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Early sections look at some of the pitfalls of C/C++, with numerous real-world excerpts of confusing or incorrect code. The authors offer many tips and solutions, including a guide for variable names and commenting styles. Next, they cover algorithms, such as binary and quick sorting. Here, the authors show how to take advantage of the built-in functions in standard C/C++. When it comes to data structures, such as arrays, linked lists, and trees, the authors compare the options available to C, C++, Java, and even Perl developers with a random-text-generation program (using a sophisticated Markov chain algorithm) written for each language.
Subsequent sections cover debugging tips (including how to isolate errors with debugging statements) and testing strategies (both white-box and black-box testing) for verifying the correctness of code. Final sections offer tips on creating more portable C/C++ code, with the last chapter suggesting that programmers can take advantage of interpreters (and regular expressions) to gain better control over their code. A handy appendix summarizes the dozens of tips offered throughout the book.
With its commonsense expertise and range of examples drawn from C, C++, and Java, The Practice of Programming is an excellent resource for improving the style and performance of your code base. --Richard Dragan
Review
"The examples are just about right. Chapter 3's example (markov) is stellar; it is simple, thought-provoking, elegant, and most importantly, provides an opportunity to analyze good design... It is the most concise book of its kind and offers the most useful, no-nonsense treatment of how to program from authors who know a great deal about the topic." -- Peter Memishian, Member of Technical Staff, Sun Microsystems
"There is a tendency for many books to be in the high hundreds of pages long these days with very little justification. This text is well-written, and is not overly interdependent, thus allowing the reader to "skip around" as interests motivate.... I found [the examples] to be interesting. I like it when I don't have to spend time figuring out an example and I can concentrate on the lesson the example is trying to teach. Too many books have overly-complex examples, and this one doesn't." -- Chris Cleeland, Technical Lead, IONA Technologies, Inc.
"A great candidate to fill this widely perceived lack in the literature... Very solid and very educational, this manual is one I highly recommend to all programmers." -- Dr. Dobb's Electronic Review of Computer Books
"An outstanding book... a readable and well-written style combined with their experience and valuable expertise." -- Sys Admin
"This book is full of good common sense. In addition it is written in highly readable English. Pick up a copy, choose any chapter and start reading. I think you will then feel motivated to buy yourself a copy... Whatever language you program in, I think you will benefit from reading this book." -- Association of C & C++ Users
Read the full review for this book.
To be honest, there are quite a few books around that teach algorithms and the fundamentals of computer programming. The problem is that those books are commonly designed to support academic classes in computer science, and consequently shine on the theoretical side but leave something to be desired on the pragmatic front.
The Practice of Programming is a great candidate to fill this widely perceived lack in the literature that I commonly refer to as "for the industry." Authored by two experienced researchers of the Computing Science Research Center at the well-known Bell Labs (the name Brian Kernighan will ring a bell to the millions of C programmers), this manageable text conveys a fantastic quantity of suggestions and guidelines that will come in useful to all the neophytes of programming, and at the same time provides some sound tips and principles to the more seasoned among us. The first chapter approaches the delicate topic of good coding style; while the opinions on this are always subjective, those expressed by the authors seem generally acceptable and worth following. --Davide Marcato, Dr. Dobb's Electronic Review of Computer Books -- Dr. Dobb's Electronic Review of Computer Books
Rating 9/10: "Practical and enjoyable, this book captures its authors' considerable wisdom and experience." -- Slashdot.org
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining reading,
By Jorgen L Dahl (Cincinnati, OH United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Practice of Programming (Paperback)
This book won't teach you how to program. It won't teach you how to solve that one problem you've been struggling with for days. It won't revolutionize your programming practice. It will, however, be entertaining reading. Pike and Kernighan obviously have a story or two to tell, and they relate to them in their suggestions for programming practices. For anyone with practical experience most things will be fairly basic and obvious. No one is ever a complete programmer though, and there are tidbits you will pick up here and there.I would mostly recommend this book to someone who enjoys reading a little bit of entertaining computer history and like to hear about Kernighan's and Pike's own experiences in becoming experts of programming.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Out of focus,
By "rebelo" (Criciúma, Brazil) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Practice of Programming (Paperback)
Sometimes even the greatest masters make minor works. Brian Kernighan is a master. And this book is a minor work. Why? Take a look at the TOC. It refers to, at least, 5 complicated topics wich deserve nothing less than a single book each one. How can someone cover decently them all in just one 267 pages book? Once you finish each chapter remains the feeling that it was just a glimpse, far from a good explanation.It's certainly an above the average book. The authors know what they are talking about. But you would be much better served by the suplementary reading at the end of each chapter. At least, they sugest you the really good books. This is also an Unix biased book. Kernighan and Pike don't like interactive debuggers. And they don't care too much about user interface. If you are on the Windows/Mac/Palm/etc side of programming, you'll probably see things a little diferently.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Other choices are better,
By
This review is from: The Practice of Programming (Paperback)
This book would have been fine 10 years ago. However, the topics covered here are better covered elsewhere, by other authors (Code Complete and The Pragmatic Programmer). There's very little in this book that is not covered in the other books, and combined, they covered more areas better.In short: Better value can be found elsewhere.
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