Customer Reviews

Power C: ANSI Standard High-Performance C Compiler

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The Power C product is one of the wonders of the world. The product consists of a well written book and a diskette containing a working C Compiler that works in a Dos environment. For someone trying to learn the C programming language, it is an inexpensive software package and tutorial book. Unlike many compiler books, this one is stuffed full of working example code demonstrating the use of the library routines. Back when I used to sell a Dos compatible operating system, I used to bundle each copy of my software with this book and Disk. The book and disk sells new from Mix Software for about $19 plus tax and shipping so the prices here for used copies are even better. This product is a great deal for a student or hobbyist.

I used this compiler (as well as the K&R book) back in the late 1980's to learn C. It's a solid compiler, and I can't recommend it highly enough for the budding C programmer. If you want to really learn the language itself (as opposed to learning how to stitch libraries together), you can't beat this one for the money. Spring for the debugger too; it is indispensable.

Back in the day (early 1990s), I learned C programming with this little book and compiler. There was also a nifty debugger that was indispensible as well.

If for some reason you're wanting to learn C development (perhaps a college course or something), and you truly want to learn the language (not a bunch of layers of UI shellac over the language like most IDEs provide these days), you can't go wrong with this book and compiler. Every page was wonderfully written with each and every library function fully explained with demonstration code.

This compiler is capable of producing very very tight low-level executables for DOS/Windows. I have nothing but fond memories of this thing, and truly wish modern app development could be so straight forward.