Total Page : 228
Publisher : Prentice Hall
Publication Date : 1978 02 22
>> the C owner s manual
This is a great reference as well as an in depth look into the standard library
>> Book by the the creator
One of the first books on the C language by Brian Kernighan
This book was translated to many languages and there are several editions before and after this one with improvements and extras A book written for advanced programmers taking them to the expert level smoothly
In the beginning of the computer evolutionary era there were many critical issues that was resolved by standardizing the computer system language attachments i/o s etc That is why you see the ANSI C in the book which relates to American standard input
This book is of 8 chapters covering the C programming structure and ending by relating all of that to UNIX one of the main computer operating system back then made by professionals to be used by professionals a multi user multi process OS
The book has a very helpful references for programmers in the appendix and can be used as a guide for advance users
>> Extremely well written
Let me start off by saying that I m not a novice programmer so this review will be biased given that fact alone That said this book was an eye opener on so many levels One thing that is NEVER touched upon by other C programming books is project management and modularization Chapter 4 of this book had a great discussion on techniques to organize code This is not a big deal for the hobbyist but for us programmers in industry dealing with large embedded projects it is E g try to avoid extern variables publish only what is needed to header files etc
Outside of that K R avoids the pitfall of discussing every single point they only discuss what is necessary to write modular system independent and well organized code This book also discusses the history of parts of the language and what the intent was when writing the language This is far more important than many people think because now you re tapping into years of rich programming experience at Bell labs where K R worked
Lastly this book CAN be conquered by novice programmers but they will have to read this book slowly and hang on every word This isn t too daunting because excluding the reference we re looking at 189 pages of text Not all of the problems need be worked to gain full understanding of this book Some problems are trivial while others are so broad that the answers border on becoming subjective Either way they should all be attempted and thought about A solution manual is worth investing in but is not necessary If you decide to embark on the journey through this book devote AT LEAST a month to it Reading slowly and actively thinking about what s going on will reward you with a lifetime of C programming knowledge
