C Primer Plus (Developer's Library)

I have both 5th and 6th editions of this book. Great reference materials. This author is concise, meticulous, and accurate. Some things I wish this book included were some tricks or examples which aren't as mundane. Some delving into strategy to deal with non classroom problems would be nice. As usual this simply covers the core of C with some additional information regarding C!x and C11. I browsed over this in about 2 hours and didn't see much change from the fith edition when it came to examples. Furthermore I'm a little disappointed that there wasn't a chapter dedicated solely to the differences in C11 and C99 that was covered in his 5th edition. Additionally, it would be nice to have some of the more obscure features of C explained in further detail. Some examples of this are C scope and exactly what that means for programming and isolation. The use of examples around this is paramount in understanding how some compliers implement the language. I'll give an obscure example which I don't believe is mentioned in the book simply because the feature is considered taboo to C. Scope can easily be understood with the goto statement. if I were to put a label for goto in c inside a separate scope ( ie, a block of code can be isolated to it's own scope with curly braces ). Then I can goto this, but can't goto some label which is not within that scope. in other words, I can't go into a curly braced section but then cannot go back out of it later because the scope has changed during execution. This is an aspect of coding and scope which isn't exemplified very well. Not that goto is a good thing to use in C, unless of course you are trying to explain scope and some of the quirky things with you can do with curly braces. As a result there are some nuances which are otherwise lost in reference. Another example is the for loop construct and the survival of initiator variables outside of the scope of the loop and what happens to them after the use. Again this is just me remembering how scope can be very useful tool in this language although most of my knowledge is based around compliers interpreting my code. As a result, what's supposed to be happening in theory doesn't always pan out. I have had a few programs allow me to use the established variables in the for loop initiation again after the for loop breaks. this is extremely useful if you need to use a loop iteration value for some other calculation. the initiated variables following the for declaration in parenthesis don't go always go away and understanding scope becomes paramount. This book still provides excellent information and I cannot give it any less than 5 stars.

A preface about my programming knowledge: I am an experienced C programmer (since 2001) and have programmed for Linux, DOS, Windows, Palm OS, Mac OS X, and a few other systems (including my own OS). I have experience programming for x86, PowerPC, MIPS, ARM, and some SPARC. I also know C++, Java, and Pascal. As for my review of the book, I have read the first 5 chapters of this book then skimmed the remaining portions of the book stopping at various unspecified locations to read the text. I have spotted an error or two but as long as you read enough of the surrounding text you should be able to figure out what it should be. The text is descriptive and concise, it covers the current topic at hand with good context and detail. There are forward references to later concepts you will read about in later chapters, however when they are used it is not in a way that would confuse you if you never have programmed C before. I have not found any imposing of stylistic issues such as whether to use tabs or spaces, curly braces on the next line or same line, asterisk placement, etc., although the book sticks to one style (except in the cases to show valid programs formatted differently). There are many different implementations of C and 3 major versions of C such as C89, C99, and C11. This book differentiates between such standards to inform you of whether a feature is part of C89, C99, or C11. The oldest standard throughout the book is C89 at least so you will not find K&R style function declarations. There are also mentions to note that if you run into trouble, such as compilation errors, that your compiler supports too old of a standard. As for implementations and systems, the book says that you should not expect one system to be the same as another, which is something that I like. There is a short reference at the back of the book as per the functions in the standard library along with information on which standard it is available for. So in short, whether you are very new to programming or an old pro, this is a good book to have in your library.

It looks like the customer reviews for C Primer Plus (by Stephen Prata) are mixed in with another book on C++. So, to be clear, this review is for C Primer Plus (6th Edition). I am a competent R programmer interested in expanding my skills to something more high performance, After struggling through the classic but sparse K&R text on C, I turned to this book. It has not disappointed. I am halfway through the book and now can easily handle basic I/O, different variable types, operators, functions, arrays, pointers (well, are pointer ever easy?) and most (all?) control statements. It is a comprehensive text that thoroughly explains principles including how and why things go wrong. The end-of-the-chapter review questions include answers, and the programming exercises (also at the end of each chapter but sans solutions) are appropriate applications of principles and skills. They were challenging, but not so impossibly hard that they could not be solved. This book, and learning C in general, also provides insight into how computers work - how they are storing the information and how to access that information, for example. Lastly, the book is wryly funny, sprinkled with all sorts of jokes about the inconveniences computers and programming can cause humanity (e.g. From Chapter 10: "There is no need to subject yourself to the ridicule of your compiler.") I'm sure the book has some downsides, but I have not yet found them. The mistakes in syntax other reviewers refer to appear to have been corrected in this edition.

very detail

Un muy buen libro para entender sintaxis de C y el lenguaje en su totalidad, abarca muy bien los temas

💡Topic Learning to code C as a beginner to the world of programming. 📖Content Over 17 Chapters and 1'000 pages (it's a biggie, expect to take several weeks to go through it) the book guides you through all the core C primitives that any developer needs to be aware of. 👩‍💻🧑‍💻 Who is this book for? Beginning programmers, who want to learn C as their first language. The book assumes no prior knowledge of programming, and thoroughly explains all core concepts needed for someone to learn from first principles. I would argue this is by far one of the best programming books for beginners I’ve ever read. I wish this would have been the first book I read when I started programming. 👍Likes There is no pre-assumed knowledge of programming, and the explanations gradually build up from very simple to quite complex ones. The pacing is fantastic, and even though the book takes its time to explain, I believe it's for the better. The explanations are very, VERY, well phrased. You can see that this book has been used as a university course material, and that it also had 5 past editions already. Each code example, “listing” as the author calls it, goes through the code and thoroughly explains it, line by line, in simple and easy to understand language. 👎Dislikes The last version of this book is 2013, and it is already showing its age. A new edition would be very much welcomed, with a more simplified approach and less mentions about compiler and standard-specific C implementations. The code examples could definitely use line numbers, and reference them in the explanations, especially for code listings that stretch over 3 pages. 🚧 Improvements I would suggest Leave out all the references to different implementation details between C Standard versions; just go for something like C11 and assume readers will only use and care about this one. Add an entire chapter dedicated to known “watchouts” of memory dangers and other known issues that C programmers should be aware of. Add more explanation in the "Bit Fiddling" chapter for endianness, network endianness and "standard" ways to handle this in C when writing portable code. 🤔Final Thoughts If you are at the beginning of your career as a software engineer, this is a fantastic introduction to the world of programming in C. It will give you fundamental notions in how low-level code works, as well as solid context and intuition that will serve you well throughout your career. P.S - This is just a short format version of my review. If you'd like to see the full one (it's free), head over to my website https://www.aragalie.com/c-primer-plus-stephen-prata/

The book is very suitable as a reference book for the C language.

Ottimo libro. Ogni argomento è approfondito in modo adeguato e spiegato in modo molto semplice. Per ogni concetto viene presentato un esempio concreto, e questo vale anche per le parti del linguaggio solitamente meno documentate (come i campi di bit e le maschere di bit). Oltre a descrivere il linguaggio, il libro fornisce anche buoni consigli per utilizzare al meglio le funzioni della libreria standard. Perfetto sia per chi inizia che per chi vuole darsi una rinfrescata. Buona anche la carta e la rilegatura: dopo aver letto mille pagine, la costa in brossura del libro sembra nuova. Unica pecca: mi sarebbe piaciuto anche un approfondimento sul multithreading.