AI Assisted C and C++

The companion site · 20 chapters · 63 agent traps · 166 code files

AI Assisted C and C++ Programming

Learn the Machine, Direct the Agent

A first course in C and C++ for students who know Python, written for a world where a coding agent can produce the assignment in seconds. You learn the machine by hand, then earn the agent, direct it with a written spec, and prove its work with instruments that do not hallucinate.

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Cover of AI Assisted C and C++ Programming by Dr. Jerry A. Smith

Every chapter, every assignment

The working loop

  1. 1PredictYou, no AI
  2. 2WriteYou, no AI
  3. 3SpecifyYou
  4. 4DelegateThe agent
  5. 5AuditYou and the tools
  6. 6DefendYou, live

The agent can write the code. Only you can own it. How the loop works →

MapSee the whole book on one wheelTwenty chapters, the 63 traps agents fall into, the instruments that catch them, and the 51 places where chapters lean on each other. ChaptersWhat each chapter asks of youObjectives, the fundamental that agents do not change, the loop for that chapter, key terms and the lab. CodeEvery companion listingRead each file in the browser or download a chapter's folder. Built with the book's flags: warnings as errors, AddressSanitizer and UBSan on. ToolkitTemplates you will reuse all termThe Audit Report, the work log, the tutor prompt and role patterns, and the sanitizer, Valgrind and gdb card. SetupSet up your workbenchOne Linux container, the standard build lines, a first planted bug, a makefile and git for the work log. InstructorsTeach the courseThe 15-week plan, the grading the book recommends, re-testing the traps each term, and the separate instructor's guide.

What the agent may do grows as you do

Three phases

Chapters 1 to 9

Tutor

Explains concepts and compiler messages, quizzes you and makes practice problems. It writes no code you submit.

Chapters 10 to 15

Pair

Writes small units from a specification you wrote first. You audit every line.

Chapters 16 to 20

Team

Several agent sessions in separate roles. You direct them and make the final call.

In every phase, the hand-worked concept section, the prediction and the memory checkpoint stay AI-free.

The book

Portrait of Dr. Jerry A. SmithAI Assisted C and C++ Programming: Learn the Machine, Direct the Agent, by Dr. Jerry A. Smith. 792 pages in five parts, 20 chapters (Chapter 20 optional) and seven appendices, with a running project, a field-sensor station, carried through six programming assignments. Every listing in the book was compiled and run.

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