Customer Reviews

C Programming Language

5 star:		(163)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is the book. Period. If you don't own this, change professions.

This is one of those books that is put aside on the shelf once you just start reading. One year later, you come back and have a go at it once more. Only this time you pause and think what a great book this has always been and you'd wish you had read it earlier.

Secondly alot of people here say this is *the* book for beginners. In my honest opinion, this is not so. It's way too technical for beginners to programming. My suggestion is that if you have any academic or professional background with C or any other language, then this book will serve you well. Otherwise don't buy this book, you will simply get lost. Read some good intro books on C which don't go into details. Once you get your feet wet, go ahead and buy this book. You will enjoy it.

There is a mis-paragraphing in the sections in chapter 5 where they are discussing the method alloc(). The value returned in the method code and the discussion of what the method returns is inconsistent. The discussion could have been put in better words.

Overall this is a very good book. A must have for serious C programmers. I would advise you to read the code *before* you read the discussion, it will help you undertsand better, especially if you like learning by example, otherwise, do as you please.

I am not a fan of huge 500-1000 page books on Computers. This book beats them all, well done K&R. Enjoy your read on this one when you buy it.

Cheers

Yes, this is the classic text on C, but in 2003, there are better books.

If you want to know what went on in the designers mind in the creation of C, get this book.

If you need a tutorial about C, there are better choices.

I got this book and tried to use it to learn C. I got very frustrated and eventually went out and bought "C by Example" which is more of a beginners type book. After getting my feet wet with the basic concepts I came back to this book and could actually use it to learn from.

If you have no programming experience than I do not reccommend this as your first book. Get a more introductory book first and then dive into the K&R book.

This book is a good reference manual for C programming, but it
should not be the book from which you learn C. I tried, but as
a result, I find it very frustrating writing simple programs. I'd call it "C For Geniuses" or "C For Those Who Already Know C". I agree that I've eventually found everything I've needed to know in this book, but the problem can be digging it out. Everything is distilled down into as little space as possible, and very often, programs are used as examples to explain a particular point. I don't appreciate having to plow through some code to figure out how to use pointers or whatever. I need more description, such as, for example, why pointers can be cast to "void" and back without losing information; this is just stated in a single sentence and shown in a fairly complicated program. That isn't good enough for me. I need this information at a more basic, descriptive level. Anyhow, since I'm clearly a dummy when it comes to programming, I've ordered C For Dummies. Maybe that's what I need to get the most out of not only C, but out of this book as well.

For some reason, this book was assigned to one of my intro to comp-sci classes. It definitely does not fit such profile as it provides a great overview of the language, how it's built, how it works, and its applications, however, it does not teach to program. If you already know the basics of programming and are proficient in a similar language (e.g. Java), this may be an interesting read to understand the workings of the C language, but by no means expect it to provide little "classes" to teach you to be a C programmer.

Good overview of the language, targetted at more advanced programmers.

Often refered to simply as K&R, this book is the standard by which other technical books are judged. Written by the authors of the language, it is one of those rare books that combines brevity with clarity. It is a combination of an excellent tutorial book and a clear reference manual, and it also has a very useful index. This book has it all!

I refer to this book all the time and so does every professional C programmer I know. It's worth every penny.

If you are doing Unix/Linux programming the next book to get is "Advanced Programming in the UNIX(R) Environment"
by W. Richard Stevens.

Great book, not for people who nothing about programming. If you "look inside this book" (or find this book at a local bookstore) and can read the intro pages, you could see that they come right out and say that their target audience should know about variables, and other basics of programming (functions and decision making if-else, i think). I bought this book used, and apparantly the person who owned it before me did not check out the content nor what was assumed of the readers. Although it may sound kind of mean, I found it hilarious as I was flipping through the pages where he had written in things like "What's a double?", "whats this: || ?", "LOWER = 0; ?". If you're unsure whether this book is for you, click on that "look inside this book" above and try following along in the first chapter. If you get lost, get an easier book. If it's just right, then go for it.

This book provides great resources to learn C. Indeed, some basic knowledge in programming and mathematics is needed. It also provides great references for the standard C libraries, which are explained concisely but with all the necessary information. However, sometimes expectations for an exercise are vague and might require knowledge in topics not covered yet. Also, there are some errors, but you can find the corrections on the net.

I think many people would consider this book to be THE authority on the C programming language. Clear descriptions that get to the point.

There is a free website that contains the entire text of a version of this book.