approach to writing C, covering code style, structure, naming, pointers and large-project organization. He warns it contains a fair bit of programming religion.

HN recommends it as the one long programming video worth watching, a provocative and influential take on C.

12 comments from Hacker News

@suprjami2022-12 · in “Ask HN: Learn C in 2023?”

link If you have lots of time: link If you can't be bothered reading a whole book: link Exercises: link and link Once you have syntax and basic algorithms down well, watch this, the only 2 hour YouTube video I'll ever recommend: ▶ this video Both r/cprogramming and r/C_programming are active, also full of lazy students trying to get people to do their homework. If you come by, describe your problem well with code. Say you're learning for yourself, not for school. Together C & C++ is a good Discord if you prefer live chat: link

Strongly recommends View on HN
@MonkeyClub2022-12 · in “Ask HN: Learn C in 2023?”

> Once you have syntax and basic algorithms down well, watch this, the only 2 hour YouTube video I'll ever recommend: > ▶ this video Hard +1 on this! I think Eskil Steenberg work in C is really top notch - the video is heavily recommended, as is an overview of his work in general, he does some awesome stuff with C.

Strongly recommends View on HN
@yesenadam2021-02 · in “Ask HN: Best tech talks/videos of 2020-1?”

Hi Eskil from Australia :-) I remember you posted that on the page from 40 days ago also hehe. I have too many ideas myself already, so that one wasn't so useful to me, but was interesting. However, I really liked Drama in games [0] and I seriously loved How I Program C [1]. It's been a big influence. Thank you! [0] link [1] ▶ this video

Strongly recommends View on HN
@breckinloggins2025-12 · in “Brent's Encapsulated C Programming Rules (2020)”

Other resources I like: - Eskil Steenberg’s “How I program C” ( ▶ this video ). Long and definitely a bit controversial in parts, but I find myself agreeing with most of it. - CoreFoundation’s create rule ( link ). I’m definitely biased but I strongly prefer this to OP’s “you declare it you free it” rule.

Recommends View on HN
@ykonstant2025-06 · in “Untangling Lifetimes: The Arena Allocator”

The author's defense of C reminds me of this classic youtube video: ▶ this video ... I am sure the video above will cause immediate disagreement (I think it goes too far on some topics), but I urge people to consider the ideas contained within. (I seem to have mis-posted this to another thread?)

Recommends View on HN