C Programming Language (2nd Edition) (Prentice Hall Software) Reviews

• A high-intensity tutorial and a great reference

  
  By ATV9X3FTXRIM4 on 2000-03-13
  This book (widely known as K&R, after the authors' initials) has for over twenty years been the best way to learn C. When I got this book in 1980, I had access to a Unix system and worked through much of the tutorial material in it. On the way I learnt a great deal, not just about C, but about good programming style, code reuse, the value of clear comments--in short, I was introduced to the skill set of an experienced computer professional.

  The book was a trendsetter in several ways. For example, the very first exercise given is to print "hello, world"; this is now seen as the first exercise in innumerable other, more recent books, many of which may not realize that they are borrowing from K&R. The rest of chapter 1 (there's a chapter 0, an introduction; another geek-cool change which has been widely copied) is a tutorial that takes you through assignment statements, data types, if/else, for, while, printf, function definitions, arrays, and variable scoping, in less than 30 pages. If you work your way through the embedded exercises you'll have written utilities to strip tabs, reverse input by lines, strip trailing whitespace from input, and several others. This is much more challenging than most tutorials, but the effect on the student is that you feel you are being treated as an equal. The book doesn't talk down to you; it gives you accurate and concise answers. It's written for programmers, in other words.

  The next few chapters go back over the elements of C in more detail, and should also be treated as a tutorial. Going through this material religiously will be far more valuable than any college class could possibly be.

  There is a reference section at the back, which is good to have. But the real value of this book is in the tutorial approach: it is a rare pleasure in the computing field to find a book that is simultaneously clear, stimulating and informative.
  
  

• The best programming book I ever bought.

  
  By ADP9OKUYOSYCW on 2000-07-12
  I've first bought this book when I started my academic studies,and 5 years of work with Fortran 77 and three years of work withPascal.

  This small book (270 pages, including the index) served me well through my degree, and I still keep the dog-eared, yellowing, aged book with me at work.

  The book focuses on the language itself - this is no hands-on book (no explanations on how to use this compiler or that debugger, though it is a little biased toward Unix) in a clear, concise, and thorough way covering all of the language and it's standard libraries.

  I especially liked the excercises (the solutions come in a seperate volume) and the C source code examples of how some of the library routines are (or may be) implemented.

  With this book I had no problem understanding the more difficult subjects (e.g. many people have problems with pointers, and this book makes the subject easy to understand) and avoiding pitfalls.

  I've read it in a week, and keeping it in hand's reach smoothly started programming in C.

  The only drawback I see in this book is it's price, it's a small book which sells *very* well, and I'd expect it's price to be lower. This book is *not* for people who study C as their first programming language (those would be better served with a pair of books - a first course in programming and compiler guide).
  
  

• The most elegant programming book I have ever read

  
  By A28GHHD3WFNPOD on 1997-11-09
  This book is not "for Dummies". It assumes that you already have some knowledge of structured programming languages (i.e. Pascal). For example, this book spends four well-written pages explaining everything you need to know about functions. If you don't know what a function is, this will clearly not be enough. However, if you do know about functions, this book will not drone on and on for an entire chapter or two on the subject like some of the foot-crunching tomes the size of an encyclopdia.

  The book is expensive ($40) for its size (approx. 250pgs.), but it is worth every penny. To quote the authors: "C is not a big language, and it is not served well by a big book."

  As a bonus, almost anything you need to know about C can be found in seconds using the excellent index. It should be noted that this is a language reference and will NOT tell you how to use your editing environment or compiler.

  In summary, intermediate or advanced programmers should be able to learn C with reasonable proficiency in a short amount of time.
  
  

• The C Bible - no Question

  
  By A1459Q5AU8EP6F on 1999-11-25
  This is probably the greatest introductory programming world ever written!

  This is the classic "how to program" book. The book may seem quite old, but so is C, so you'll not miss anything. Half of the other introductory books written today will often quote this book, especially in reference to the "hello, world." example contained within. The "K&R" is well known among programmers as the all-time classic programming book - for any language.

  If you read through this book, I promise that you'll find it easy to grasp with a pace that will not bore you to tears.

  For those of you just starting off, remember that this is not a C++ book. You may not want to use Visual C++ 6.0 with this book. Instead, you can download a DOS based C compiler from wwwdeloriecom. I believe you'll find that compiler much more appropriate for learning C with this book, and best of all, it's FREE. After this book, you should have very little trouble adapting your knowledge to C++ and the Visual C++ 6.0 IDE.
  
  

• A masterpiece

  
  By A3J1BRVN7GXC1E on 2001-09-13
  It is difficult to avoid cliches when talking about this book - it is just so good, that one can't help heaping superlatives on it.

  This book is affectionately known as 'K & R', after the names of the authors, and it is almost definitely the most widely respected of all books on any given programming language.

  This is the book that introduced the 'Hello World!' program to the world :-), which is now practically a standard first program in any introductory book on any programming language.

  This is straight from the creators, and the implied authority, while an excellent reason in itself for taking a look at the book, pales in comparison to its other merits - brevity & clarity being foremost.
  

  This book is best appreciated if you already have some programming background - i say this from experience, since i knew Fortran 77 & Pascal before i learnt C, and the knowledge of Pascal, in particular,made it much easier for me to pick up C than classmates for whom it was the first programming language.

  Of course, if you're new to programming, you could still try learning from this, but it might be a bit of a struggle. If so, the books by Kelley & Pohl, K.N.King or Gottfried(Schaum series) may be useful for 'getting upto speed' with C first, and then coming to K & R.

  C is the one language which is both 'high level' and 'low level' at the same time - to date, it is the nearest to the ideal of a programming language that is easy enough in description to be followed by human readers, and at the same time close enough to the machine's language to be executed fast.There are faster languages, to be sure - assembly language is necessarily faster than any high level language. But just try coding a reasonably involved program in assembly, or even reading such an effort ! There are other languages which might be 'easier' for people to read, but they are slower(C++,Java,etc,etc).

  It is also the 'mother' of all modern biggies - C++ owes even its very name to C, Java was derived from C++, and Perl is **written** in C !!

  So knowing C would give you a better appreciation of the other languages as well.
  
  

  And it's still the language of choice for systems programming - so no systems programmer can afford to be a non-expert at C.

  Anyway, back to the book - and what a book it is! The authors are not just great programmers, they are outstanding writers as well.
  

  The book is just 274 pages, but it will teach you more than most thick 'tomes' on programming could ever possibly teach.

  And no, that doesn't imply that it's 'dense' or abtruse. The authors choose their words judiciously, and there is not a word out of place.The book is designed to make you think, for there is no better way of learning than to think things out for yourself.

  Reading the carefully worded text and working out the compact examples will teach you a lot - if you can go through all the exercises, well then you'll surely be an expert when you finish the book. I never did, but i learnt enough to implement several projects in C over the past six years, right from searching and sorting to cryptography and speech recognition.

  The examples in this book are a thing of beauty (and therefore a joy forever!!). Elegance, in one word.

  It has that universal characteristic of a great book - no matter how many times you read it, you'll learn something new.

  You may buy several other books for specialized purposes of particular projects, but when you want to get into the nitty-gritty, to clarify any elusive points, you'll return here, to 'the word of the law', as laid out by the creators of the language.

  Basically, if you program in C, you've just got have this book -
  and once you have it, you'll find it indispensable.
  
  

• Classic
  By A3RRRE7BHW9I0E on 2001-02-27
  I've recently re-read this after several years. If you have a serious programming language under your belt (and Visual Basic doesn't fall under that heading), this slim volume may well be the only book on C that you will ever need. There are numerous examples and exercises throughout the book. There are also suggestions and examples of sensible coding standards.

  The book begins with a brief, thirty page tutorial on core C functionality. What's surprising is that by the end of this chapter, one can write moderately interesting C programs. Following chapters cover various areas in more depth. For example, the sixth chapter covers pointers and arrays. This is an area that many new programmers find difficult. The authors provide a lucid, detailed discussion and an algorithm written in C for understanding complex declarations like:

  char (*(*x[3])())[5];

  That is, x is an array[3] of pointer to function returning pointer to array[5] of char. Of course, one would rarely see such a declaration in practice, but it is important to be able to understand such declarations.

  The standard library is used throughout and is summarized in an appendix. Some of the examples and exercises indicate how some standard library functions might be written in C.

  As the authors say, "C has proven to be an extremely effective and expressive language for a wide variety of programming applications." This book is an excellent learning source and reference on C.
  
  

• Condensed Cream-Of-C Soup
  By A3E4XWJ751U700 on 2002-02-20
  About 5 years into my programming career, I was mildly interested in learning C, so I picked up this book. At the time, I was deterred - it was very brief, terse, and confusing, so I put it back down again.

  But now, years later, with many more languages under my belt, I find myself again drawn to C. So I picked up this book again (2nd edition), and finally, I see the light! It is a wonderful book, I agree with all the glowing comments people have written about it, BUT! It is a book written by a computer programmer, for other computer programmers, not a book written by a teacher for a beginning student.

  C is alive and well, and still in use today - it lives "at the core" of most popular languages. You can see its influence on C++, JavaScript, even Visual Basic. If you are ready for it, reading and working through the examples in this book will provide you with a solid base for understanding an amazing variety of 'newer' programming languages.

  You have to work through the examples, though. If you 'just read' this book, you'll comprehend and retain close to '\0' (null) of the information presented. It's only by going through the examples, that you really nail the subject matter. Yeah, I know, some of these examples are tough - but they're also real-life, and typical of routines every programmer writes and uses. I myself sweated blood over exercise 3-3, but hours later when I was done, the satisfaction of comparing my answer favorably to others was worth it. :-)

  I have the C For Dummies books 1 and 2, and after going through them, I was still a Visual Basic programmer. ;-D If you already are a computer programmer, and want to obtain serious knowledge in C without wasting your valuable time, learn from this book.
  
  

• Accept no substitutes
  By AVELCWFSK9R2G on 2001-04-25
  Boy, does this book ever take me back. The first edition of this book was the first book about computers I had ever read. I had an Apple IIe, a C development environment (on 6 floppy disks, which had to be swapped in and out while building), and was trying to teach myself to program. I mostly understood what I was reading - until I got to the section about pointers, which I found incomprehensible. I just couldn't figure it out, until I was reading another book about the Apple II, which explained how the video system worked - then I got the idea that if I took a pointer and set it to video buffer, I could change what was displayed on the screen. Voila, it worked, and I was started on a profession that lasted to this day.

  I still have that first edition, and years later, in 1988, when the second edition was published, I bought that. Well, there hasn't been a third edition, nor has one been needed. C is essentially a finished product. It does what it was made to do, which was to fill a role that didn't exist at the time of its creation, a language that could be used for both systems and applications programming. At that time assembly language was used for systems programming, and languages like COBOL, FORTRAN, or Pascal were used for applications programming. C could be used for both, and the rift between systems programming languages and applications programming languages was healed, at least until recently (applications programming has largely migrated to C++, while systems programming is still largely done in C).

  If you want to do systems programming, you just need to learn C. But what if you want to do applications programming? Is it still worth your while to learn C? Well, yes. Here are some reasons why: First, C++ (and Java too, for that matter) are derived from C and are easier to learn once you know C - in fact, C++ is essentially a superset of C, to learn C++ you need to learn pretty much all of C anyway. Second, there are still a lot of C programs around, it is handy to be able to work on them should the need arise. Third, programming examples pretty much everywhere are routinely written in C. Fourth, C is just a neat language in its own right in which to write code; it is small and easy to learn, lends itself to small, fast code, and is available in almost every development environment.

  So, if you are going to learn C, should you get this book?

  For the first edition, the answer was easy because the book at that time not only taught people to program the language, it was the authoritative definition of the language - you would have been foolish to attempt to learn the language without it.

  For this edition, that is not necessarily true - in fact, the book cover now refers to "ANSI C", as ANSI has taken over defining the language standard, which the first edition of this book had formerly filled. In one sense, "K & R", as it has been known through the years, is now just another book about C. But in another sense, this book still is C - you can put the first edition and this one side by side (I have both before me now - the first edition is battered and worn, but otherwise very like the second), and be amazed at how similar the two are. Not many changes were made to the language definition between the two editions (all of them good ones), so there was little need to rewrite because of content changes. Most of the changes were for clarity - the chapter on pointers, which gave me so much trouble so many years ago, was the only one completely re-done for the second edition and is much the better for it.

  So what does this book have that other C programming books do not? Authority. History. Community. The creator of the language wrote this book. For over two decades programmers have learned the language from this book. This is the book that you are more likely to share with other programers than any other. In sum, if you are interested in learning C programming, it should be an easy decision to go ahead and get this book.
  
  

• High Price + Poor Quality Reproduction = Bad Value
  By A3EFW43YPB5M4E on 2005-01-22
  I looked at this book in the store, and I have to say that I was very turned off by the poor quality of reproduction. Considering the outrageous price tag, you'd think they could spend some money on decent typesetting. It looks like someone took the first edition and slapped it on an old, fuzzy photocopier. It may be a classic, but that's no excuse for shoddy workmanship. I would get a headache trying to read this whole book, so I will vote with my dollars and find some other way to learn C. If I'm going to put up with strained eyeballs, there are plenty of tutorials I can look at online for free.
  
  
• expired
  By AUM7V9YQHRLHV on 2005-01-26
  No offense intended - but this is for the old version of ANSI C (known after the name of this book!) and does not cover the new 1999 ISO standard and there have been significant changes to this language. Go with something newer.
  
  
• Learning C the hard way
  By A34KW7LG1FSNK6 on 2004-09-18
  I originally bought "The C Programming Language" because I quickly needed to acquire skills in C programming.
  
  After working with this book off and on over a period of 4-5 years I have mixed feelings about its usefuleness
  either as a tutorial or as a work of reference.
  
  The book lacks structure and organization. After reading it cover to cover the general impression is more of a
  compendium of individual papers on various aspects of the C language and its context rather than a real "book". At
  a different level this is also reflected in the authors' tendency to alternate the trite and obscure with the
  fundamental, making it unnecessarily difficult for the reader to recognize at a glance what is really important.
  
  The samples of code are generally interesting and they usually exemplify sound programming techniques but they are
  commented in such a cryptic manner, that a gentleman called Steve Summit who teaches the C language professionally
  using K&R's the C Language as a framework has published his personal notes online in order to complement the book
  and clarify its numerous obscurities.
  
  One of the problems with C is the confusing syntax of its declarations. I expected the book to provide a clear and
  thorough discussion of one of the major hurdles on your way to acquiring C- read/write fluency. With the exception
  of a few lines on using typedef's the book altogether avoids the subject.
  
  Perhaps another reason why this book can be confusing at times is that it cannot quite decide whether it is about
  the C language or about C programming, continually mixing the two approaches and thus making it difficult to use -
  both as a tutorial and as a reference.
  
  Some fifty pages near the end of the book are taken up by a "Reference Manual" presenting what amounts to a formal
  grammar of the language. This standalone document is mostly unrelated to the rest of the book. My guess is that
  not one programmer in a million would ever refer to this text. So what's it for? Add a little bulk to this very
  slim volume, maybe?
  
  Arguably the fact that K&R "invented" C guarantees the quality of the book.. Maybe, although a gift for language
  design does not automatically make you a great writer or teacher.. And, since no one is ever likely to incriminate
  themselves the book has a marked tendency to gloss over the weaknesses and traps of the language rather than
  clearly warn the student about them.
  
  A bit strange that solutions to the exercises are not provided. Obviously K&R had more important things to do
  than waste more time on this project.
  
  If I had to start over & learn C programming I would probably look for a good online tutorial to quickly learn
  basic C syntax and spend my money on W. Richard Stevens's "Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment". I'm
  pretty sure this would get me up to speed a lot faster than working with this book.
  
  Once you realize that working with a programming language is also about integrating a culture you will come to
  think that you need this book after all.. Generations of C programmers have learned from it and as a result it
  has pretty much shaped the face of C programming.. This may be one reason why you will eventually want to buy
  "The C Programming Language".
  
  
• Great Reference Book, Beginners Look Elsewhere
  By A3GO4IQ2FS2RTE on 2002-10-31
  "The C Programming Language" is NOT a book for beginning programmers, or for those very new to C who wish to learn gradually. It is not much of a tutorial. It's written for either very experienced programmers coming from other languages, or for those who know the basics of C and need a reference book. The descriptions and examples are terse, and the learning curve is steep. Once you are comfortable programming in C, however, this is the one book you want next to you (and it will likely be the ONLY reference book you will ever need for straight ANSI C). Since it was written by the original authors of the C language, it's hard to imagine anyone being more authoritative on the subject, and although there's little hand-holding, it is well-written and pleasant enough to read through cover-to-cover. When you're ready to really get your hands dirty, do not hesitate to order this book.
  
  
• Excellent Reference Book with Terse Examples.
  By on 2003-04-24
  This is the one and only book to have on the C programming language, written by the original developers of the language. It covers all of the syntactic and semantic issues of the language. Any question regarding C can be answered here and can be located quickly thanks to its good index. I am impressed by the completeness of this text, it includes very useful information such as: precedence and associativity rules, bit-wise operators, the preprocessor, control structures, pointers, the standard C library, I/O, interaction with the UNIX operating system, and a complete language specification. The list goes on!
  
  For nearly every feature of the language, there are very useful exercises that will either familiarize the reader with the feature or clarify the reader's previous knowledge. Although many of the examples are targeted towards intermediate or advanced programmers, beginning programmers should be able to get a lot out of many of the examples.
  
  I have purchased many 1000+ page books on different languages including C and have found that many are incomplete and spend numerous pages on topics that can be stated in one or two paragraphs. This book in around 250 pages covers everything you need to know about the C programming language and I would highly recommend getting a copy for your own library.
  
  
• Great if dense reference book
  By A2FLRXMSBTGNG8 on 1999-12-23
  For experienced programmers, this book provides the day to day reference information that keeps businesses afloat. This is not a book from which to learn C due to the lack of examples and thorough explanation. A great compromise book is Kelly and Pohls "A Book On C" which maintains the reference like compact-ness (no 1000 page manual here) while offering enough examples and explanations to effectively assist the novice programmer. Kelly and Pohl get 5 stars.
  
  
• This is _the_ C book
  By A4FVTA16MR7OZ on 1999-12-27
  This book is the absolute best book on C (...on anything?) that I have ever read. This book is extremely to the point and does a good job of telling you what you need to know. Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie did a supurb job on this one. (In case you didn't know Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson developed UNIX. Brian Kerninghan and Dennis Ritche developed C so these guys have been around) I can say with absolute honesty that this is the best C book that has ever graced my bookshelf.
  
  
• The C Programming Bible
  By A211YJ95SCOUO6 on 2000-07-16
  As many of the other reviews, I praise this book. This book claim it is not intended for novices, something many other reviewers have confirmed. But I think that is underestimating novices. From knowing very little about programming (read .bat files), I became quite fluent in C by just reading this book. It give a complete picture of the C language, ande the code examples are (imho) clear, concise and the style is good. One thing I like is that many of the examples are complete prgrams, something I found useful when trying to understand the code. This is THE resource for learning C programming. Plus, with it's good index and refernce manual, It is allso a convenient book to keep on the desk for reference. After all this bragging, here's the downside: This book is not meant for "idiots", as C programming language is not for "idiots". You need some ability to think structured and logical. Anyone who have trouble writing simple shell-scripts etc. should opt for a "for dummies" type of book. At last, please remember that this is a subjetive review, based on MY needs and MY experiences, and you may not agree with me.
  
  
• Not for new programers...
  By on 1999-05-20
  The book is not a good book if: a) you are a begginer and b) if you want a more modern approach to programming. The book was written when storage was expensive, hence it takes all the short cuts to save storage. This approach comes with a price. The code is not clear (and not documented well) especially if one is not familiar with C. For an excellent C book (begginers and experienced) first take a look at "Practical C Programming" from O'reilly.
  
  
• Not for the beginner
  By on 2003-06-24
  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.
  
  
• It's What A Language Book for Programmers Should Be
  By on 2002-04-21
  Just a review or two below this one, you'll see a short review that says "By Programmers, For Programmers". This review is absolutely on the nose.

  I've ALSO been programming for 20+ years, everything from bit-slice microcode to ASP on web pages. I write C for a living, every day of my life, and have been doing so for about 10 years. I learned C by reading other code in C, and from this book. This is the ONLY book that actually sits on my desk and gets used (OK, so I may have been writing C for 10 years but I'm still a lousy C programmer, OK?).

  This book is clear, to the point, and authoritative. It's not in the least annoying. It doesn't try to be "funny". It is not over-burdened with stupid "here's what programming is" sorts of tutorial information. It's got a very good index.

  What more could a professional developer need?
  
  

• Excellent
  By on 2000-01-02
  How can you go wrong with a book by the person who wrote C? This book is amazing. It is only 274 pages but the text and the examples are clear and concise. They explain everything you need to know. This book is the ultimate reference and if you're willing to work hard it also makes an outstanding tutorial as well.
  
  
• Simple, concise and Excellent
  By A2XTGF1R7181EQ on 2005-05-07
  A MUST for beginners in programming. For those coming from C++ background and want to learn low level concepts in C, I recommend quick visit to Chapter 7-8 and Appendix. This is not a book for data structures or algorithms. So you will not find much on those topics though you will see simple concepts here and there. For people exposed to programming this is a simple one day reading material to revisit basic C.
  
  Chapter 1 (Tutorial Introduction) - Get started approach for beginners!
  
  Chapter 2 (Types, Operators and Expressions) - Bitwise operators in 2.9 are good to visit.
  
  Chapter 3 (Control Flow) - Very simple chapter.
  
  Chapter 4 (Functions and Program Structure) - Good information here. C preprocessor details in 4.11 are good.
  
  Chapter 5 (Pointers and Arrays) - Especially good for pointers and address arithmetic.
  
  Chapter 6 (Structures) - Good exposure to basic C structures. Limitations of C compared to object oriented approach from C++ become obvious in this chapter.
  
  Chapter 7 and 8 (I/O and UNIX Sytem Interface) - Those who do not have an OS background should read this chapter. You could see how concepts like system calls are abstracted and exposed through standard C functions. Simple and elegant starting point for any low level programming.
  
  Appendix A and B - Good details on C standards. Also lot of standard C library functions are explained in good detail here. Very good comprehensive reference point.
  
  
• Out of date
  By A1OM80KZ7VFQRH on 2005-08-20
  I'm disappointed that so many people recommend K&R. This text is both difficult to read and out-of-date.
  
  Rather, I recommend "C: A Reference Manual" Fifth Edition (Harbison & Steele). It's up-to-date and does a much better job of explaining all aspects of the C language. Still not a learning text, but a very solid reference.
  
  
• fond memories
  By on 2000-02-03
  When I was trying to learn C (almost 20 years ago), I tried to read this book. It was too hard, so I turned to other books. But a year or so later I came back and found this one of the most enjoyable computer books to read of all that I've encountered. There's lot of great computer science here, written in the best programming style. A difficult, but rewarding, classic!
  
  
• The Only Essential C Book
  By A3TIJC6L8USJ6Q on 2001-03-14
  The first time software development ever really scared me was working through the exercises in this book on my old XT clone. I discovered that I "thought" in C already. The language packaged the constructs which I had been translating into FORTRAN at work.

  I already knew Pascal, FORTRAN, BASIC, and assembler, so I wasn't a virgin programmer. But The C Programming Language turned my life around--it handed me a language which naturally mapped to the way I thought through programming problems. Working the exercises in this book not only taught me the C language, but it also tightened up my programming style.

  The book begins in a non-threatening manner, and walks the reader through the basics of software creation in C. From the simple, classic "hello world" program to useful utilities, this book makes software creation seem easy. It teaches not only the C language, but also the discipline of writing quality code.
  
  

• Great, not for new comers though
  By on 2004-07-14
  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.
  
  
• Should By On Every C Programmer's Bookself
  By A1YXZ4DLV0P8BN on 2005-04-04
  This book was written by the inventers of the C programming language. Who better to teach/explain it?
  
  This book is all killer, no filler. There are no jokes, blab, or opinions to take up space. If you don't read, understand, and implement the lesson you're on, don't expect to understand the next lesson. As a beginner, I used this book to learn C... now as a profesional, I still use this book when I need a quick reference.
  
  After I got this book, I threw out all my "learn C in 21 day/24 hours/whatever" books since they taught less in 200 than this book taught in it's first 3 chapters.
  
  
  
  
• C is K&R!
  By A2VGE0GJOBDU1J on 2005-04-07
  When I started studying C programming this little book (compared to other "bibles") was the only reference I had. Well, if you really want to know how to program in C this IS the BOOK.
  No "super-duper ANSI-POSIX-ISO standard lists of functions" (you can simply find them with the man pages or on the net, and believe me, it's a snap), just pure C programming problems and techniques: types, casting, pointers, memory management, character management, binary operators, macros, etc... just the real basics of what makes a good programmer. Later, if you're interested, you'll have the opportunity to use advanced super-ISO functions that do everything. But then, you'll know what you're doing and why.
  The key point is: with K&R you are given the knowledge of C programming, not the recipe for doing some C programming.
  
  
• Not for beginners
  By on 1999-09-29
  I honestly do not understand the rave reviews. This book is only good for someone who has been programming before and just needs a quick reference. If you understand this book from beginning to end and are able to do all the problems then you are a darn good programmer and maybe that is its intent. It does state that this book is not for beginners and that access to a more knowledgeable colleague will help. Great advice. I only would recommend this book if you have been programming for a while in another language and want to revisit C. Do not purchase this book if you new to programming nor should this book be used as the main book for an introductory C class.
  
  
• Concise, but too complicated for learning C
  By A3DPT2LN5ICDFB on 1998-05-21
  If you already know C, read this book. The examples are so challenging, it will be a test of your skill to comprehend them. If you want to learned the language, try another text. At least read a "Dummies" first.
  
  
• Recommend for learning C or getting a better understanding
  By A2U7ZWJONZ2MST on 2000-10-13
  Before ANSI C existed, this book was the standard definition of the C language. The authors, Kernighan and Ritchie, are the K and the R in "K & R C". This edition of the book has been updated to reflect changes made to the C language by the ANSI committee. The second half of the book contains a reference section with the complete ANSI definition of the C language and libraries. In addition to being the authority on the subject of the C language, this book is also a great learning guide. The first section contains an introduction to the C language and tutorials. When I was learning C, I was coming from a BASIC background and had a very hard time understanding pointers. Of the many C books I read, this was that first one that really explained everything clearly. Many of the examples and tutorials involve writing your own version of standard library function such as strlen(). This is a great way to learn to use the language and better understand the library at the same time. I highly recommend this book to anyone learning C or trying to get a better understanding of it.
  
  

• microsoft visual c++6.0"

• The C++ Programming Language: Special Edition (3rd Edition)
• C: A Reference Manual (5th Edition)
• Absolute Beginner's Guide to C (2nd Edition) (Other Sams)
• Unix Programming Environment (Prentice-Hall Software Series)
• Advanced Programming in the UNIX(R) Environment (2nd Edition) (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series)