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Author: Irrwahn
Date:  
To: dng
Subject: Re: [DNG] Pointer error in the backend of Netman
On Fri, 11 Dec 2015 09:49:25 +0000, Arnt Gulbrandsen wrote:
> aitor_czr@??? writes:
>> They wrote the following book:
>>
>> "The C programming language"
>
> I read both editions in my time and... isn't there anything better yet? The
> book is short and gets to the point, but the code samples are terribly
> happypathish, with weak and unstated pre- and postconditions. Staying on
> the happy path is okay in a python script that is to run once, not so fine
> in a book that aims to teach people a programming language.
>
> And that long long chapter about converting between C type syntax and
> understandable got on my nerves.
>
> Arnt
>


Hi Arndt,

there appear to exist surprisingly few correct yet well
written books on the subject. I still deem K&R2 as the
best starting point, provided one has already acquired a
tiny bit of experience in the programming field.

The C Standard as a reference is a bit clunky, and the
"standardese" may turn out a bit off-putting at times,
but in the end it's /the/ normative document.

Then there is "C: A Reference Manual" by Samuel P. Harbison
and Guy R. Steele, which I personally never used but saw
it regularly being recommended by experts. And then Plauger's
library reference I mentioned in another post in this thread.

Just to round it up, there's "C Unleashed" by Richard
Heathfield et al., and "Numerical Recipes in C" by W. Press
et al.

Worth keeping bookmarked is the comp.lang.c FAQ:
http://c-faq.com/index.html

The Lysator C page has some interesting and still relevant
resources and links, though it looks a bit dated these days:
https://www.lysator.liu.se/c/

A lot of the other books I found in shops, on the web, or on
coworker's shelves regularly sent shivers down my spine after
flipping through just a few pages. It is almost unbelievable
how much misinformation can be spread about a conceptually
very clear language like C. A sharp tool requires sharp people
to write sharp books about it, I assume.

HTH, HAND
Irrwahn