Thread: Are there any good books on intermediate C? All I find are beginners books

Head First C would be what I consider intermediate, it starts in the beginning and goes all the way to threads and processes. I would only recommend it if you use Mac or Linux though, as it is not that friendly to Windows users.

Finding only beginner's books is a common phenomenon in publishing because all the buy-but-dont-reads, wannabee's and people who give up easily are part of the market. And its way way bigger than than the intermediate and advanced market. SO it makes sound economics sense. Add to that, the fact that they are easy and even fun to write means that there will always be a good variety of beginner's books.

Leaving aside that phenomenon, a common misconception is that, at least, there'll be more intermediate books than advanced. However, the opposite is more likely to be true, because advanced books are a smaller but vibrant field made up of guru authors who define what "advanced" and means also get a kick from writing them and geting kudos from releasing their secrets.

Intermediate books fall into that horrible middle-of-the-road which superficial Beginner's Book authors and bored Guru authors get no fun out of. Also Beginner's Book authors and Guru authors keep well away from each other, so no agreement on what constitutes "Intermediate" (which is already tricky to define) exists.

Although books on C++ fit particularly well into this hypothesis, this happens in many aspects of educational information, far and beyond C or even programming. That's what justifies my tirade, in my eyes.

HelpfulPerson's suggestion surely is well disguised ... it looks like an evil Beginner's Book, but a look at the contents says it could be rather good.

I think some Beginner's books - if they are not written by the usual hare-brained sycophant camped out the Publisher's office could be pretty good, and an idea would be to get the good ones for the later chapters. In any case, the Cbook landscape is dominated by K&R ... although it covers the basic topics, it does so from an angle which requires a perceptive (read: intermediate) reader.

For myself I usually try to find a good reference book, and do plenty of practice. That would be my solution to the "intermediate book kerfuffle" that exists. Cheers. I will also give HelpfulPerson's suggestion a look .... allthough I consider myself a guru, Of Course, Of course :-D

The intermediate level is definitely the dead-zone for "books on C" as such. But there's plenty of applicable material nonetheless.

Read books on:
* algorithms
* machine architecture
* operating systems
* program translation
* networks
* graphics

And any time you think of a program idea, make it so.
And learn other languages (C++, C#, Python).

Then come back here and ask questions.
This is a perfect place for "intermediate" questions.

EDIT:
Actually, you might find "21st Century C" (Klemens) and "Expert C Programming" (van der Linden) to be "intermediate".

I thought of O'reilly's "Practical C Programming", 3rd Edition. Would be considered intermediate, but it may seem advanced to you. I like its examples, exercises & projects, generally the whole style of it.

You should also have a good perusal of comp.lang.c Frequently Asked Questions

You could read the C Standard and/or Rationale.

I asked this question a long time ago and was recommeded "C Unleashed" by Salem: Now I recommend it.

Also, "Expert C programming: Deep C secrets" is an awesome read (Lots of fun stories along the way)