WAS "A good book on C programming", now an APPOLOGY

[Tom Mitchell]

On Sat, 27 Dec 2003, Robert L Cochran wrote:
> And as to the C programming book, there is
> 
> C Primer Plus, 4th Edition, by Stephen Prata which seems okay.
> 
> Beginning C by Ivor Horton, from Wrox Press, also seems okay.
> 
> You may want to try the Deitel "C How to Program" book. Deitel books are 
> gouge-you expensive but have a lot of exercises and code examples.

May I add:

	"The Standard C library", P.J. Plauger
	ISBN 0-13-131509-9, 1992.
	
	-- Most interesting stuff today is the use of libraries
	after the basics are mastered.

	"The UNIX Programming Environment" Brian W. Kernighan and 
	Rob Pike,  ISBN 0-11-937681-X, 1984.

	-- Old style C and other classic unix stuff, if you are 
	moving to Linux from windows this and Programming Pearls 
	are worth the time.

And simply to marvel at the contrast between what they say and
what they do (BTW these do have good stuff in them).

	"Writing Solid Code", Steve Mcguire
	ISBN 1-55615-551-4, 1993.

	"Code Complete". Steve McConnell
	ISBN 1-55615-484-4, 1993.
	
I might also add that running a good compiler with flags like
-ansi, -pedantic -std=iso9899:199409 etc. is a great idea in the
context or relearning a programming language.  I suspect that
there are a lot of packages and associated source code that run
on Linux but could be improved in terms of reliability and
perhaps security by coding to strict modern "C"  language
standards.

And while not "C" programming, for pure joy check out the first
or second edition of this classic.

	Programming Pearls, Second Edition, by Jon Bentley.
	Addison-Wesley, Inc., 2000. ISBN 0-201-65788-0. 

Do not overlook stuff like the old red and yellow Borland "C"  
compiler manuals when you find them in a garage sale.  Many
compiler products have great documentation.

-- 
	T o m  M i t c h e l l
	mitch48 -a*t- yahoo-dot-com