In fairness, C: A Reference Manual(Harbison and Steele) is now 560 pages. I agree C++ is pretty messy, but if we got a 3rd edition K&R it would be much larger

In fairness, C: A Reference Manual(Harbison and Steele) is now 560 pages. I agree C++ is pretty messy, but if we got a 3rd edition K&R it would be much larger than the original. Also no sure most people could understand C, but "most programmers" should be able to understand C if they tried. I concede I can barely understand C++, but I use a bare minimum of its features and write C when I can.