Customer Reviews

C Traps and Pitfalls

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you program in C or C++, you must read this book if you want to consider yourself a superior programmer. If you are a college student, definitely read this book. Koenig fills in a lot of gaps left by authors of introductory books on C or C++. Why do I mention C++? Because C++ is far more than just objects and classes. The lower level implementation of functions is still basically C programming. He includes chapters on linkage, the preprocessor, and portability. It is a short book that is definitely worth reading.

This is among the five "must have" books on the astute C programmer's bookshelf. Actually, it spends little time on the shelf since one refers to it time and time again. This slim volume packs a lot of information about those "gotchas" that still "getcha" (when you least expect it). The Introduction is "Chapter 0", your first hint that Koenig knows and respects the subject. His treatment of unscrambling complex declarations is especially good.

Why a 9 instead of a 10? Simple. Andy: please release a new version! The ANSI/ISO standard is almost ten years old. :)

I'd recommend this book for novice C programmers, people with two or less years of coding experience. However, this 1989 book focuses on pre-ANSI C, so the novice would need to be guided by someone that knows the history of C. Some of his statements are false when applied to ANSI C with prototypes (e.g., p.139, it _is_ possible to pass a char argument, if there is a function prototype). I read through and did the problems in this slim book in about three hours. It does have a few nuggets of value, and introduced me to a bug I'd not seen before, the reverse of the "= for ==" bug:
while( (x == fgetc(f)) != EOF )

If you have to write in C, then yes, it is still worth reading a good, short book about C even if it was written in 1989. It can get a bit boring to read the details of selected problems and solutions in C cover-to-cover, but it's only 100 pages. An experienced C programmer will probably know many of these answers, and can skim over what's not new. But if you hit even one pitfall which is new to you, or which you have not made the effort to avoid, then the book was worth it. The bonus is the last chapter, "Advice". It's only a few pages, and is followed by answers to exercises. But I think it has more meaning if you do leave it until the end of your reading.

(One caveat: Since Koenig was writing before long variable names were common, his examples do not serve as best practice for modern variable-naming in an IDE with auto-complete.)

Along with Holub's 'The C Companion', this is one of the few programming books that I've read in 13 years of C programming that talks about real programming issues instead of simply rehashing what a for loop is. A must read for C programmers.

To preface my review, I learned how to program in C four years ago as an undergraduate engineer, but didn't really get into it until I started my graduate studies about a year and a half ago. I would describe myself as a very competent C programmer, but by no means an expert.

There are many doorstops that call themselves C programming reference books, including the one that I used as an undergrad. This book should be on any C programmer's shelf as the first go-to guide during debuggings. I found this book very helpful, despite the fact that it is almost 20 years old (pre-ANSI C). It highlights many issues that I have pulled my hair out trying to find and fix in the programs I have written over the years, and also some new bugs that have yet to bite me. Perhaps my original C text wasn't the best to begin with, but the proper usage of many aspects of C have been explained to me with this text, such as safely writing macros and using the static keyword (especially with multiple-file programs), just to name a few. He also explains (in an appendix) using the library variable-argument functions, which I have been trying to get working without any success...until now.

This is a small book, and I read a chapter or two every night for a few days. Programming isn't exactly page-turning literature, but the author makes his point clearly and concisely. I highly recommend this book for students and practicing programmers alike.

Most traps and tricks are well known, but it's always good programming practice to rememeber them.
So reading this book (also for experienced programmers) is suggested to best keep in mind the basis of development of well-working software.

I recommend this for programmers having 1 to 4 years experience of writing program in C. Doesn't matter even if it was academic years :-). For 4+ years experience I don't see value addition from this book.

It's a really good book, a bit outdated nowadays but still an excellent resource for beginners or computer history frikis (like me...).

This book is a must have and you must have read it at least once. Then again, I have read it once and will only use it as a quick reference. For more elaborate information I will look for (my) other books that will tell the same in a more fluent and up to date style (read: Expert C Programming).
This book shows all the pitfalls in a convenient compact volume.
If you are NOT a sloppy programmer you might dislike many of the more obvious examples . . then again, you might do some maintenance on "someone else's code".