Rating: 
Summary: Excellent!!!
Review:
I have read several beginners' books on C, including K&R's "The C Programming Language", and found Beginning C to be the best!
Beginning C is very easy to read, well organized and contains clear examples. If you really want to learn C without too much fuss, this is the book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!!!
Review:
I have read several beginners' books on C, including K&R's "The C Programming Language", and found Beginning C to be the best!
Beginning C is very easy to read, well organized and contains clear examples. If you really want to learn C without too much fuss, this is the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Great starting point!
Review: I am very new to programming. I've been toying around with computers since 1985, and only dabbled in BASIC. I went on to become a lawyer, so I was never formally trained in any programming languages. Within the last year I took it upon myself to learn HTML. I then thought about leraning Java 2. Along the way I wanted to learn the Palm OS to start programming on a small platform. To do that, I discovered (the hard way) that I should have a foundation in C.That is where Mr. Horton's book came in. Of all the books I looked at, his approach seemed most appealing to me (introduce a concept/function, show an example, explain the example STEP-BY-STEP, sprinkle in more concepts, build on examples with more examples, summarize). Mr. Horton succeeds in doing just this. While many of his examples are mathematically related (reason one for 4/5 stars), I found that I could follow along most of the time. It appeared to me that some of his sample code had a few misprints/errors (reason two for 4/5 stars), but at least he taught me well enough to recognize that! Overall, this is a great introduction to the language. The layout of the book helps the reader to understand. It is not overwhelming. My only other gripe (reason three for 4/5 stars) is that there were times I wished Mr. Horton had given more detail to certain concepts. Just as simple example: all statements in C appear to need a ";" to end them. I only know this because the author points out several times that the ";" is required, but without explaining why. By reasoned deduction I have realized why, but it would have been nice to know that bit of important information. Clearly, any programming language is difficult to learn for a "newbie". But if you are reasonably intelligent, you should have no problem, and this book certainly helps.
Rating:
Summary: Great starting point!
Review: I am very new to programming. I've been toying around with computers since 1985, and only dabbled in BASIC. I went on to become a lawyer, so I was never formally trained in any programming languages. Within the last year I took it upon myself to learn HTML. I then thought about leraning Java 2. Along the way I wanted to learn the Palm OS to start programming on a small platform. To do that, I discovered (the hard way) that I should have a foundation in C. That is where Mr. Horton's book came in. Of all the books I looked at, his approach seemed most appealing to me (introduce a concept/function, show an example, explain the example STEP-BY-STEP, sprinkle in more concepts, build on examples with more examples, summarize). Mr. Horton succeeds in doing just this. While many of his examples are mathematically related (reason one for 4/5 stars), I found that I could follow along most of the time. It appeared to me that some of his sample code had a few misprints/errors (reason two for 4/5 stars), but at least he taught me well enough to recognize that! Overall, this is a great introduction to the language. The layout of the book helps the reader to understand. It is not overwhelming. My only other gripe (reason three for 4/5 stars) is that there were times I wished Mr. Horton had given more detail to certain concepts. Just as simple example: all statements in C appear to need a ";" to end them. I only know this because the author points out several times that the ";" is required, but without explaining why. By reasoned deduction I have realized why, but it would have been nice to know that bit of important information. Clearly, any programming language is difficult to learn for a "newbie". But if you are reasonably intelligent, you should have no problem, and this book certainly helps.
Rating:
Summary: Great introductory C programming guide.
Review: I found this book a great teaching guide from which to base my programming knowledge. It gives a clear explanation of everything from the very basics of the language to the more complex. By the author doing so, he provides the reader with everything needed to pursue an in depth knowledge of C. I highly recommend this book to people beginning to learn the C syntax.
Rating:
Summary: Great introductory C programming guide.
Review: I've taught C classes using this as the textbook and find the students generally receptive to the book. As a previous reviewer mentioned some of the things the author does (such as define main with a void return type) are not correct, and he picks up the pace of coverage significantly in difficult areas such as pointers. If you do buy this book, buy a good reference book such as "The C Programming Language" by Kernighan and Ritchie to go with it. Many library functions are not well documented in the Horton book. If you know nothing about C and want to pick it up on your own, this book is one of the best I've seen at making it approachable. Its few errors are just (relatively) minor annoyances.
Rating: 
Summary: Generally a good beginning text
Review: I've taught C classes using this as the textbook and find the students generally receptive to the book. As a previous reviewer mentioned some of the things the author does (such as define main with a void return type) are not correct, and he picks up the pace of coverage significantly in difficult areas such as pointers. If you do buy this book, buy a good reference book such as "The C Programming Language" by Kernighan and Ritchie to go with it. Many library functions are not well documented in the Horton book. If you know nothing about C and want to pick it up on your own, this book is one of the best I've seen at making it approachable. Its few errors are just (relatively) minor annoyances.
Rating:
Summary: Great book if you learn by examples!
Review: Ivor Horton is a great writer. A friend of mine who is a guru in Unix suggested this book to me. If you are like me, learning best by studying examples, this book is a must! I had no idea what C language was all about. After finishing with chapter 1 I had a clear idea what the structure of C language is and what I should expect to see in the rest of the book. The examples are great if you work them out (can not learn otherwise). What I like the best is that the examples are in bold letters so that they stand out from the rest of the text. It is easier for the reader to visually keep things in order. Do I make sense? This book makes you want to read more and more!!!
Rating: 
Summary: good for learning major concepts of C language, needs work
Review: Mr. Horton does a fine job of providing numerous code examples throughout his book, and examples files are available from the Wrox Web site. Although the book is designed for individuals who do not have any programming experience, there are a few complex subjects that he tends to gloss over a bit (such as pointers). After leading students into the language slowly during the first few chapters, the book suddenly begins to accelerate and skips over steps in getting to certain conclusions. It would be helpful to have illustrations in some areas (there are few except for the code examples), such as when pointers are discussed (e.g., memory addresses, indirect addressing). Diehard ANSI standard programmers would probably disagree with his definition of the main procedure as void, and there is no adequate explanation of this presentation.
Rating:
Summary: Fills a gap in the market
Review: Notice something strange in the computer section of bookstores? Plenty of books on such languages as Java, C++, C# and Visual Basic. But try finding a book on plain old C. Perhaps there is an issue of Kernighan and Ritchie. But, quite possibly, there is no C book at all. But a need for C still exists. Most of the unix variants, and linux, are coded in C, with perhaps a C++ overlayer. And on Microsoft machines, a vast body of C code also exists, for such things as device drivers, for example. K&R is the definitive text for C, but awkward for users new to any programming. Its terseness and lack of many examples make it so. Which is why it is nice to see a new edition of Horton's book. It deliberately eschews the conciseness of K&R. Instead, it has extensive discussions of every feature of C. Aimed squarely at a newbie. Horton is generous with code examples, many of which are entire (small) programs. Naturally these days, the code can be downloaded from the publisher. Horton even discusses what may be fairly advanced stuff for a beginner. Like structuring data via the struct command. What this means, though, is that the book can be used as a complete text for the language. As an important practical matter, you do not need to understand all, or even most, of the book, to start coding. The emphasis from the first chapter is on writing code, even with only partial knowledge of C. Purely as a conjecture, it may be astute planning on the part of Hortan and his publisher to come out with this edition. A real gap seems to have opened up in the market over C books. This might fill it.
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