Rating: 
Summary: Does its job... but no more
Review: I am a seasoned VB programmer who was thinking of learning some other, more low level languages for my personal interest. I purchased this book since I wanted to quickly get an introduction to C before exploring it more thouroughly. I am about halfway through this book and am quite pleased. It clearly explains the concepts covered and has very demonstrative examples. I found the excercises at the end to be a little too easy unfortunatly. The answers were generally only 10-20 lines long. They each seemed to cover one point and one point only. This is what I believe is the main problem with the book. It does not tie concepts together very well.On the whole a good book, teaches the syntax but much more is needed to gain more than a rudamentary understanding of the language.
Rating: 
Summary: Not too good on the 'WHY' of C programming
Review: I am only a beginner programmer, and found that the book was pretty easy to follow. I was however, a bit disappointed by the fact that the author never really explained very well WHY you use these valuable functions, pointers, arrays, etc. Also, I thought that the exercises at the back of each chapter tended to throw you in the deep end towards the end of the book. I found I was constantly refering to the answers in the back of the book to figure everything out, which doesn't build your confidence much! I think they would have been better having more exercises in each chapter to complete, starting off very simply and then getting harder in order for you to really grasp the concepts. On the plus side though, the book is short and concise and allows you to whiz through the C language. Then you can move on more quickly to fry bigger fish - C++ and windows programming!
Rating: 
Summary: didn't get past the introduction
Review: I bought this book a few days ago. started reading the intro, noticed a vivid mistake in an example of what the icons were. the author was describing them and accidently reversed two that were being described. they're only icons, but the fact that such an obvious and easily avoidable mistake can show up before page one makes me lose confidence in the authority of the book. another problem I had with was the first C program the book guides you through. it's called "02L01.c," but it doesn't explain why. why such a complicated name? why not "first.c"? maybe that's a personal pet peeve irreverent to you, but it doesn't make sense to create something like that and not explain its origin. I returned the book and bought "Absolute Beginner's Guide to C" by Greg M. Perry. though I haven't gotten far, it seems far less complex and ideal for the "absolute" beginner.
Rating:
Summary: Very bad book
Review: I bought this book a year ago and one thing I can say is it is very bad. I had done little programming before this, mostly just doing things in BASIC, and I saw this book in my local bookstore. So I bought it thinking it would help me to push on to a better system. This book might look good if you just look in the Overview, but let me tell you I have to say this is the worst book I have ever bought. You will get a basic understanding of the C programming language, but you will not be able to write anything more then printing text to the screen. If you do want to buy a book buy "The C programming language, 2nd edition." That book is the C bible.
Rating:
Summary: it is not a complete starter kit
Review: I bought this book because it marks "complete starter kit". However, the first problem for this book is that Mr. Zhang used Visual C++ version 1.5 as a C compiler. I can follow his instruction from his book using TC compiler from CD-ROM. Thus this book is not a "complete starter kit".
Rating:
Summary: Not that great
Review: I brought this book to learn c not maths!!! I was very disappointed with his pointers section. And the bitwise operators section is very vague. And to anyone that's setting out with programming don't learn c it's hard and not as powerful. Learn visual basic, visual c++ or JAVA. This bok only covers the basics too so you won't be able to make complex programs and it also doesnt have anything on writing windows programs in c so if you want windows programs dont buy this book!!! -KaMiKaRz
Rating:
Summary: Not for programming or math novices
Review: I found this book to be difficult to read, especially towards the middle. A major problem with this type of book is a failure to use real world examples. Novices who are not math oriented should read Gookin's books first, and try to build from there.
Rating:
Summary: A good start in programming basics for the |beginner|.
Review: I got this book free with the Borland compiler and read it concurrently with a second C programming book, "C By Discovery" by Foster. Tony Zhang went through the basics in a clear and easy to read manner. However, if you want an in depth intro to C programming, this book is not for you. Try Foster's book, instead. Also, if you have never used a compiler before, the Borland one is for you. It's point and click heaven. It even has an online book that is twice as long as Zhangs'.
Rating:
Summary: Vage, Uninformitive, Badly Writen
Review: I got this book thinking that I could learn c in 24 hours. Instead I got drastically frustrated with it, learned very little, and wound up getting a good book like Teach Yourself Borland C++ Builder in 21 days. Tony should have explained how pointers and references are used in the real world.
Rating: 
Summary: BOOK WAS NOT READY FOR PUBLISHING
Review: I have purchased this book with only the desire to learn the C language. What I got was a way to get lured into someone else's schemes of making either a quick buck or a quick fame (neither of which should work in this fashion). It does not serve SAMS reputation at all to have its name behind the undigested book material publishing. FIRST OF ALL, UNLIKE all the other reviews I have read or seen about Tony Zhang's book "SAMS Teach Yourself C in 24 hours" (ISBN# 0672310686) I have CONCRETE points of fault I found with this book and the logic behind it. Before deciding to pour out this criticism of this book I have tried every which way possible to reach either Mr.Zhang or MacMillan technical support by e-mail, regular mail and phone. Needless to say they all were UNRESPONSIVE. Zhang's e-mail is invalid, SAMS e-mail did not reply. I wanted to discuss with the author the glaring problems I encountered while going step-by-step through the his material. SAMS tech support (number is NOT toll-free and is another number you get after you call 317-581-4669) was INSULTING. No recorded voice remains after the call and ONE only assumes he or she is on hold because the line offers no sound to indicate that someone will be with you). Point#1: ALLOCATING MEMORY TEXT AND EXAMPLES. On page 260 (ch.17) author states an incorrect statement: "Because the malloc() function returns a VOID pointer, its type is automatically converted to the type of the pointer on the left side of an assignment operator." IT IS FALSE. It does not work with all the compilers (at least none of those I tested it with which are the included TC and the Visual C++ 4.2) and consequently it should have been phrased with the universally valid approach as the book by K&R "C Programming Language" shows on page 167 Section 7.8. Instead of Zhang's invalid or unexecutable code in his examples that follow such as the line 14 in listing 17.1, K&R show an example of the same function THAT DOES WORK because they use the casting operator:INT *IP; IP = (INT*) CALLOC(N, SIZEOF(INT)); THE KEY IS TO USE (INT*) TO CAST THE RETURN TYPE OF THE MALLOC(). Contrary to Zhang, compiler cannot assign INT to a void type, so it needs a (int*) type casting. Zhang should be more informed and read some of the classics of programming like K&R. I am personally offended and insulted by the treatment I received from SAMS and the deliberate lack of response from Mr.Zhang. I only wanted to contact them because I thought I was doing something incorrect and needed clarification, or if I were right I wanted them to recognize the error so that they do not repeat the same error in the future. They seal-off the reading public. There are other problems--but this malloc() problem that repeats with the other memory allocation function basically invalidates the whole Chapter 17 in his book and misleads the beginner programmers by taking them on the wrong track. Point#2: There are quite a few other examples after chapter 16 that DO NOT WORK AS PRESENTED IN THE BOOK. I.E. listing 18.3 (because of inherent error form ch.16), listing 18.5, listing 19.4 ("floating point formats not linked-abnormal termination-). Some examples in the book are useless with the provided TC compiler but work OK with Visual C++ (4.2). So Mr.Zhang should have done his examples on TC lite rather than on Visual C++ which is not fully compatible with the one his readers are set to use. Example: listing 9.7 is a case in point. It is UNFAIR to them. Some other review raised the point about Appendices (in PDF format you need Adobe Acrobat to read). I called MCMillan customer service and was told to use Appendices of the book loaded onto the accompanying CD WHICH IS WHERE THE SOLUTIONS ARE. Saving on paper for publishing is what it is. Answer to exercise 5 in ch.19 given in the solution Appendix is wrong because it is based on listing 19.7 referred to above. There are also some missing function declarations that make examples unexecutable. Overall, the book is good if one wants to learn how to incorporate ancient wisdom with modern computers (each chapter has a gorgeous selection of proverbs). Overall I feel I did not waste my money simply because the way the book is presented forced me to struggle harder to get to the bottom of problems. It feels good to know that you can troubleshoot on your own the material done by a "masters degree in physics and a [busybody] on solid-state lasers, programming, etc" such as Tony Zhang is stated to be. But had I known this ahead I would still not have bought it. It is not worth the money it costs to me. A good introductory book on C is a book like "Programming in C" by Stephen Kochan 2/88 (ISBN# 067248420x). It is HASSLE-FREE!
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