5 ms·

I am midway through K&R, but now I am curious, what other book would you suggest?

by rcamera 14y ago

jacquesm 14y ago
You could do a lot worse than getting a copy of Sedgewick 'algorithms in C'.
telemachos 14y ago
Popular suggestions (not introductory): C Interfaces and Implementations (David R. Hanson) Expert C Programming (Peter van der Linden) I'm also a fan of C Programming: A Modern Approach (K. N. King) as an introductory book, but it's very different in intended audience from K&R. King is writing for students, and he assumes nearly nothing. K&R are really writing for experienced fellow programmers, I think. So it's an apples to oranges comparison. But King is certainly more modern. He includes a fair amount of C99 material. The writing can't compare with K&R. It's nowhere near as dense or elegant. But if you find parts of K&R a bit too dense and elegant, it's a good trade-off. (I used them both in tandem while trying to learn C this summer. It worked well for me. When King got too verbose, switch to K&R. When K&R lost me, switch to King.)
- noarchy 14y ago
  King's book was my introduction to serious programming when I was younger. In an era of my life where I usually prefer ebooks, I still have King's book, in dead-tree format, and love it.
rgbrenner 14y ago
IMO, this is a better book at explaining C clearly: "advanced programming in the unix environment" by W. Richard Stevens. Don't be fooled by the title.. it's a beginner book.
- telemachos 14y ago
  > Don't be fooled by the title.. it's a beginner book. I never know what to do with comments like this. It's obviously not a beginner's book. At the very least, it assumes that you know C. If your response is "C is a small language. You can learn it by reading <some-other-thing>.", you're admitting that APUE is not a beginner's book. If your response is, "C is a small language. You can learn it by reading APUE itself.", then I call bullshit. Is it theoretically possible, sure. But is it a natural way for a true beginner to learn C? Certainly not.
  - rgbrenner 14y ago
    > It's obviously not a beginner's book. What do you mean by this? You obviously have NOT read it. I have. I'm telling you it is a beginner book. It does not assume you know C or anything else. It has nothing to do with the size of C. Grabbed it off my bookshelf -- he starts off telling you how to login to a unix system. How advanced can it be? This is literally the book that taught me the basics of C within a week -- the first language I learned (15 years ago). So it is definitely a beginner book IMO. Edit: I will say, he does get into some more advanced things toward the end. Which is why I like the book.. he starts off very basic, and by the end, he's covered the basics of interprocess communication, shared memory, etc.
    - telemachos 14y ago
      I have read the book. It does not teach you C. It assumes that you know the language. It does not teach you anything about the syntax of the language. He does not tell you how to log into a UNIX system. He tells you what happens when you log into a UNIX system. (That is a big difference. Compare the first chapter of Kerrigan and Pike's The Unix Programming Environment, which actually does teach about terminals and explicitly talks about how to log in and what a login is -- for a complete beginner.) Here's the first bit of code, from page 5: #include "apue.h" #include <dirent.h> int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { DIR *dp; struct dirent *dirp; if (argc != 2) err_quit("usage: ls directory_name"); if ((dp = opendir(argv[1])) == NULL) err_sys("can't open %s", argv[1]); while ((dirp = readdir(dp)) != NULL) printf("%s\n", dirp->d_name); closedir(dp); exit(0); } My point is very simple: If you do not know C and especially if you also do not know any programming language, it would require either magic or another book or tutorial to figure out the syntax or semantics of those lines. Why is the first include thingy in quotes and the second in brackets? What is an include thingy anyhow? What is DIR? Why do some things have a * in front of them? When are semicolons used? Not every line ends in one, but most do - why? What is the -> used for? When do I use parentheses and when do I use braces? What is argc or argv? Are those names important? What is NULL? Why are some things all capitals and some not. Does that matter? He doesn't answer any of these questions (nor should he), because the book is not meant to teach you C. It assumes that you already know C. It is not a beginner's book.
me_again 14y ago
Harbison & Steele, "C: A Reference Manual".

I am midway through K&R, but now I am curious, what other book would you suggest?

by rcamera 14y ago

I am midway through K&R, but now I am curious, what other book would you suggest?

jacquesm 14y ago

You could do a lot worse than getting a copy of Sedgewick 'algorithms in C'.

telemachos 14y ago

Popular suggestions (not introductory): C Interfaces and Implementations (David R. Hanson) Expert C Programming (Peter van der Linden) I'm also a fan of C Programming: A Modern Approach (K. N. King) as an introductory book, but it's very different in intended audience from K&R. King is writing for students, and he assumes nearly nothing. K&R are really writing for experienced fellow programmers, I think. So it's an apples to oranges comparison. But King is certainly more modern. He includes a fair amount of C99 material. The writing can't compare with K&R. It's nowhere near as dense or elegant. But if you find parts of K&R a bit too dense and elegant, it's a good trade-off. (I used them both in tandem while trying to learn C this summer. It worked well for me. When King got too verbose, switch to K&R. When K&R lost me, switch to King.)

noarchy 14y ago
King's book was my introduction to serious programming when I was younger. In an era of my life where I usually prefer ebooks, I still have King's book, in dead-tree format, and love it.

rgbrenner 14y ago

IMO, this is a better book at explaining C clearly: "advanced programming in the unix environment" by W. Richard Stevens. Don't be fooled by the title.. it's a beginner book.

telemachos 14y ago
> Don't be fooled by the title.. it's a beginner book. I never know what to do with comments like this. It's obviously not a beginner's book. At the very least, it assumes that you know C. If your response is "C is a small language. You can learn it by reading <some-other-thing>.", you're admitting that APUE is not a beginner's book. If your response is, "C is a small language. You can learn it by reading APUE itself.", then I call bullshit. Is it theoretically possible, sure. But is it a natural way for a true beginner to learn C? Certainly not.
- rgbrenner 14y ago
  > It's obviously not a beginner's book. What do you mean by this? You obviously have NOT read it. I have. I'm telling you it is a beginner book. It does not assume you know C or anything else. It has nothing to do with the size of C. Grabbed it off my bookshelf -- he starts off telling you how to login to a unix system. How advanced can it be? This is literally the book that taught me the basics of C within a week -- the first language I learned (15 years ago). So it is definitely a beginner book IMO. Edit: I will say, he does get into some more advanced things toward the end. Which is why I like the book.. he starts off very basic, and by the end, he's covered the basics of interprocess communication, shared memory, etc.
  - telemachos 14y ago
    I have read the book. It does not teach you C. It assumes that you know the language. It does not teach you anything about the syntax of the language. He does not tell you how to log into a UNIX system. He tells you what happens when you log into a UNIX system. (That is a big difference. Compare the first chapter of Kerrigan and Pike's The Unix Programming Environment, which actually does teach about terminals and explicitly talks about how to log in and what a login is -- for a complete beginner.) Here's the first bit of code, from page 5: #include "apue.h" #include <dirent.h> int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { DIR *dp; struct dirent *dirp; if (argc != 2) err_quit("usage: ls directory_name"); if ((dp = opendir(argv[1])) == NULL) err_sys("can't open %s", argv[1]); while ((dirp = readdir(dp)) != NULL) printf("%s\n", dirp->d_name); closedir(dp); exit(0); } My point is very simple: If you do not know C and especially if you also do not know any programming language, it would require either magic or another book or tutorial to figure out the syntax or semantics of those lines. Why is the first include thingy in quotes and the second in brackets? What is an include thingy anyhow? What is DIR? Why do some things have a * in front of them? When are semicolons used? Not every line ends in one, but most do - why? What is the -> used for? When do I use parentheses and when do I use braces? What is argc or argv? Are those names important? What is NULL? Why are some things all capitals and some not. Does that matter? He doesn't answer any of these questions (nor should he), because the book is not meant to teach you C. It assumes that you already know C. It is not a beginner's book.

me_again 14y ago

Harbison & Steele, "C: A Reference Manual".