unix starter

[k2k]

hi,
I am trying to take unix administration and shell scripting courses this summer. I have done 2 courses of C++ and a course of java. However i have never learned C. Anyone please give me some opinion if learning C is necessary for Unix. Since C++ is inherited from C, are they pretty much similar? Is unix scripting harder or easier comparing C++?

[jbennet]

C is easy to pick up if you know c++

just forget everything you know about OOP

and yeah, most opensource code, e.g linux kernel is written in C

[Major Major]

hi, I am trying to take unix administration and shell scripting courses this summer. I have done 2 courses of C++ and a course of java. However i have never learned C. Anyone please give me some opinion if learning C is necessary for Unix. Since C++ is inherited from C, are they pretty much similar? Is unix scripting harder or easier comparing C++?

C is a definite MUST for serious UNIX/Linux development (kernel modules or small-footprint daemons), I concur that it should be easier to pick up C from C++ than the other way around.

As to your question of scripting being easier or harder, that's a tough one. In your class experience it might well be easier because most of the exercises are simple cases. Once you go from several dozen to several hundred lines of shell script or PERL (the two likely suspects for any course in admin/scripting) things can get pretty hairy, especially if you didn't write it in the first place.