Customer Reviews

C Programming: A Modern Approach

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have browsed some C and C++ books in major bookstores to see how the materials are organized and presented. This one was not a book I had a chance to browse, but one which I had to buy for an extension course (Introductory C Programming) at UCLA last summer.

At first I thought King's book was hard because of a certain depth of penetration into elements of good programming practices with examples one after another. As I became serious and started to reading intently, I found out how effective King was in paving the way toward a comprehensive understanding of C programming through worked out code and annotations. King is very skilled in breaking down and building up C code, unlike certain celebrated C programming language experts who apparently do not care to be clear or are simply ineffective. So my conclusion is: Read this each chapter of this book very closely, carefully and seriously, and try to understand every last point King is raising. Also, do not neglect working out some of his exercises at the end of each chapter for the benefit of practice as well as learning C. In almost every chapter of the book, he gives very good, organized and annotated but not tedious and complex examples. The problems are generally reasonable and hardly ever too complicated because I never found them overwhelming, either from a coding perspective or mathematically. Perhaps it is because King comes across as someone who emphasizes organization, detail, clarity and explanation in his style of presentation. There are no problems dealing with heavy scientific or engineering applications for those who dread them.

Great points: (1) Fundamentals - beginning chapters goes into detail for a solid grounding of C language basics (syntax, etc.); and (2) Pointers - excellent exposition with examples, diagrams and exercises, extremely well presented for the starters who easily get confused by what pointers in C are all about; and (3) Ideas are very well connected from chapter to chapter -- some chapters are even as great as stand-alone ones for referencing. The only problems I found were: (1) Description of struct types, which are passed by value from function to function -- implied but not clearly or succintly stated in the book (compare the description in the excellent book by Kelley and Pohl, "A Book in C"); (2) Chapter on program design, which I found to be very terse and scanty in terms of information topics about designing medium size to large C programs -- also jumps into encapsulation and C++ too soon and leaves out one too many basic ideas in C program organization -- "Look before you leap", C++ is object-oriented, and is therefore much more complex and evolved, so why do too much of C++ when one must learn basics of ANSI C well beforehand!

For some reason, I feel strongly that King is following the writing style and presentation of the classical work in C programming by Kernighan and Ritchie. He even discusses the significant contributions of Kernighan in establishing the C language as the mainstay of modern programming for all kinds of applications. There are some uncanny resemblance in style and other parallels I sense in his book. King also retains a lot of the clarity in thinking and intrinsic simplicity reflected in Kernighan and Ritchie's writing style.

Because of the lengthy chapters and reading required, this is not the best ANSI C reference book in my view. Kelley and Pohl's excellent paperback, entitled "A Book in C", does far better in that respect. However, King has more good illustrated examples in his book for the newcomer. You will like his book if you like Kernighan and Ritchie's paperback classic. In fact, King has more for you. The only caveat may be that any newcomer would be well advised to try to understand a little about C before attempting to read the book, because only afterwards does King's treatment only makes sense and becomes meaningful and stimulating. Also, it may help out considerably if one finds a good instructor to teach ANSI C in formal classroom environment using King's book here (as I did last summer at UCLA Extension).

All in all: A very good no-nonsense book for the motivated beginner in C programming.

This is the second of King's books I have purchased. It is also the second that I am very very pleased with.

This book presents a quick systematic clear way of learning to program in C period. This has to be the easiest programming book I have ever read that goes beyond absolute basics.

Frankly I don't understand the few negative reviews others have given the book. Yes it would have been nice to have answers to the exercises. However this is a programming book, you get the answers yourself by doing the work. Mistakes are readily apparent, simply because it won't work!

In terms of difficulty, the exercises are doable. There have been a few that did stump me.....for a little while. With a bit of rereading and some experimenting, I have managed to answer all that I have attempted.

Do yourself a favor if you are learning C and buy the book either as a stand alone or as a supplement to another book.

I ordered K.N. King's ``C Programming: A Modern Approach (Second Edition)'' from Amazon for my recent birthday. Having had more birthdays than I care to admit, this gift to myself is right up there with a Lionel train set I got for my eighth birthday (not from Amazon, of course -- it didn't exist that long ago but passengers trains sure did :)).

In this second edition, I think that KNK is now the logical heir to K&R. That's not meant as blasphemy -- Kernighan and Ritchie's still great volume is around 20 years of age and it's unlikely they'll be getting together for K&R3. The C language has undergone enough changes (with the amendment of 1994) and C99, that a ``Modern Approach'' really is needed.

There's another author familiar to readers of the comp.lang.c newsgroup for his approachable, engaging writing style. That author is a wonderful writer but doesn't let the truth get in the way of good narrative. King, though, is an equally engaging writer but is obviously passionate about correctness and adhering to the C standard. He's also meticulous about portability so that the examples are written in pure C and not some platform-specific variant.

I've the entire book and can find hardly anything even nitpick. Aside from a minor style difference about using parentheses with the ``sizeof'' operator, which King explains his rationale for doing so, that's about it.

His explanation of C99 (and the differences from C90 are clearly indicated) made me aware of some really nice features of the current standard for the language (and makes me wonder why one very notable compiler implementer hasn't yet supported C99).

In short, get this book. The Q&A sections at the end of each chapter are very well done. The exercises and programming projects help to amplify the material presented. And King's examples will teach you more about barcodes and ISBN numbers than you ever thought possible.

If you can appreciate the work of a fine craftsman in film such as Martin Scorsese, you'll find that King is of that caliber in the realm of lucidly dealing with this technical subject.

I had the unsual opportunity and privilege to learn C from this book and directly taught by the author himself. K.N.King has mastered not only the art of C programming but also the art of communicating his knowledge of the subject even to the least common experienced programmer(believe me, I have first hand experience with the author. and Boy I do miss all those office hours!) The book is internationally appealing(It is used in many countries by programmers of all levels) It really stands head and shoulder above the rest of all of them. It's unique in its spiral approach to the subject.It also does a pretty good job of shutting out all the critics who claim that you can't be a big shot C programmer right out of college. Not if you read this book from cover to cover and stop complaining about page 30 exercise #5!

Some years back, someone mentioned the first edition of this book on Usenet as a possible alternative to K&R for someone trying to learn C. I was surprised, but I got a copy of the book to find out... And he was right.

Let me get the biases out on the table first: I did technical review of this book for the 2nd edition. But... While that leaves me in a great place to be biased about it, it also means that I'm aware of just how few typos or bugs were there even in the draft versions.

This book is an excellent teaching resource; it covers the language carefully, completely, and well. However, mere clarity of communication isn't enough to make a good programming reference; you also need to have confidence that the example code works as described, that the explanations given are correct, and so on. This is one of the only books out there I feel comfortable recommending to people, without worrying that I'll end up having to correct dozens of misconceptions later.

Quite simply, this is the C book I recommend to people who want to learn C, or polish up their C. In a market full of "approachable" books which are full of errors, this book offers a combination of clarity and accuracy which is unmatched.

Not only the best C book I have ever read, but probably the best computer-related book I've ever read. The explanations are clear, consise, and yet detailed enough for a complete understanding of the material. The figures are simple and helpful, and there are a lot of short pieces of example code to help out. The end of each chapter features a "FAQ" section where the author answers quite a few common questions you might have as you read through the chapter. It's the one book that has never let me down...I have always been able to find the answer I was looking for. I wish the author would write a book about every field of computer science.

This was my first C book. I needed a jump start in C and Mr. King did it for me. The book is well written. The code examples are well thought out and THEY WORK!

Now that I'm more experienced in C/C++ I still go back to King. It's an awesome reference book.

No matter what your skill level, this book will teach you something. Get it, read it, code the examples, ponder the awesome Q&A's at the end of every chapter... You'll be glad that you did.

This is probably the best book for learning to program in C. The coverage is full of details and the author does a great job in satisfying the reader without being borring.
In my opinion, if you are learning C for the first time, you might want to first get a simpler book (I recommend "Teach Yourself C in 24 Hours"). But when you are ready to get the full treatment get this book.

There are two C books you absolutely need to read. This one, and "Programming in C" by Stephen G Kochan. don't bother with the K&R C book - It's so outdated. I frequently hear people say that the only C book u need is the K&R book, but they're so wrong!

This textbook is extremely well written. I got it when I was learning C and it was perfectly suited to this - I don't have any criticisms. It made me realize that there are some textbooks that are a class above the majority and that the time spent finding the good ones will quickly be repaid.