What do you think about the following book:

C How to Program, 5/E
(Harvey & Paul) Deitel & Associates, Inc.

<http://www.pearsonhighered.com/educator/academic/product/0,3110,0132404168,00.html>

Thanks in advance.

nembo kid said:

> What do you think about the following book:
>
> C How to Program, 5/E
> (Harvey & Paul) Deitel & Associates, Inc.
>
>
<http://www.pearsonhighered.com/educator/academic/product/0,3110,0132404168,00.html>

Prentice Hall were kind enough to send me a copy of this book, but
unfortunately either it has popped out for a pizza and a pint or it's
somewhere on my desk (possibly several strata down), so I can't refer to
it in this reply.

From memory, then:

It's a big book, but that's fixable. If you remove the second half of the
book (which isn't actually about C at all), you can save enough carrying
capacity for not just K&R2 but also "C: A Reference Manual" (Harbison &
Steele).

It's not a clueless book by any means. The authors generally go to some
trouble to learn the languages they write about, and they certainly know
their C.

The explanations are reasonable, and the exercises thought-provoking on
occasion.

Overall, it's a book I can recommend. If ever it re-surfaces, I may take
the time to write a more detailed review (or, to be perfectly honest, I
may not).

--
Richard Heathfield <http://www.cpax.org.uk>
Email: -http://www. +rjh@
Google users: <http://www.cpax.org.uk/prg/writings/googly.php>
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999

On May 4, 4:19 pm, nembo kid <nembo@kid> wrote:
> What do you think about the following book:
>
> C How to Program, 5/E
> (Harvey & Paul) Deitel & Associates, Inc.
>
> <http://www.pearsonhighered.com/educator/academic/product/0,3110,01324...>
>
> Thanks in advance.

Deitel has some fine programming books, their Java How to Program (7th
ed) is excellent, however they don't seem to have done as well with
their C books. For me the text can be overly verbose and contrived,
the fact that a significant portion of the book is dedicated to C++
and Allegro (a video game library) is a big turn-off for me. For over
$100 I don't want half the text devoted to something I am not
interested in, and if I was interested in these things there are books
dedicated to the topics that provide a much better treatment. I would
suggest you check out C Programming: A Modern Approach 2nd Edition
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393979504/knking> which just
came out, focuses completely on C and is a fair bit cheaper than
Deitel's offering.

--
Robert Gamble

Robert Gamble <rgamble99@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> the fact that a significant portion of the book is dedicated to C++
> and Allegro (a video game library) is a big turn-off for me. For over
> $100 I don't want half the text devoted to something I am not
> interested in

Also, their treatment of C99, which most people *should* be interested
in, is cursory at best.

-- Larry Jones

Everybody's a slave to routine. -- Calvin

lawrence.jones@siemens.com said:

> Robert Gamble <rgamble99@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> the fact that a significant portion of the book is dedicated to C++
>> and Allegro (a video game library) is a big turn-off for me. For over
>> $100 I don't want half the text devoted to something I am not
>> interested in
>
> Also, their treatment of C99, which most people *should* be interested
> in, is cursory at best.

Why should everyone be interested in C99? What's so interesting about it?

--
Richard Heathfield <http://www.cpax.org.uk>
Email: -http://www. +rjh@
Google users: <http://www.cpax.org.uk/prg/writings/googly.php>
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999

arnuld said:

>> On Mon, 05 May 2008 04:21:49 +0000, Richard Heathfield wrote:
>
>> Why should everyone be interested in C99? What's so interesting about
>> it?
>
>
> I think it is a good idea to have this:
>
> for( int i = 0; i != N; ++i)
>
>
> rather than this:
>
> int i;
>
> for( i = 0;, i != N; ++i )

<shrug> That doesn't answer my question.

--
Richard Heathfield <http://www.cpax.org.uk>
Email: -http://www. +rjh@
Google users: <http://www.cpax.org.uk/prg/writings/googly.php>
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999

On Mon, 05 May 2008 21:00:26 +0500, arnuld wrote:

<snip>

> Also, IIRC, const in C99, makes a compile time constant. That's good
> thing too. At least, I don't have to use enum for array size :P

No, const doesn't do this in C99. However, variable length arrays allow
you to use non-constant expressions in automatic array declarations.

"Richard Heathfield" <rjh@see.sig.invalid> wrote in message
news:U5Odnb-3VJ34F4PVnZ2dnUVZ8qLinZ2d@bt.com...
> lawrence.jones@siemens.com said:
>
>> Robert Gamble <rgamble99@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> the fact that a significant portion of the book is dedicated to C++
>>> and Allegro (a video game library) is a big turn-off for me. For over
>>> $100 I don't want half the text devoted to something I am not
>>> interested in
>>
>> Also, their treatment of C99, which most people *should* be interested
>> in, is cursory at best.
>
> Why should everyone be interested in C99? What's so interesting about it?
>

long long and _Complex, of course...


> --
> Richard Heathfield <http://www.cpax.org.uk>
> Email: -http://www. +rjh@
> Google users: <http://www.cpax.org.uk/prg/writings/googly.php>
> "Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999