Customer Reviews

C: A Software Engineering Approach

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is the best general purpose introduction to C that I've found (during a lot of searching). It's aimed at beginners, but there's excellent material for the intermediate programmer as well. It take's the readable style found in Herbert Schildt's books (also recommended) and extends it with more details on the "why's" behind the code. The addition of warnings about common (and easily missed) errors is an added benefit. If you're looking for a single volume that addresses all the questions a C neophyte might have you won't go wrong with this book.

An inspiring combination of examples and explanations for the beginner coupled with an in-depth treatment of most of the obscure features in C. The book has a comprehensive index of the standard library functions and a layout which makes it easy to find whatever you might be looking for. The only thing missing is a comparison of C to C++.

15 years ago I came across this book accidentally in a second hand shop primarily selling Springer books.
I already had K&R because it was best known, but was not really satisfied with it as a transitioner from Fortran.
This book had all I needed, especially on pointers (see all other reviews).
I always enjoyed reading it. It's not about becoming a C obsfucation contest winner,
but about C as a tool for software engineers.
Combined with Harbison & Steele's "A C Reference Manual" and Hanson's "C Interfaces and Implementations",
which are my other most referenced C books, you will have a solid basic library to rely on as a C programmer.

I've been using a previous edition for about 10 years now. This is the best C book I've encountered. It is also an excellent general programing (software engineering) book. It gets back to the basic principles of good programing, something that is often lost in the syntactical complexities that many books/courses concentrate on. Good programing is a mindset and collection of (good) practices which this book goes into. The fact that is focuses on C rather than C++ is nice because the additional baggage (syntax) of C++ would obscure the priciples they are getting at. I am a software engineer for a large computer company. My wife selected this book when she taught an introductory programing course at U. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in the early 90's.

This is probably my favorite programming book of all time. This plus a copy of K&R and you're all set (if you're reasonably clever). It puts roughly equal emphasis on teaching the basics of the C language and conveying software engineering "best practices," so it should be supplemented with a concise language reference, and probably the API reference for the platform of your choice. It will not baby-step you through to utter wizardry, so if that's what you're looking for, get one of those 6" thick books that does more hand-holding. But if you want the important parts, very clearly explained, this is an ideal book.

The perfect balance of complete, useful information on ANSI C. All technical information (data types, operators, declarations, pointers, arrays) is there. It it all explained in sufficient, readable but not wordy detail. It is remarkable in its efficiency.

It's all in there - the preprocessor, railroad diagrams showing the syntax of each statement, code snippets where they useful. Data structures, starting with the bit datatype, then defining and explaining more advanced concepts of unions, structures, and the user-defined types using _typedef_. Then full examples tieing it together with linked lists, then doubly linked lists.

A brief section on software engineering concepts showing the importance of design and test, and finally a complete working C interpreter.

What really sets it apart though is its complete reference of the most-used standard library functions - formatted and file I/O, string and memory manipulation functions. Effective use of the proven library functions is one of the marks of the software professional, and the outer framework of most useful real-life programs is getting data in and out.

The book begins with a very high-level overview of programs to establish its context, but this is NOT a how-to-program book. If you already understand the fundamental concepts (arithmetic and logical operations, looping) and you need a comprehensive book on how to use C, this is the one. There are lots of books in the "this is a reference, not a tutorial" class (e.g. K&R) and lots of wordy tutorials that never get to the difficult parts (like 'how do I pass a pointer to a multidimensional array.'). This is one book that is sufficiently organized to be a reference, with enough clear explanation that you'll learn how and why things work.

I've had my 2nd edition of this book since it was new in 1991 and recently purchased a copy of the reviewed edition for a friend. It's still excellent, with improved coverage of new features and extensions, and removal of the obsolete adjective "new" when referencing the ANSI standard that's been ratified for a good long while now.

There is no mention of C++ - this is a C book. Good ol' ANSI C is still the language of choice for many if not most embedded projects, even new design. I believe a solid foundation in C will serve any C++ programmer well - under the 'object' layer of C++ lie member functions that actually do the work, and those functions look a lot like C...

Like most good technical books, this one's not cheap, but it's a quality Springer-Verlag binding on acid-free paper that will last a career if not a lifetime. And considering the depth, breadth, and clarity of the content, it is a bargain.

A must-have.

I used the non-ANSI version of this book to learn C years ago. I have the newer ANSI version and it remains my number-one reference source. Clearly written, it shows how to write C code that is easy to understand and maintain. It also shows common mistakes. Best explanation of pointers that I've ever seen.

As some one who took an unguided path into C programming, I can really appreciate how much of a difference this book would have made if I came across it earlier.

This book elegantly lays down the structure and parts of the C language. It presents the reasons behind various features of the language.

This is the book that will teach you to think about programming in an intuitive way.

This is an excellent book for someone learning C. It is one of the most understandable that I have come across.

Where the K&R book is terrible for learning C, this book makes it a snap.
It provides an organized and complete tutorial for the novice C programmer as well as a useful reference for the more experienced C user.