[clug-talk] Recommendations for C Programming Book

[Shawn]

having taught some classes at the UofC (continuing ed), and being asked 
to select the text book for the course, I think I can say that picking a 
book based on what a course is using is a bad idea.

IF (and that is a big if), the instructor is good, they will hopefully 
have picked a good book.  But, I've seen many courses where the text 
book was a very basic type that would walk you through some exercises, 
and then become useless to you.  At the other end of the spectrum were 
the reference type books that were very good if you already knew what 
you were looking for, but were very poor at introducing people to the 
topics.

Finding a good book that could introduce you to the topics AND serve as 
a reference for years AFTER the training period, well that's not an easy 
task.  And it is a task that I humbly suggest most instructors fail at. 
  Not necessarily because of the instructors skill, but because such 
books are hard to come by.

Then again, I could be totally wrong and only seeing things from my 
narrow perspective/experience.

I know a little of Craig's background though.  I think he could learn 
from just a reference book.. :)

My thoughts.

Shawn

ramasa at sympatico.ca wrote:
> I took a quick look at the web description of probably one of my 
> favorite university courses I ever took and yes the book list has 
> changed!  K&R is not even recommended any more.  It looks like the 
> current bible is "C Programming A Modern Approach 2nd edition".  I have 
> not taken a look at this book but just for the fact that the course is 
> using it, I would highly recommend it.  I will take a look at it myself.
> 
> hope it helps!
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> From: craigmclean at shaw.ca
> To: clug-talk at clug.ca
> Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 23:02:36 -0700
> Subject: Re: [clug-talk] Recommendations for C Programming Book
> 
> Hello.
> 
>  
> 
> I own Kernighan and Ritchie, I`ve even used it as a reference in the 
> more distant past.  It definitely is one of the great classics in 
> Computer Science.  I think I might use K&R, Expert C Programming and the 
> Programming Praxis website to get back up to speed.  Most of the 
> tutorial based books seem to simple. 
> 
>  
> 
> Nothing like diving right back in.
> 
>  
> 
> *From:* clug-talk-bounces at clug.ca [mailto:clug-talk-bounces at clug.ca] *On 
> Behalf Of *Robert Lewko
> *Sent:* December-20-09 9:59 PM
> *To:* CLUG General
> *Subject:* Re: [clug-talk] Recommendations for C Programming Book
> 
>  
> 
> Another excellent book and you can't get more authoritative authors than 
> those.  The reason that I prefer the other book is that there is more 
> information including tips for C compiler writers.
> 
> On Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 9:36 PM, Gustin Johnson <gustin at echostar.ca 
> <mailto:gustin at echostar.ca>> wrote:
> 
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> 
> Craig McLean wrote:
>  > Hello.
>  >
>  > After a long absence I'm getting back into C programming.  In another 
> life I
>  > wrote a compiler which could produce 68000 assembler, so I know what I'm
>  > doing, I'm just really rusty.
>  >
>  > My preferred learning method is books.  Can anybody suggest any C 
> books for
>  > smart people?  I've picked up "Expert C Programming" by Peter van der 
> Linden
>  > and I've heard good things about "The Joy of C" by Lawrence H. Miller and
>  > Alexander E. Quilic.  Does anybody have any other suggestions?
>  >
> 
> My holiday project is to get through one C book.  The one I chose is the
> "C Programming Language" by Kernighan and Ritchie.
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> 
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