C Primer Plus (5th Edition)

Rating:
Summary: A for content, F for the lack of differences from the 4th
Review: In the fall of 2004, I used the fourth edition of "C Primer Plus" as the text for my class in introductory programming in C. Although I was not part of the decision to use it, I found it to be more than satisfactory. The explanations are detailed and the order of the coverage is appropriate, although like almost everyone else, I altered the order of presentation a bit. It covers what we commonly refer to as "plain vanilla C"; in other words programs run from a command line interface. The coverage is complete, everything that one would cover in any beginning course in C is present. The exercises and programming examples are generally well done, and the answers to the review questions are included.
In looking through the fifth edition, I found very little that was different from the fourth edition. The order of the material and the explanations are almost identical. Therefore, my evaluation of the book is a bit different. I give it poor marks as a new edition, as I did not see anything that justified publishing a new edition. However, since the fourth edition worked so well, this one is also a good choice for learning C. Therefore, my rating of this book is simultaneously an A for content and an F in terms of being justified.


Rating:
Summary: Many years but still going strong!
Review: Excellent book that withstood the test of the time. Incidentally it has also sentimental value for me because many years ago, when I started my journey into progamming and had my first programming course in C itself, this book came to the rescue.

The course textbook was a different one, which after the first couple of introductury chapters became vague. Especially on pointers it lost me.

Then... I got this book. It started to read like an obsessive page turner. Once I reached the chapter on pointers I was amazed more-the topic in fact was extremly simple. I got very curious of the guys background. When I looked up that he was a physicist by upbringing, the great quality of the book made sence right away.


In one word, this book is THE BOOK as a first book in C, especially for new programmers.

After that ancient times, I red many C books of different complexity and scope, but this book still remains among few of my favorits for its lucid and extremly understandable coverage.

As you can guess, the book has a sentimental value for me.

In fact, if you have older version, especially last two, then there is no compelling reason to upgrade to this version.

Have you finished the book?
Now you are ready to enjoy the succinct C Programming Language, by Brian W. Kernighan, the author of C