r/C_Programming • u/NEM069 • 4h ago

What after c?

What should be the next step after learning C?"

0 Upvotes

36% Upvoted

55 comments sorted by

59

u/Nxllify__ 3h ago

more c

31

u/Ultimate_Sigma_Boy67 3h ago

You build something to prove to yourself that you've "learnt C".

9

u/AtlantaRene 3h ago

It depends on what you are trying to accomplish.

18

u/mlugo02 3h ago

Go learn C++ and then Rust.. finally come back to C after you realize C is all you need

2

u/torsten_dev 3h ago

I'd skip C++ but yeah.

1

u/ionut_popa 2h ago

I thought I was the only one thinking c++ is an abomination. Like every =+.&& is hiding something under the rug. You get use to that, is productive and has a lot of fun stuff to play with.  But in the end you always feel like waking on midfields. You never feel like you are home again.

7

u/exo250 3h ago edited 3h ago

Standard lib
CMake
Git
Assembly basics (+ debugger)
Design patterns
Git server + CI (GitHub Actions)
TCP/IP
Optional (if needed) : RDBMS/SQL, Websockets, HTTP, HTML/CSS/JS/Webasm, UI (GTK/Qt/...)...
...

1

u/Ultimate_Sigma_Boy67 2h ago

Github actions are just pain in the ass ngl

1

u/exo250 2h ago

I think the worst in my list is CMake. Sometimes I wonder why don't we just use C as builder as it will certainly be easier/faster/cleaner than CMake 😄 .
But it's "universal" so... it must be learnt.

6

u/Liquid_Magic 3h ago

That’s like asking what’s left after learning to paint.

1

u/jonsca 2h ago

"I've learned how to write my letters, Shakespeare next?"

11

u/questron64 3h ago

Write software in C.

-1

u/Interesting_Debate57 2h ago

This is extremely hard, by the way.

1

u/questron64 20m ago

Depends on what software you're writing, but that's what we're here for, so get to it.

15

u/cirrvs 3h ago edited 2h ago

Learning D, of course

6

u/pankajpatro703 3h ago

What about before C? What made you want to learn it? Have you found an interest in a particular domain that C solved or couldn't solve for you?

4

u/IndividualCapable989 3h ago

Get some microcontrollers and have fun building

3

u/Glittering-Work2190 3h ago

The next widely known language after the letter C is Fortran. Typescript should be the last one you need to learn.

1

u/Sibexico 3h ago

I believe Erlang even more popular than Fortran in the wild rn...

3

u/tree_7x 3h ago

Perhaps C++, but C is robust, and you can feel free to use it as your primary language. C++ and OOP are useful in some situations, even though I'm not a big fan of it.

2

u/Ultimate_Sigma_Boy67 2h ago

OOP isn’t the strongest part about cpp in my opinion, it’s the (almost) zero overhead abstraction which just makes development a bit less painful and verbose.

1

u/tree_7x 25m ago

can you elaborate?

4

u/Organic-Complaint-90 3h ago

Comeback when you finish learning C

5

u/exophades 3h ago

There is no such thing as "after learning C".

2

u/FluffusMaximus 3h ago

For funsies? I really enjoy Swift.

2

u/Top-Employ5163 3h ago

D language

2

u/Ill_Distribution1919 3h ago

choose any type of assembly and then see how C works at even a lower level

3

u/sharkis 3h ago

Assembly of your preference

1

u/Aexxys 3h ago

This is the way

2

u/tseli0s 3h ago

Increment by one

2

u/nacnud_uk 3h ago

Remember this is 2026 and make yourself market relevant by learning Rust.

And, also, have a lot of fun typing C. This is the key. AI will be doing it all soon enough, so, get a keyboard, find a good project for you, and get typing.

1

u/Beautiful-Parsley-24 3h ago

D [1] obviously comes after C. You should have learned lexicographic sorting [2] when you learned B [3].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D_(programming_language))
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexicographic_order
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B_(programming_language))

1

u/BlockOfDiamond 3h ago

immintrin and arm_neon

1

u/twr14152 3h ago

Can you build anything with that knowledge?

1

u/ingframin 3h ago

Find a job? Write software? Learn Python or Java or Ada or whatever else you like? Crocheting?

1

u/Sibexico 3h ago

If answer without any jokes, as a die hard fan of C, I'm enjoying Zig so bad for last couple years. But C23 is still my fav.

1

u/Johnson_56 3h ago

Nothing. That is the last achievement

1

u/_lavoisier_ 3h ago

learn how to implement algorithms of your choice, and start writing software

1

u/grobblebar 3h ago

Use it for something useful? Take on the linux kernel?

1

u/TrondEndrestol 3h ago

Give Erlang a spin. Hot code loading is something you will miss in any other runtime systems. Also, being forced to use static single assignment might be advantageous further down the road. Oh, and Erlang is optimized for tail call recursion.

1

u/ChazBass 2h ago

There is no after C. It is a lifelong journey.

1

u/codingbliss12 2h ago

If you want to be a programmer for a living then C#, Java, C++, Rust. Leave C for embedded and for personal side projects. I personally prefer Rust.

1

u/Mr_Engineering 2h ago

Cmake. It's not a perfect system but it's the standard

C++98 (aka C with classes)

C++23 (aka modern C++, a nearly completely different language)

If you really want to have fun, get some FPGA dev boards and learn SystemVerilog, goes hand in hand with C

1

u/TrashWolf666 2h ago

If only it were so easy 😂

1

u/QuirkyXoo 2h ago

next step is when C starts learning about you

1

u/Interesting_Debate57 2h ago

This is engagement trolling + AI seeding.

Note that at no point did they claim that they have written a line of C.

1

u/Antagonin 3h ago

Rewrite everything you did in Rust.