General Programming Concepts:
Writing and Debugging Programs

About This Book

This book introduces you to the programming tools and interfaces available for writing and debugging application programs using the AIX operating system.

Who Should Use This Book

This book is intended for programmers who write and debug application programs on the AIX operating system. Users of this book should be familiar with the C programming language and AIX usage (entering commands, creating and deleting files, editing files, and navigating the file system).

Highlighting

The following highlighting conventions are used in this book:

Bold	Identifies commands, subroutines, keywords, files, structures, directories, and other items whose names are predefined by the system. Also identifies graphical objects such as buttons, labels, and icons that the user selects.
Italics	Identifies parameters whose actual names or values are to be supplied by the user.
`Monospace`	Identifies examples of specific data values, examples of text similar to what you might see displayed, examples of portions of program code similar to what you might write as a programmer, messages from the system, or information you should actually type.

Case-Sensitivity in AIX

Everything in the AIX operating system is case-sensitive, which means that it distinguishes between uppercase and lowercase letters. For example, you can use the ls command to list files. If you type LS, the system responds that the command is "not found." Likewise, FILEA, FiLea, and filea are three distinct file names, even if they reside in the same directory. To avoid causing undesirable actions to be performed, always ensure that you use the correct case.

ISO 9000

ISO 9000 registered quality systems were used in the development and manufacturing of this product.

Related Publications

The following books contain information about or related to writing programs: