C By Discovery (3rd Edition)

Rating:
Summary: discovery? true.
Review: I am a CS student and had to make my first contact with programming through this book. The title is right. You can learn C using this book by discovering other ways of looking for information (other books, internet). Examples are terrible, theory is messed up and put in large clusters. How can you teach a beginner if ALL the information about a particular feature is put together? The basic stuff and the advanced together? Hey, I am a teacher who actually has a few years of experience in school, this is not the way to teach.

Rating:
Summary: discovery? true.
Review: I am using an older edition (I think the 1st) to teach myself C. So far, (along with the mingw32 compiler) I have been able to write several small matrix programs and a small statistical package, soley from using the resources in the text. I started on page 1 with no previous study of C or C-like languages.

I have one complaint. The coverage of fread, fwrite, etc could be more thorough, with more examples. The example given actually doesn't work with my compiler. I had to come up with my own examples to discover how to use these functions.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite C book
Review: I highly recommend this book. When asked by friends or coworkers to recommend a C book, I always recommend this one.

I used to know assembly language. When I got a C programming project, I used this book to study. Within one month, I finished my C programming project.

For every C concepts, this book has a good example (short C code) to demonstrate the concept. Some people might say that this book requires some programming background. But a friend (who has no programming experience in C, assembly, or any other language) also used this book to study and said she enjoy it and truly appreciate the clarity of this book.

This book is also fun to read.

Rating:
Summary: It's not meant for the beginner
Review: I just took my first "C" class this semester, and when I looked at our textbook written by Foster, at first glance it looked good. However, for the beginner programmer this book is NOT for you! Yes, it comes with a floppy with sample code. It helps with the first 2 or 3 chapters, but after that Foster gets to theoretical and technical in his explanations. His C++ Preview is a joke. For the beginner I suggest books meant for the layman. Especially, "C by Example", by Greg Perry Que Publishers, and Greg's other book " Programming C in 12 Easy Lessons", Sams Publishing. Of course the " C for Dummies" is a big help also. Perry excels at teaching the beginner by making the concepts of functions, passing values and addresses, static variables etc much easier to understand. I own all the books above and like Greg Perry's the best.

Good Luck Programmers. " C" you later

Uliv

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book.
Review: [e-mail] Professor L.S.Foster, I am sending you this note to express to you my profound appreciation and gratitude for your benevolent and unique approach in teaching language C as shown in the wonderful book "C by Discovery" which came into my possession recently."

"I am a Computer Science student at New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, NJ, but I prefer to teach myself in my free time the most important field-programming using quality textbooks. Out of all the other ones I tried first before coming across your book title (in an on-line book review) I found yours to stand out with its clarity, vision and ability to present the material in a way that makes the student an active part of the understanding and learning process. While I had some basis in C from other beginner manuals (from SAMS, and including Herb Schildt's drill-texts)--it all beautifully came together through the study of your book. The students across the country who are not fortunate to have this book are missing-out on the beauty of learning C language the pleasant way." Alexander Ljubenkovic-Shah

Rating:
Summary: Too complex NOT a beginers book
Review: Sheila Foster bit of from another book called C by Disection, she cant think for herself. She is too tough, but not though in the way you respect someone but rather insanely tough that makes you wonder what the purpose of all this is anyways. I currently have her in a class which is CECS 174, and she is totaly hard and difficult to understand. When she talks for a while she starts to get lazy and starts to slur her words. Don't be decieved by FALSE reviews, unless your a super school nerd you WONT like it. I hate her class, she should take a chill pill damn hyped up woman.

Rating:
Summary: A Great buy to Get. Dr. L.S Foster is a great author
Review: The book is great, it goes through C step by step and shows great examples of how to run a programs, do functions and other important aspects of the field. At first it was complex to understand, but now everything comes out clear after doing much practice. She my professor and even though she is tough, I learned so much from her class. She is very helpful and writes clear comments on th papers. At first I thought Iw as not going to last in the class, but I surprised myself. Anyways buy the book okay, it is pretty good and my brother says it is pretty good. He uses it at his university.

Rating:
Summary: Tough Book
Review: This is not an easy book. The language is preety tough and the writer seems to assume that you already know C. The terminology is hard to understand. I went and bought an oreily book and I learnt alot more from that smaller book than this book.

Rating:
Summary: Don't Buy
Review: We have to use this book for the college class that I'm taking and it is a horrible book. I often find myself looking for help on the internet rather than going to this book. It is poorly organized, I have to go to the index in order to find something I specifically need because the book isn't in any order. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. Find another there are many more.