HomeAuthor InterviewsInterview with Jeff Szuhay

Interview with Jeff Szuhay

Jeff Szuhay is the author of Learn C Programming, we got the chance to sit down with him and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.

Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey.

Jeff: I am fond of writing answers on Quora as well as on my own websites. I also enjoy giving presentations about various computer science topics to user groups. Because of that, I was contacted by one of Packt’s acquisition editors with the idea of writing this book. And so, the journey began!

Q: How long did it take you to write the book?

Jeff: Far too long. Nearly 2 years. It turns out that it is much harder to write a beginner’s programming book than one for experienced programmers.

Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?

Jeff: Once the outline was complete, research involved updating my own knowledge of C to the latest standard (C18) as well as proving that knowledge with example programs. This was a learning experience for me to “catch up” to modern C programming. Some research topics took only minutes while others took a day or more.

Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?

Jeff: I think the biggest challenge is finding new and useful programming examples to demonstrate each concept. In my nearly 35 years of programming I have never been tasked with a palindrome program. It is my hope that the examples I’ve given are truly useful to new programmers.

Q: What advice would you give to readers learning tech? Do you have any top tips?

Jeff: One of the very best ways to learn technology is to have a project that you are really interested in. After you have learned the basics, imagine doing something with that tech and then make it a reality. Completing a project of your own will benefit you in many, many ways.

Q. How do you keep up-to-date on your tech?

Jeff: It is always a good habit to read other books and especially to read code that exemplifies modern coding practice. Whenever an update to the standard is released, that is the time to pay attention to what is new. Also, look for books, source code, and articles that reflect the new standards.

Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow?

Jeff: It should be available shortly. You can watch http://www.szuhay.org for an announcement when it goes live.

Q. Can you share any blogs, websites and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning?

Jeff: Treat https://www.wikipedia.org, https://www.quora.com and https://stackoverflow.com as useful starting points for information; you will have to verify anything you find there yourself. I am also fond of http://c-faq.com for C answers. Also be aware that because C has been around for 50 years, many older books do not apply well to modern C. Only consider books that deal with the C99 standard or later (C11 or C18).

Q. How would you describe your author journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?

Jeff: Yes. I have been very pleased with the dedication and professionalism of the people who helped me create my book at Packt. I want to especially thank Rahul Hande and Digvigay Bagul.

You can find Jeff’s book on Amazon by following this link: Please click here

Learn C Programming – Available on Amazon.com