Simple C

Rating:
Summary: Very good start for Non-Programmer
Review: As the title shows, this book is real simple and easy to read and practice. Does not require any prior knowledge about programming or computer.

It covers almost all basic concepts and skills for programming but is still very thin--only 219 pages. It also shows good summary, problem shooting guide, and debugging tips for each chapter and is real helpful for practicing.

Problems with this books are too simple and compiler independence. Sometimes meanings are not clear because of its simplicity. (Especially for the syntax) Nowadays programming involves delicate compiler and development environment but was not discussed at all in this book. This book teaches you only basic skills and syntax of C--not all of them.

Overall, it is real good start for everyone--even for the people have never programmed before. But still you need another books to be a real programmer. Way to go!

Rating:
Summary: Good Book - Bad Price
Review: This is a classic misuse of college textbook pricing. This book should normally sell for $... or so but the price is inflated because Addison-Wesley had a specific use already in mind.

Otherwise it's a good book. It presents C in a clear, concise format for the beginner.

Rating:
Summary: My First Introduction to Programming
Review: This was one of two books required for the first year programming course at my university. I was a physics major and took it on a lark as an elective coarse having never seen or written a line of code in my life. I was lost the first week in the course.

I read this book over the weekend. It was a great introduction for a novice programmer. It gives a gentle overview of programming and the basics of the C language. After completing it I was able to follow lectures and was ready to move on to a more complete intermediate level text.

This is a very introductory text, important topics such as pointers and memory allocation are not covered. At least a second text will be required to learn the C language. This book will make reading a more advanced text less intimidating though, as it will give you the basic background assumed in many intermediate level books.

I agree with other comment about the price of the book. At our university, this book came bundled with the more complete text, A Book on C by Kelly and Pohl for an extra $25 or $30 dollars, probablely a more resonable price for this book.

In summary, this book was great introduction to both C and programming. I ended up enjoying the course enough to add a CS minor to my physics degree. I have since lent my copy out to numerous friends interested in learning C.