New first-year unit for 2006. Lecture attendance is recommended by some (although not all) students, even if you have a strong C background, if only for administrative information about the unit. Content covered is All The Usual Programming Stuff (see the handbook entry for specifics), plus you learn how to write makefiles and a few simple POSIX functions. Quite comprehensive look at the language if you put the time in.
ChrisMcDonald has been very active on the help1210 forum in the past two years, having posted > 1000 entries in 2006 and around 200 entries in 2007. You can expect a reply within a day if you post there on a week day. The forum occasionally got over 100 messages a day close to assessment due dates, with a surprising amount focused on actual unit content. Beware, however, the older UCC members who enjoy trolling the forum, particularly around assignment due dates.
As with other language specific units in CSSE, tests and assessments also expect use of the language to solve simple CS problems (e.g. permutation searching, the UbiquitousPalendromicQuestion etc.) rather than just requiring technical accuracy of the language.
In 2007, labs occurred in a Mac lab and the preferred editor was Vim in a terminal. You will have a lot of difficulty getting used to this strange (lack of) development environment if you have limited experience with Macs and terminals.
Overall a well taught unit, although will be pretty full-on if you don't know any C already.
Unit taken by ChrisMcDonald, has also been taken by LuigiBarone in the past.
