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Expert C Programming: Deep C Secrets https://www.amazon.com/Expert-Programming-Peter-van-Linden/dp/0131774298 https://www.amazon.com/Expert-Programming-Peter-va

by roganp 4y ago

Expert C Programming: Deep C Secrets https://www.amazon.com/Expert-Programming-Peter-van-Linden/dp/0131774298 https://www.amazon.com/Expert-Programming-Peter-van-Linden/d... Entertaining and informative. Highly recommended.

pdw 4y ago
It was a brilliant book, but I feel it's too stuck in the early 90s to recommend today. It's a pity.
- rramadass 4y ago
  Strongly disagree; The book is still highly relevant today. Just because there is more unnecessary cruft and complexity in today's systems and tools does not mean the fundamentals/techniques are invalidated.
- Abishek_Muthian 4y ago
  Could you explain a bit more about why you feel its outdated and if there's a quirky book for modern C?
  - pdw 4y ago
    The other commenter said that it's a joy to read and that's certainly true. If you're interested in software folk tales and such, it's worth getting. I still see it recommended as a practical book however and indeed the book bills itself as "the second book you need on C", the book that will cover topics that other C books don't explain or explain poorly. But it's much too outdated to serve that purpose. In practice it means chapters discussing differences between K&R C and ANSI C and deep-dives into details of SunOS and MS-DOS compilers. Some of the material has become misleading because the C language has evolved. For example, there's a lot of discussion about pointers and arrays, as can be expected. But there's no mention of strict aliasing and pointer provenance (these rules existed in C89, but compilers at the time didn't exploit them yet for optimization). And of course no variable-length arrays (introduced in C99). So you're not going to learn what you need to know in today's world. The book also has almost no discussion about safety. The Morris worm is mentioned, but just as a piece of historical trivia. Browsing it now, I don't even find any discussion about buffer overflows.
    - Abishek_Muthian 4y ago
      Thanks for taking the time to explain your comment.
pyuser583 4y ago
That book is a joy to read. Doesn’t matter if it’s even accurate. Read it because it’s fun!
wernsey 4y ago
Thanks. Inspired by your comment, I went to see if it was available on archive.org. It was [0] I've been feeling nostalgic lately and playing around with Turbo C in DOSBox, so I'll definitely check it out. [0] https://archive.org/details/1.-expert-c-programming-deep-c-secrets-prentice-hall-1994 https://archive.org/details/1.-expert-c-programming-deep-c-s...

by roganp 4y ago

pdw 4y ago

It was a brilliant book, but I feel it's too stuck in the early 90s to recommend today. It's a pity.

rramadass 4y ago
Strongly disagree; The book is still highly relevant today. Just because there is more unnecessary cruft and complexity in today's systems and tools does not mean the fundamentals/techniques are invalidated.
Abishek_Muthian 4y ago
Could you explain a bit more about why you feel its outdated and if there's a quirky book for modern C?
- pdw 4y ago
  The other commenter said that it's a joy to read and that's certainly true. If you're interested in software folk tales and such, it's worth getting. I still see it recommended as a practical book however and indeed the book bills itself as "the second book you need on C", the book that will cover topics that other C books don't explain or explain poorly. But it's much too outdated to serve that purpose. In practice it means chapters discussing differences between K&R C and ANSI C and deep-dives into details of SunOS and MS-DOS compilers. Some of the material has become misleading because the C language has evolved. For example, there's a lot of discussion about pointers and arrays, as can be expected. But there's no mention of strict aliasing and pointer provenance (these rules existed in C89, but compilers at the time didn't exploit them yet for optimization). And of course no variable-length arrays (introduced in C99). So you're not going to learn what you need to know in today's world. The book also has almost no discussion about safety. The Morris worm is mentioned, but just as a piece of historical trivia. Browsing it now, I don't even find any discussion about buffer overflows.
  - Abishek_Muthian 4y ago
    Thanks for taking the time to explain your comment.

pyuser583 4y ago

That book is a joy to read. Doesn’t matter if it’s even accurate. Read it because it’s fun!

wernsey 4y ago

Thanks. Inspired by your comment, I went to see if it was available on archive.org. It was [0] I've been feeling nostalgic lately and playing around with Turbo C in DOSBox, so I'll definitely check it out. [0] https://archive.org/details/1.-expert-c-programming-deep-c-secrets-prentice-hall-1994 https://archive.org/details/1.-expert-c-programming-deep-c-s...