Reviews

Why did someone write a book about C

The language has been around since the early 70's. Hundreds of books have been written about it. It took more than 20 years for someone to get it right. If you want to use C productively, you can't memorize syntax and start tossing code around. It will bite you every time, and you will spend endless hours trying to debug your programs by superstition. "Hmm. Maybe if I put a semi-colon there. . . ." When you understand it, you see why it's so powerful, and why it's been so popular. You might actually get to the point where you like C!! This is the best book about C that I have ever read, and I've read a number of them, if you want to get to the point where you understand the language. It's a shame that so many people had to learn the language without the benefit of this book.

Excellent Book on C

This is the best book on C language that I have ever come across. Pointers, Data structures and file management are very well explained. I would advise any one looking for in depth information on C , to go for this book. I really hope that the author comes out with books on C++ and Java.

A must read for every C programmer

This books give you the inside out of the C programming language. The book explains all the features associated with C in a very easy to read style. The beauty of the book really comes into play when it explains the pointers concept in C, that is the heart of C programming language. A must read if you are scared of pointers.

Simply the best book on C

It really upsets me that nobody out there has placed a review on this book. First off, I have read many books on C programming, and I think that this book is definitely the best one. This book has thorough explanations on pointers, arrays, structures, linked lists, I/O controls, functions etc..(All the basic elements of C programming). The best part of this book is that the author explains the use of pointers through all the basic structures of the C language. This book also includes several chapters on the basics of the C++ language with the same accuracy and thoroughness. If you think that you'll find a better book than this one (which I doubt will ever happen) then feel free to drop me a line. We just have to thank the author for writing this great book (I wish there would be more books like this one).

Zentralblat fur Mathematik

This book offers a comprehensible introduction to ANSI-C, which is suitable for readers with little or no knowledge of programming and programming languages. Nevertheless it does contain a lot of advanced features of C. The table of contents includes: binary representation of data types, type conversions, memory organization, precompiler commands, string functions, functions with variable number of parameters, recursion, data structures (linked lists, trees), data protection, system calls and bit operations. Every new feature is explained with simple and increasingly complex examples, and each chapter ends with a summary. Special care is taken to explain in length every detail which has to do with pointers and arrays, a theme, which is expecially difficult to comprehend, not only for a beginner. The presentation is UNIX-oriented, including MAKE and makefile's, but MS-DOS files are treated also. Differences between ANSI and PRE-ANSI-C are made explicit and clarified in corresponding examples. The text contains some dozens of exercises, all with solutions. The book can be recommended for self study and, because of the appendices, for quick refernce also

Computing Reviews

Petersen's book is both a good C manual for beginners and pleasant reading for those who are fond of C programmming. The language notions are introduced gradually, and a large number of valuable examples, figures, and tables help readers learn. Every chapter begins with short definintions, contains a richly illustrated text and ends with a summary and a set of exercies. The exercises are useful for gaining a better undestanding of the material. The sample programs throughout the book are presented in boxes and are fully explained. The book could be used as a classroom text.