Stephen Prata's "C Primer Plus, 4th Ed" (CPP4E) is an excellent book. I took a close look at the competition and even started reading O'Reilly's "Practical C Programming" before realizing CPP4E was the book for me. I had no C programming background, but had the knowledge of C-64 BASIC, Pascal, and other languages shared by many kids born in the 1970s. If you're looking for a well-conceived introduction to C, Prata's book is for you.
CPP4E impresses the reader on many levels. First, Prata's writing is exceptionally clear. He doesn't require you to dissect that one "key sentence" which encapsulates all the author has to say on a single topic. Prata defines all of his terms, uses them in examples, and reintroduces them when later new ideas require background presented earlier.
Second, CPP4E is a "teach yourself" manual. If you read the text, type in the examples, answer the review questions, and try at least some of the programming exercises, you will learn something. I typed many of the examples in the book by hand and also made use of the code supplied on the publisher's Web site. CPP4E should be used in classes as an introductory C book.
Third, it's evident a lot of thought and work went into publishing CPP4E. The index is thorough and applicable. The arrangement of topics makes sense. The diagrams are easy to decipher. The errata available on the publisher's Web site is comprehensive. I did find a few minor issues and submitted those to SAMS, which they acknowledged.
My only concern is the author's differentiation between "serious code" and "more relaxed programming." He says on p. 410 "in serious programming, you should use fgets() rather than gets(), but this book takes a more relaxed approach." Unfortunately, this relaxed approach is the reason why computers are constantly compromised. By now programmers should realize that users deploy their code in the most hostile of environments, and intruders will blow away anything that's not bullet proof. While Prata does show readers how to take more secure approaches, I'd like to see a security theme consistently applied throughout the fifth edition.
Overall, I strongly recommend CPP4E to anyone interested in an introduction to C. If you're looking for network programming, however, you won't find it here. Keep an eye on future reviews of mine for my picks on a socket programming guide. Keep in mind when reading this review that I'm a beginning C programmer. I'm not in a position to judge the author's style. However, I doubt many experienced programmers would read this entire book!
ISBN-13:
978-0672322235
ISBN-10:
0672322234
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Helen Adamson
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 31, 2014Verified Purchase
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Reviewed in Germany on June 26, 2015Verified Purchase
