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C Programming Language (2nd Edition)
by Brian W. Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie, Dennis M. Ritchie
| List Price: | | $42.00 |
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Edition: Paperback
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Just about every C programmer I respect learned C from this book. Unlike many of the 1,000 page doorstops stuffed with CD-ROMs that have become popular, this volume is concise and powerful (if somewhat dangerous) -- like C itself. And it was written by Kernighan himself. Need we say more?
Synopsis
This book is meant to help the reader learn how to program in C. It is the definitive reference guide, now in a second edition. Although the first edition was written in 1978, it continues to be a worldwide best-seller. This second edition brings the classic original up to date to include the ANSI standard. From the Preface: We have tried to retain the brevity of the first edition. C is not a big language, and it is not well served by a big book. We have improved the exposition of critical... read more
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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review: 
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers. 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
"Hello, world", September 23, 2004
Some people refer to this as the "c" bible. Written by Brian W. Kernighan, and Dennis Ritchie, well known in the C and UNIX field. This book is not cluttered with C++ forcing you to figure out what part is "c".
You may think that this book is not for beginners. However it is actually more of a combination of dictionary and ["The Elements of Style" ISBN: 020530902X] for the "c" language
This does of course include ANSI c, which is transportable to all platforms. It also states that", since the ANSI C library is in many cases modeled on UNIX facilities, this may help your understanding of the library as well."
The language it's self as with any language has its strong points. The main one being pointers. By not duplicating data and not having to movie it all around the application can be lightning fast and the code tight and to the point. Other advantages of the language are pointed out as with bit shifting.
This book should be used as a prerequisite to c communications books.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title
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3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Learning C the hard way, September 18, 2004
I originally bought "The C Programming Language" because I quickly needed to acquire skills in C programming.
After working with this book off and on over a period of 4-5 years I have mixed feelings about its usefuleness
either as a tutorial or as a work of reference.
The book lacks structure and organization. After reading it cover to cover the general impression is more of a
compendium of individual papers on various aspects of the C language and its context rather than a real "book". At
a different level this is also reflected in the authors' tendency to alternate the trite and obscure with the
fundamental, making it unnecessarily difficult for the reader to recognize at a glance what is really important.
The samples of code are generally interesting and they usually exemplify sound programming techniques but they are
commented in such a cryptic manner, that a gentleman called Steve Summit who teaches the C language professionally
using K&R's the C Language as a framework has published his personal notes online in order to complement the book
and clarify its numerous obscurities.
One of the problems with C is the confusing syntax of its declarations. I expected the book to provide a clear and
thorough discussion of one of the major hurdles on your way to acquiring C- read/write fluency. With the exception
of a few lines on using typedef's the book altogether avoids the subject.
Perhaps another reason why this book can be confusing at times is that it cannot quite decide whether it is about
the C language or about C programming, continually mixing the two approaches and thus making it difficult to use -
both as a tutorial and as a reference.
Some fifty pages near the end of the book are taken up by a "Reference Manual" presenting what amounts to a formal
grammar of the language. This standalone document is mostly unrelated to the rest of the book. My guess is that
not one programmer in a million would ever refer to this text. So what's it for? Add a little bulk to this very
slim volume, maybe?
Arguably the fact that K&R "invented" C guarantees the quality of the book.. Maybe, although a gift for language
design does not automatically make you a great writer or teacher.. And, since no one is ever likely to incriminate
themselves the book has a marked tendency to gloss over the weaknesses and traps of the language rather than
clearly warn the student about them.
A bit strange that solutions to the exercises are not provided. Obviously K&R had more important things to do
than waste more time on this project.
If I had to start over & learn C programming I would probably look for a good online tutorial to quickly learn
basic C syntax and spend my money on W. Richard Stevens's "Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment". I'm
pretty sure this would get me up to speed a lot faster than working with this book.
Once you realize that working with a programming language is also about integrating a culture you will come to
think that you need this book after all.. Generations of C programmers have learned from it and as a result it
has pretty much shaped the face of C programming.. This may be one reason why you will eventually want to buy
"The C Programming Language".
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Beginners Should Use K&R With Steve Summit's Notes, August 25, 2004
Many reviewers have noted that K&R2 isn't well-suited to the needs of a real beginner. I was in the same position and found Steve Summit's online "class notes" a useful introduction, along with his supplemental notes to K&R2.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
I have two copies of this book!!, July 28, 2004
WONDERFUL!, i think every C programmer must read it more than once,every single line is valuable.
I have two copies of this book in case I loose one.
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