Rating: 
Summary: Interesting and diverse topics; good C advice
Review: First of all, the book gets four stars instead of five because of the horrible, horrible editing. Typographic errors abound, including inside programs, where the formatting is often not what the author intended (like the many instances of spaces *inside* the decrement operator); at least one figure is chopped off, and some tables are incorrectly formatted too. The authors don't share the same coding style, and the editor fails to make the programs look consistent across the book. Generally, I found SAMS books lacking in both content and presentation, but this is an exception, as the content is great. Shame on you, SAMS, for making a mess of the presentation.That said, it is a very good book; it covers many interesting topics to varying depths, but always deep enough to be useful, and certainly impressively deep considering the breadth and variety of the topics. The strongest point of the book is the advice about how C programs ought to be written, and the special care given to the Standard. As one of my fellow reviewers demonstrates, there are people in need of that advice, although not all of them are prepared to accept it (he gave the book a single star). An unusual number of authors contributed to this book, which is a Good Thing, as it means that each chapter was written by someone who was very familiar with the topic, rather than by a sigle person who knew what he was talking about, but maybe didn't have lots of actual experience in that particular area. The main author did a good job on keeping the book coherent (I'd usually assign the praise to the editor, but judging by the awful mess they made in other respects, I suspect it was the author's work, not the editor's), yet the chapters make sense on their own. Be sure though to read Part I eventually, it teaches you some good habits, in the likely case you don't already have them all. Subtle humour (yes, with a 'u' -- Richard Heathfield is British) makes the read entertaining, too; while other technical books are bone-dry or unwisely make forced attempts at being funny, this one seems to strike the right balance.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and diverse topics; good C advice
Review: First of all, the book gets four stars instead of five because of the horrible, horrible editing. Typographic errors abound, including inside programs, where the formatting is often not what the author intended (like the many instances of spaces *inside* the decrement operator); at least one figure is chopped off, and some tables are incorrectly formatted too. The authors don't share the same coding style, and the editor fails to make the programs look consistent across the book. Generally, I found SAMS books lacking in both content and presentation, but this is an exception, as the content is great. Shame on you, SAMS, for making a mess of the presentation. That said, it is a very good book; it covers many interesting topics to varying depths, but always deep enough to be useful, and certainly impressively deep considering the breadth and variety of the topics. The strongest point of the book is the advice about how C programs ought to be written, and the special care given to the Standard. As one of my fellow reviewers demonstrates, there are people in need of that advice, although not all of them are prepared to accept it (he gave the book a single star). An unusual number of authors contributed to this book, which is a Good Thing, as it means that each chapter was written by someone who was very familiar with the topic, rather than by a sigle person who knew what he was talking about, but maybe didn't have lots of actual experience in that particular area. The main author did a good job on keeping the book coherent (I'd usually assign the praise to the editor, but judging by the awful mess they made in other respects, I suspect it was the author's work, not the editor's), yet the chapters make sense on their own. Be sure though to read Part I eventually, it teaches you some good habits, in the likely case you don't already have them all. Subtle humour (yes, with a 'u' -- Richard Heathfield is British) makes the read entertaining, too; while other technical books are bone-dry or unwisely make forced attempts at being funny, this one seems to strike the right balance.
Rating: 
Summary: This ain't a C++ book
Review: Great book, covers a wide range of topics. Unfortunatley it needs a larger title informing people that this is a C book not a C++ book. If you don't know the difference send the book back as it's not gonna help.
Rating:
Summary: This ain't a C++ book
Review: Great book, covers a wide range of topics. Unfortunatley it needs a larger title informing people that this is a C book not a C++ book. If you don't know the difference send the book back as it's not gonna help.
Rating: 
Summary: Would not recommend it.
Review: I found this book to be very poorly written and unsatisfactory. It contained lots of bad algorithms and poor coding. Much of the code was unusable and the methods explained were very simple. I could have done without it to be honest. Avoid this book if you want to learn how to program properly
Rating:
Summary: The must have C programming book
Review: If you've programmed in C, you must read this book. The chapters can be read seperately, which means that you can attack them at a time that suits you. I found the part about Genetic Algorithms particular interesting.I'm doing a course in AI now and this has helped quite a bit.
Rating:
Summary: Like an orange...
Review: Im not an advaced programmer, but reading some parts... I learned a lot of good things. I couldnt describe them here, but i will implement them on the future projects ahead. Things that I think are essential to the industry grade programmer and to becoming one.
The material was delivered clearly, not necessarily simple... but it is clear. The book is worth all my hard saved money... and im glad to have it, and its fun to read too...
Rating:
Summary: Does not live up to its name
Review: This book didn't teach me any new or exciting aspects of the C language. The title suggests that this book is going to let the dog of the leash and go wild with the C language but no. The content focuses on the latest C9X standards alot and displays some examples of nice algorithms that have been thought up before by someone else. Great is your a 'strictly by the rules' programmer, but its not for me. There are many good things that can be done in C programming which are non compliant with the C9X standards, particularly inter-system processes, and these are the kind of things I would like to see published in a book of this sort.? It's a pretty basic book which whines on about standards too much and nothing like the title makes out. It focuses on what you can or can't do within the rules of the C9X standards and its quite amusing that the title contradicts the contents of the book. Another one for the charity shop.
Rating:
Summary: An Exceptional Book
Review: This is an absolutely exceptional book that provides the reader with a understanding in a vast number of areas of advanced C programming. Each chapter can be read as a single entity and thus ensures that the reader can just pick out a chapter of interest without having to read the preceeding chapters. This book is a must for any intermediate C programmer who is looking to improve their C programming skills quickly to an advanced level.
Rating:
Summary: An Exceptional Book
Review: This is an absolutely exceptional book that provides the reader with a understanding in a vast number of areas of advanced C programming. Each chapter can be read as a single entity and thus ensures that the reader can just pick out a chapter of interest without having to read the preceeding chapters. This book is a must for any intermediate C programmer who is looking to improve their C programming skills quickly to an advanced level.
|
