Interacting with the System and Managing Memory

  • 4.4
Approx. 23 hours to complete

Course Summary

This course teaches students how to interact with a computer system and manage its memory. Students will learn the key concepts of memory management and virtual memory, as well as how to optimize memory usage and performance.

Key Learning Points

  • Understand the key concepts of memory management and virtual memory
  • Learn how to optimize memory usage and performance
  • Explore different memory management techniques and their trade-offs

Job Positions & Salaries of people who have taken this course might have

  • Systems Engineer
    • USA: $80,000 - $120,000
    • India: ₹4,00,000 - ₹12,00,000
    • Spain: €30,000 - €50,000
  • Software Developer
    • USA: $60,000 - $110,000
    • India: ₹3,00,000 - ₹10,00,000
    • Spain: €20,000 - €45,000
  • Computer Systems Analyst
    • USA: $60,000 - $100,000
    • India: ₹3,00,000 - ₹9,00,000
    • Spain: €20,000 - €40,000

Related Topics for further study


Learning Outcomes

  • Understand the concepts and trade-offs of different memory management techniques
  • Optimize memory usage and performance in computer systems
  • Apply memory management principles to real-world scenarios

Prerequisites or good to have knowledge before taking this course

  • Basic programming knowledge in C or C++
  • Familiarity with computer architecture and operating systems

Course Difficulty Level

Intermediate

Course Format

  • Online
  • Self-paced

Similar Courses

  • Introduction to Operating Systems
  • Computer Architecture
  • Database Management Essentials

Related Education Paths


Related Books

Description

The final course in the specialization Introduction to Programming in C will teach you powerful new programming techniques for interacting with the user and the system and dynamically allocating memory. You will learn more sophisticated uses for pointers, such as strings and multidimensional arrays, as well as how to write programs that read and write files and take input from the user. Learning about dynamic memory allocation will allow your programs to perform complex tasks that will be applied in the final part of the specialization project: a Monte Carlo simulation for calculating poker hand probabilities.

Outline

  • Module 1: Interacting with the user and system
  • Why We Need Interactivity and to Manage Memory
  • Reading a File with fgetc
  • Reading a File with fgets
  • Writing to a File
  • Closing a File
  • The Practice Programming Environment
  • Introduction to the Operating System
  • Errors from System Calls
  • Command Line Arguments
  • Complex Option Processing
  • The Environment Pointer
  • Process Creation
  • Opening a File
  • Reading a File
  • Reading a File with fgets
  • Reading a File with fread
  • Writing to Files
  • Closing Files
  • Other Interactions
  • The Operating System
  • Command Line Arguments and Process Creation
  • Opening Files and fgetc
  • Reading encryption.c
  • Writing and Closing Files
  • Module 2: Dynamic allocation
  • Simple Call to malloc
  • Mechanics of free
  • Code with a Memory Leak
  • Three Common Problems When Using free
  • Call to realloc
  • Reading a File with getline
  • Combining getline and realloc
  • Motivation for Dynamic Allocation
  • malloc
  • Fixing initArray
  • More Complex Structures
  • Shallow vs. Deep Copying
  • free
  • Memory Leaks
  • A Dynamic Memory Allocation Analogy
  • Common Problems with free
  • realloc
  • getline
  • Valgrind's Memcheck
  • Uninitialized Values
  • Invalid Reads and Writes
  • Valgrind with GDB
  • Dynamic Allocation Issues
  • memcheck.h
  • Other Valgrind Tools
  • malloc
  • free
  • realloc
  • getline
  • Valgrind's Memcheck
  • Module 3: Programming in the Large
  • Introduction
  • Roster Planning
  • Analogy to Writing
  • Abstraction
  • The Seven-Item Limit
  • Hierarchical Abstraction
  • Readability
  • Function Size
  • Naming
  • Formatting
  • Commenting and Documentation
  • Team Considerations
  • Git
  • Past Versions
  • Collaboration
  • Multiple Versions of the Present
  • Read More
  • Problem Description
  • Planning the High-Level Algorithm
  • Writing and Testing readInput
  • Finishing the Program
  • Even Larger Programs
  • Abstraction
  • Readability
  • Module 4: Poker Project
  • Poker Project: Final Part

Summary of User Reviews

This course on Interacting with System and Managing Memory has received positive reviews from users, with many praising its hands-on approach and practical exercises. The course has a high overall rating from users.

Key Aspect Users Liked About This Course

Hands-on approach and practical exercises

Pros from User Reviews

  • The course provides practical exercises that help reinforce concepts
  • The instructors are knowledgeable and engaging
  • The course covers a wide range of topics related to interacting with system and managing memory
  • The course is well-structured and easy to follow

Cons from User Reviews

  • Some users found the course content to be too basic
  • The course may be challenging for beginners with no programming experience
  • The pacing of the course may be too fast for some learners
  • The course may not cover advanced topics in depth
  • The course may require additional resources for learners to fully grasp the concepts
English
Available now
Approx. 23 hours to complete
Andrew D. Hilton, Anne Bracy, Genevieve M. Lipp
Duke University
Coursera

Instructor

Andrew D. Hilton

  • 4.4 Raiting
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