Hello Steve and all,

I have been following this discussion closely with interest. I have been probably been trying to "wrap
my noggin" around compilers/interpreters since 1979 about one year after graduating High school. On this topic
I am mostly self-taught using magazine subscriptions, books, booklets, handouts, community college courses as a
non-tradition student. In recent times I use mostly - blogs, YouTube(tm); online course work (Udemy; EdX, ed2go)
and this list might be the hardest to track in quality of material.) I am guessing that trying to learn the 'C'
language might have been computer language number four or five for me.

{ that is enough background }

Not every *excellent* engineer makes a good instructor!

The K&R book is good to have in your personal library and over the decades it is easy to have a library costing a
couple of thousand $US dollars. But I agree with Steve it's a reference book and NOT a good tutorial. He also
posted a good 'phase I' list of learning the 'C' programming language but was missing 'console i/o' and file 'i/o.'

For several days now I was trying to remember what book at the time got me over the 'first' hump in learning 'C'
but I had a faint memory that THE BOOK was the 'plum' book and I could not remember why that 'word' was a memory
trigger. It was not a very thick book, a paperback, and had a very deep-red book cover.

Does anyone here in their personal collection of old books have:

Learning to Program in C Subsequent Edition by Thomas Plum (Author)

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0911537086


regards,

David
--
David - KC4ZVW
QTH: Chuluota, FL
Web: https://www.kc4zvw.org/


> Sent: Friday, September 27, 2024 at 5:19 PM
> From: "Steve Litt" <slitt@???>
> To: dng@???
> Subject: Re: [DNG] Learning C

> tito via Dng said on Tue, 24 Sep 2024 14:11:08 +0200

>> Hi,

>> Would recommend:

>> The C Programming Language (sometimes termed K&R, after its authors'
>> initials) is a computer programming book written by Brian Kernighan
>> and Dennis Ritchie

> No no no no NO! The preceding book is the ultimate reference, but it's
> horrible to learn from. I know: I tried for a year to learn from K&R
> version 1, and couldn't. Then I got something called "The C Puzzle
> Book", and learned. But these days, with the web, I don't think a book
> is necessary except for telling you best practices, but initial
> learning is best done without worrying about best practices.

> Speaking of best practices, IIRC the K&R code examples are terse and
> cute but horribly unreadable.

> SteveT

> Steve Litt