Structs and typedefs

My learning of the C code hasn't been an easy thing, as many other people who have tried to learn C programming on their own can recall. I came across an old message board post today when just glancing at some FLOSS websites. It was a discussion about someone giving C programming tutorials. Realistically, I don't think programmers for this project are going to come from the free software community of already existing programmers. If someone is already that good with free software and programming, they probably have numerous, harder projects to actually work on. I think it would be better to find a bunch of retro gamers and teach them to program in C.

The big problem is finding any good programming material on the web and in books. I have already read 4 books on the subject, Problem Solving and Program Design in C by Jeri R. Hanly, Elliot Koffman and Frank L. Friedman is the one I am reading from now. This big blue book is more about teaching algorithms than just teaching the syntax, something that is needed if you want to go ahead with the code. Some the examples are very poor though. There was this problem where they used a bunch of doubles, but then had it scanf as a float. In addition I have also worked from the infamous K&R, Joy of C and a C primer. The primer book was the one that was most geared towards complete newbies, while the rest of them were more advanced and really needed some prior programming experience.

I have started looking at the code for the X11 client again. It looks like a bunch of structs and typedefs. Not really knowing the x11 function calls as well as not really knowing the rest of the code make it hard to figure out what it does. I really have not gotten much help from the other team members as I would like. I think that is why it may be better to look for more programmers in that community rather than trying to get the current programmers to work on the project. People don't really get commited to anything without a personal stake in the end result. On the other hand I do know how much I want a 2d, pvp, skill based, mmorpg. I doubt it is the most in demand
game ever, but there is probably enough demand to get a few other people involved at least.

I'm already thinking of the fun of writing quests and sticking tilesets on the map. I just wish the user interface and current crossfire gameplay didn't suck so bad. Last time I tried to play test it a week or so ago, I ended up crashing again by going into the wrong map. I started to looked a the difference in some of the files, but my lead programmer changed a lot of things, and didn't really document his changes, this being his first free software project as well.