Beginning C (Expert's Voice) [Paperback]

Ivor Horton (Author)

Book Description

Series: Expert's Voice | Publication Date: April 5, 2004

This book teaches the complete C language in a progressive step-by-step fashion. All elements of the language are carefully explained, both in terms of how they work and what they are for. The language features are demonstrated and explained through fully working code examples throughout. This book has excellent potential in the training and education markets.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ivor Horton is self-employed in consultancy and writes programming tutorials. He worked for IBM for many years and holds a bachelor's degree, with honors, in mathematics. Horton's experience at IBM includes programming in most languages (like assembler and high-level languages on a variety of machines), real-time programming, and designing and implementing real-time closed loop industrial control systems. He has extensive experience teaching programming to engineers and scientists (Fortran, PL/1, APL, etc.). Horton is an expert in mechanical, process, and electronic CAD systems; mechanical CAM systems; and DNC/CNC systems.

Product Details

• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: A-Press; 3rd edition (April 5, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590592530
• ISBN-13: 978-1590592533
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,400,273 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fills a gap in the market, April 21, 2004

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beginning C (Expert's Voice) (Paperback)

Notice something strange in the computer section of bookstores? Plenty of books on such languages as Java, C++, C# and Visual Basic. But try finding a book on plain old C. Perhaps there is an issue of Kernighan and Ritchie. But, quite possibly, there is no C book at all.

But a need for C still exists. Most of the unix variants, and linux, are coded in C, with perhaps a C++ overlayer. And on Microsoft machines, a vast body of C code also exists, for such things as device drivers, for example. K&R is the definitive text for C, but awkward for users new to any programming. Its terseness and lack of many examples make it so.

Which is why it is nice to see a new edition of Horton's book. It deliberately eschews the conciseness of K&R. Instead, it has extensive discussions of every feature of C. Aimed squarely at a newbie. Horton is generous with code examples, many of which are entire (small) programs. Naturally these days, the code can be downloaded from the publisher.

Horton even discusses what may be fairly advanced stuff for a beginner. Like structuring data via the struct command. What this means, though, is that the book can be used as a complete text for the language.

As an important practical matter, you do not need to understand all, or even most, of the book, to start coding. The emphasis from the first chapter is on writing code, even with only partial knowledge of C.

Purely as a conjecture, it may be astute planning on the part of Hortan and his publisher to come out with this edition. A real gap seems to have opened up in the market over C books. This might fill it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book, November 17, 2006

By 

Edwin Knight - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beginning C (Expert's Voice) (Paperback)

I recomnd this book, it was easily twice as good as any online tutorial you could have taken.

4.0 out of 5 stars I'm using this book to review my C, August 22, 2005

By 

Cedric "Washu" (Palo Alto, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beginning C (Expert's Voice) (Paperback)

I'm currently reviewing my C for a new position, and am appreciating this book very much. When I learned C in community college, we used poorly written unfriendly textbooks. While Beginning C may not be a "must have" book, it's part of the generation of approachable books beginners can use, with substantial examples usable by intermediates.

I'm primarily retyping in the code (although I could download the electronic form) to introduce bugs and practice my debugging skills. I **have** noticed that some programs have bugs or needed minor changes to run on my CodeWarrior C platform, but I see this as a feature, not a bug. :D