Thread: advanced c programming by example

Did anyone read this book?

What are your opinions?

I tried searching it up on amazon. Its 400$, what the ...?

Is there any other place to buy this/get this book?

I'd really like to check it out but i couldnt find it anywhere.

http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Progr.../dp/0534951406

That's gotta be a mistake. You might want to consider paying $40, but anyone who pays $400 is completely nuts.

WTF!?

Originally Posted by an amazon reviewer

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have book!, February 15, 2000
By Joegas "joegas" (Canberra, Australia) - See all my reviews
I've got a few C-programming books, but this is the one that I love best of all. It is a gem of a book that resonates with simple, crystal-clear explanations on topics so seemingly difficult to understand in the classic book by Kernighan and Ritchie. I would recommend using these two books together.

What makes this book even more entertaining and readable is that Perry is not afraid to lay on his idiosyncrasies regarding the practice of programming. There is a little hiccup, though, when he recommends the use of gets() and sscanf() together for nearly all input of strings from the terminal: gets() is widely known to be inferior to fgets(), and sscanf() is not discussed in the book at all!

But all in all, a book that deserves full marks.

OMG!
For that money, I expect gold-plated perfection.
Not moronic stupidity of the first order.

In 1997/98 when it was being written, there wasn't the emphasis on "safety" there is today.

Nobody has this book?

God!

Then what other book should i get for C?

I have finished reading K&R2.

And im preety lost now. I thought i should go for C++ now, but im not so sure anymore.

What should i do, help!

Why do you need another book on C, if you have K&R2 ?

You could try this one - C Unleashed
Written by a group of regulars on comp.lang.c newsgroup.

What are you trying to prove?
Master of "hello world" programming in 20,000 languages?

What about all the other skills which go to making a competent programmer. Reading lots of books on the same (or other languages) won't tell you about that at all.

Daily practice, and getting others to read your code is how you'll learn more than any amount of book reading will teach you.

Software development - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Learn about
- several different ways of designing software
- how to write code which is easy to test
- how to use source control systems
- how to debug, find leaks etc
- separating what the customer needs now, from what they might like later


And yes, C unleashed is worth getting IMO.

Originally Posted by Dino

In 1997/98 when it was being written, there wasn't the emphasis on "safety" there is today.

Maybe not but, even at that time, use of gets() was considered inadvisable.

Originally Posted by Salem

What are you trying to prove?
Master of "hello world" programming in 20,000 languages?

Not sure if this completely connects with the rest of your criticism. I think there is a lot of value in learning different languages, to different extents (meaning yes, you should move beyond hello world in at least a few of them).

What about all the other skills which go to making a competent programmer. Reading lots of books on the same (or other languages) won't tell you about that at all.

Daily practice, and getting others to read your code is how you'll learn more than any amount of book reading will teach you.

Software development - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So I totally agree with that; there is such a thing as being "too academic" -- you (Tool) need to get on with it and write some software.

Originally Posted by Tool

I dont know much about structures tho, so i decided i'll take a look at that.

Which book should i get for this tho?

I think most of those individual concepts ("trees, heaps, stacks, qeues, etc.") can be learned using online tutorials and resources. However, one book who's approach I totally liked was "Computer Programming for Dummies", which is either out of print or I have the title wrong (I can check on that this afternoon, nb it is not the same book as "Beginning Programming for...").

Anyway, it was not language specific (example were usually in C, Java, or pseudo code) but it did a great job of clearly and succinctly describing the essential properties of trees, stacks, heaps, and queues, and the same for common search algorithms (merge, quick, insert, bubble, selection, heap) etc etc. So that is one to keep your eye open for, it would make a pretty decent quick reference.

Important to consider that all this stuff was probably developed as a solution to real needs/problems, which attempting to write a real functioning piece of software other people might use will hopefully present you with some (real needs/problems to resolve). As long as you at least have some vague idea of the fact that things like trees and graphs, etc, exist, you will have a pretty good idea of potential options beyond the simple array. Generally, they are just variations on the "linked list" concept, which have been refined thru years of widespread use.