Customer Reviews

The Joy of C, 3rd Edition

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
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Most books on programming that I have read use 'snippets' of code to demonstrate concepts. This is fine for someone with a grasp of underlying concepts, but useless to novices and students attempting to learn C for the first time. The main problem is lack of context... most of these 'snippets' merely demonstrate _syntax_ Joy of C uses samples that are part of an actual program so that the student may benefit from seeing how 'it all fits together'. The samples are not abstract, they are actually useful. Most of the exercises are extensions of previous programs, demonstrating the iterative process of programming where we take smaller programs that work and slowly add functionality. The authors have a website that provide solutions to many of the exercises, providing guidance when needed. Most of the code compiles and runs. The book covers alot of information, so some of the explanations aren't as detailed or simple as they could be. I believe that some basic grasp of programming concepts would make the book easier to digest, and would recommend it as a second book for students who have never done any programming at all. I highly recommend it to anyone with some programming experience as a means of learning C.

I just bought the book a month ago, but already had 3 other titles previously. The thing that impressed me the most is the authors' style of teaching. So many examples, carefully starting from the basics down to a more complicated version of it, adding little snippets that makes one fully understands why a certain statement do what it does when compiled and run. My only regret is that I should have bought this book while I was in college or before I bought the 3 titles before it. This is a type of book in C that made me think a lot about the logic behind each example's functionality even when I'm not reading it and always makes me compare it with the other titles. Now I'm really excited to finish the book and try all the examples and exercises that goes with it, because honestly, I'm not yet an advanced C programmer, so any help from any book is very well appreciated.

Thank you Mr. Miller & Mr. Quilici for this wonderfully laid-out book.

I picked up this book as someone with no programming experience to speak of. After working through it for a month, I thoroughly understood all of the major concepts in C. The presentation is thorough and interesting. While this wouldn't be my first choice as a C reference to have around, it is a good read (a feat for a technical book of this nature) which offers tons of examples of actual implementation of concepts. I would recommend it to anyone with an analytical mind, looking to break into the world of programming in C.

Greak work on C but it needs fine tuning still. Written in a fearless manner by those who know what they are talking about.If you have no teacher to guide you then after going through this book a few times you should be competent in C programming.Combine this book with the C programming: a modern approach then you are prepared to fly even higher.After reading these two books the C programming language written by K&R should begin to make sense. It appears the authors have completely stopped work on the book.

In passed three years, I have read the book at least five times thoroughly. The most exciting part of the book is the full of completed examples. The completed example means that the example is completed and you could compile it and see the result of execution from your code development tools right away. I.e., you don't have to figure out how a particular C statement or structure can be used in real world. If you prefer "learn by example," it will be definitively one of your best choices.

This book was used for one semester by my University. It is not concise, it contains many examples and explanations of common C syntactical problems. It focuses on ANSI C, and is unfortunately a bit Windows-centric (no basic documentation on using Makefiles or common Unix libraries to link against)

Overall a very good book for beginners (although a bit pricey!)

This book is the best book for introducing C language to one who has pre-programming experience befor. It starts in a messy and dirty way to lead you view all the C codes and most basic structures. But, it will explain in great details in following chapters... Neat and Clean... Great Examples too...

I bought this book just for the title, because I assume that you can always learn something from someone who loves what he's doing and is bold enough to state it in the title of a book. I was not disappointed. C and programming in general are introduced though lots of simple, gradual examples reaching the right compromise between being too naive and overwhelm the reader with too much detail. The interest and pleasure that the author takes in programming shines through every page and makes the learning effort less tiring. I won't give 5 stars just because the typesetting of the book is rather mediocre, especially by today's standards.
In conclusion, if your want to learn C by yourself, or are in a college course that doesn't force you to buy the nth edition of the trendiest book on C (which will cover exactly the same grounds as this one..) do yourself a favor, save some money and give this little joy of a book a try!
Be warned that the example code comes in a floppy disk not a CD, so your machine might not be able to read it.

I love this book. The examples are very understandable, there is not too much boring text, and it's easy to find what you're looking for. This book is good for both beginners and as a reference for experts. Believe me, after you check this book out, you'll know what I mean.