The C programming Language

[thunderfox933]

Can this book teach me everything about C? I just bought it on amazon for 2.45$ =)

[hbarshak]

i dont think any book will teach you EVERYTHING... but its a good place to start ;-)

[cmay]

Can this book teach me everything about C? I just bought it on amazon for 2.45$ =)

if it is the c programming language second edition by kerninghan and dennis rithie it is a good book about c.
there is also one other by kernighan the unix programming enviroment that woth reading.
and one more by kerninghan that is also worth reading is the practice of programming but i think the c programming language book is the only one of the books you need to learn c.i also just got a copy of these books . so i am reading right now.mine was a bit more expensive i think. i also had get them shipped to Denmark

[thunderfox933]

Its the 1st edition coming out in 1978

[samjh]

Its the 1st edition coming out in 1978

That's old!

It's a good book, but beware that the 1978 edition will contain non-standard C. Even the 1983 edition that I have contains bits of non-standard C.

Read it, learn it, but be mindful that coding style and standards have changed since then.

For example:

main()
{
...
}
Should be:

int main(void)
{
...
}
That's a trivial example, but the point is time has moved on and so has the language.

I've not found the book to be as useful as just reading tutorials on the internet. For me, it's more of a historical text to find out why C is the way it is, and how Kernighan and Ritchie intended it to be used, rather than learning to actually code in C.

[LaRoza]

Can this book teach me everything about C? I just bought it on amazon for 2.45$ =)

It is the best C book, but there are a few changes (as noted) in the most recent standards.

The rest of it is great for learning C.

[pmasiar]

"Big blue C" by R&K is excellent book ... for people who are experts in programming in other languages. So if C is your first language, you have wrong book (and wrong language). Python is commonly suggested as best first language by many, but not all programmers (and minor flamewar will start shortly for me saying that).

See stickies about those discussions, including poll. See wiki in my sig for links to learn Python, including free books.

[LaRoza]

"Big blue C" by R&K is excellent book ... for people who are experts in programming in other languages.

You don't have to be an expert, but knowing another language well is almost mandatory (or having other help).

K&R is a great concise book for C, but it is not a book to learn about programming in general.