Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Good Book on C (Emphasis on Beginners), February 3, 2005
This book is used in FSU's CGS 3408 course: "Introduction to Programming with the C Language." In the preface, the Deitels state that this book is for everyone (beginners to experts) who want to learn C. They've made a very good stab at that goal, but realistically, I'd have to say that those who are professional programmers in other languages will find this book too long for their needs. For beginners (and even those moderately versed in other languages), this is an excellent book. I really have only three minor gripes about it:
- First, throughout the C portion, the book uses scanf as the default for getting user input. Unfortunately, as my compiler warned me constantly (and I verified on the web), scanf has been "deprecated" (I guess that's a fancy way to say don't use it, use something else). Unfortunately, the book talks about alternative IO in only one chapter near the end of the C portion and very rarely uses it. So, this book teaches as a standard an input method that's been superseded.
- Second, and related to the first, the book clumps all IO except for printf and scanf into a single chapter near the end. It would have been a lot better if they had introduced alternative IO a little at a time throughout the book. As it is, my eyes just glazed over when I hit that chapter.
- And, finally, though this might sound weird, there are too many exercises at the end of each chapter. I read through this book on my own and so had no way of choosing which exercises to do. Some of the chapters have over 40 programming exercises. I suppose this is great at a college where the instructors can select different exercises for years without repeating. But, as an individual, I'd have preferred a handful of in-depth exercises focusing on the chapter material instead of a huge number of varied exercises (some of which don't seem to have much bearing on the chapter).
One note about the content of this book: most of it (over half) is dedicated to C. It covers C in detail. The remaining half is equally divided between C++ and Java. The level of detail in those chapters (and the exercises, too) comes nowhere near that in the C portion. If you're interested in C++ or Java, those chunks in this book are good, but you'll really need to read dedicated books to get the full treatment.
Overall, a very good book. Experienced programmers might prefer something more terse, but all others will be pleased. I give it 4 stars out of 5.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Textbook, July 19, 2005
This was my college text for an intro level class within my information systems major at the University of Texas at Tyler. While I was first a bit worried over the sheer size of the book I soon came to love it.
Pros:
+The book includes amongst it's numerous examples many complete programs. Meaning that when I wanted to see how something worked I could enter the example and it would compile properly. Most of the other programing textbooks I've experienced include only bits and pieces in their examples.
+The book was able to answer every question I had on C.
+The index was extremely well constructed.
Cons:
-Size may be an issue. If you already resemble a packhorse moving from classroom to classroom this book may not be for you.
-If your looking for a concise intro to C where the goal is entirely to learn the 'how' and not also the 'why' this book isn't for you. The Deitel philosophy seems to be to list every possible detail concerning C and how to use it, order it based on how necessary it is, and then beat it to death.
Hopefully this gives you a good idea of what the text is like. The four-star rating is given to "C How to Program" as a textbook. Were I thinking of it as a teach-yourself-C book I would probably rate it 3star simply because the amount of info (and the relativly high cost) is above what the hobbiest needs.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book for novices, December 21, 2004
I got C as my first programming language in university and my lecturer recommended me to buy this book. He's right. This book is very good. It contains very detail information about C in plain words. The sentences are easy to understand for a student like me who don't use English as primary language. This book really helps me understand C in a different view. I would recommend this book to everyone who's interested in C. If you are new to programming, this book is a good start.
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