C Programming Language (2nd Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Cannot really add much
Review: This book is really a classic. The brevity of the text, reflects just how simple the language actually is. Do not get me wrong C programming can be difficult, but name any new language where you can almost store all of it's basic constructs inside your head. Anyway this book is a great place to begin with std C.

Rating:
Summary: The Best C Reference
Review: I found this book in 1995 when I was working on Windows Programming in Ada. I had no C experience or Windows experience. I got a copy of Petzold and the C Programming Language. I cannot say that I mastered C or Windows programming, but without Kernighan and Ritchie as a guide, I would have been dead in the water. This book pulls me through problems time and time again when I deal with C. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in C.

Rating:
Summary: Still the Best
Review: Face facts: no matter how many programs you've written, regardless of your years of experience, you can't really call yourself a programmer until you've learned "C". Furthermore, you can't say you've learned "C" until you've read this book.
Alas, the most recent version is depressingly more [costly] and bloated than the original. Nevertheless it is still the reference of choice for all true "C" aficiandos.
Please, DON'T cater to your innate laziness and fear of the
unknown. Instead, do your mind a favor: challenge it.
Kernighan and Ritchie (only the uninitiated refer to it by its
title) is dense, fast, complete, and full of tough problems to solve. There's a minimum of chat and humor (modern authors take note), instead the authors profess their admiration for the intricacies of the language.

Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: The Classic... and still the best..!!!
Review: Concise ..and to the point explanation of the C programming language.
K and R explain the language syntax and semantics in a succinct manner, that makes the reader understand C in record time.
This book serves as an invaluable reference on my bookshelf.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic.
Review: Not a book for beginners trying to acquaint themselves with the language, but a tremendous reference book for those who are moving to C from another programming language or who want to fully exploit the raw potential of this language. Look at the shelf of any C programmer. You'll invariably see one or another edition of this book.

Rating:
Summary: Simply the best
Review: This is the best book available for C. It covers the ANSI C 1989 standard. I consider it to be comprehensible to intermediate level C programmers, so my opinion is that if you want to understand completely what you read you must have some C background. Of course if you have that background, read the book and see the Light.

Rating:
Summary: "Hello, world"
Review: Some people refer to this as the "c" bible

This book is not cluttered with C++ forcing you to figure out what part is "c".

You may think that this book is not for beginners. However it is actually more of a combination of dictionary and ["The Elements of Style" ISBN: 020530902X] for the "c" language

This does of course include ANSI c, which is transportable to all platforms. It also states that," Since the ANSI c library is in many cases modeled on Unix facilities, this could may help your understanding of the library as well."

This book should be used as a prerequisite to c communications books.

Rating:
Summary: A rarity: Succinct and Thorough
Review: I'm new to procedural programming. I bought this book as a reference for the ANSI C language, so that I could look up various rules or constructs that might otherwise be described less thoughtfully in the various how-to books that are available for C Programming. I was not disappointed in the least.

My advice to those learning C as their first programming language is to get either C for Dummies (Vol 1 & 2 are sold together on this site) or Learning to Program in C by Deitel and Deitel. The latter will certainly build your skills more, but the former makes it easier to get started and keep an interest through the first few chapters (usually the most critical ones when working with books like these). Then you can use this book as a cross-reference when something doesn't make sense to you.

Even so, if I could learn from only one book, it would be this one without a doubt. It's relatively short length is one of its great strengths. Nowhere are you buried in obscure references or cryptic examples. It's all very clearly put together for the reader. No wonder it's hard to find used copies in good condition!

Rating:
Summary: This is a fantastic book
Review: I do not normally review books on Amazon but I could not keep my opinion to myself in this case. This is not just a great programming book, it is probably the best technical book ever written period. This is like reading the best by Hemingway, spare but complete. This is the way books should be written in general.