Good and current book on C programming?
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Hello everyone,
I'm mainly a Ruby and Lisp guy, and lately I've been wanting to learn C. I know the basics, but I want to get more technical as to understand a little better what goes on under the hood. I have gotten my hands on a copy of "The C Programming Language" by K&R, but since it's a bit old, I am afraid that it may be lacking, especially when it comes to secure programming with C (properly handling memory and everything). So is there another book I should look for that would give me insights into what modern C (it feels weird to say "modern" and "C" next to one another when you know Lisp...) is like.
Thanks for the input guys,
Vincent.
To be honest, C doesn't change all that much anymore. Any text you find on ANSI/ISO standard C will probably be fine. Even a book a couple of years old will still be 99% relevent.
I learned on an old 1980's edition of "C Primer Plus" by The Waite Group. It's about a hundred editions later, but it's likely still a good tutorial.
I learned on an old 1980's edition of "C Primer Plus" by The Waite Group. It's about a hundred editions later, but it's likely still a good tutorial.
Personally i think that K&R's book is one of the best for C, bible, best i've seen even next to newer ones (which are still pretty old) I don't think you need to worry to much if i'm correct the last C standard revision after C89 (1989) was C99. Not many compilers support C99 and most of those which do only implement some of it anyways. I think that book alone should be fine plus some online material will be enough. If you are really serious about it you could a purchase a copy of the latest ISO C standard aswell.
Coming from a ruby/lisp background i think you are going to be slightly disappointed [wink] i guesss you can at least appreciate C's simplicity.
[Edited by - snk_kid on September 13, 2005 4:05:18 AM]
Coming from a ruby/lisp background i think you are going to be slightly disappointed [wink] i guesss you can at least appreciate C's simplicity.
[Edited by - snk_kid on September 13, 2005 4:05:18 AM]
Author
Quote:Original post by snk_kid
Personally i think that K&R's book is one of the best for C, bible, best i've seen even next to newer ones (which are still pretty old) I don't think you need to worry to much if i'm correct the last C standard revision after C89 (1989) was C99. Not many compilers support C99 and most of those which do only implement some of it anyways. I think that book alone should be fine plus some online material will be enough. If you are really serious about it you could a purchase a copy of latest the ISO C standard aswell.
Coming from a ruby/lisp background i think you are going to be slightly disappointed [wink] i guesss you can at least appreciate C's simplicity.
Oh there's no question about it. I think that what they did in the 70's was pretty amazing (although I hear Forth was even more, but that's another story): basically they removed all feature they did not consider absolutely necessary to make sure it was as simple and could be as optimized as possible.
Today, I wouldn't use C to create a user application myself, however I don't think there's anything bad about learning it right? Kind of like Latin, it almost useless now, but you understand current languages better.
In any case, I hope to have fun.
I learned C my first semester at DigiPen with that exact book by K&R. It was hella tough because Prof. Ghali was hella hard ;) But I will tell you this... that one semester with that book and that teacher was all it took for me to know C forwards and backwards 210%.
The book we used for our advanced C (really just more experience) course the following year used "Pointers on C", a book by Reek (author). It isn't quite a "Sams" series "hold-your-hand" type book, but it goes a lot further in explanation than K&R's book.
Goodluck!
-dbh
The book we used for our advanced C (really just more experience) course the following year used "Pointers on C", a book by Reek (author). It isn't quite a "Sams" series "hold-your-hand" type book, but it goes a lot further in explanation than K&R's book.
Goodluck!
-dbh
Quote:Original post by dbh
The book we used for our advanced C (really just more experience) course the following year used "Pointers on C", a book by Reek (author). It isn't quite a "Sams" series "hold-your-hand" type book, but it goes a lot further in explanation than K&R's book.
That book comes "Highly Recommended" by the ACCU. They list it under advanced c as well.
Author
Thanks a lot guys! Also, I just realized that I posted this topic in the wrong forum: it really belongs in "General Programming" (w3m confused me ;)). I don't know if maybe a moderator or administrator could move it there.
Thanks.
Thanks.
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