In 1988, The C Programming Language, 2nd Edition (affectionately referred to as K&R2) was first printed. Despite the passing of so many years, C's syntax and semantics have remained fairly stable. It is then fitting that K&R2 remains the de facto manual and reference for helping programmers get acquainted with the C programming language. Dennis M. Ritchie, one of the co-authors, is the original designer of C and also helped design the Unix operating system in the '60s. Brian Kernighan also helped with the design of Unix, AWK, and is noted for creating other well-known Unix programs.
Not only are the authors well qualified, but they communicate very effectively in concise and clear language. The authors do not pander or condescend to readers. They make no claims to teach C in only one day; they actually expect readers to have a basic grasp on various programming concepts. The authors show an earnest desire to help programmers learn the language. The code examples provided are very helpful and exceptionally elegantly coded. As other reviewers have noted, they help instill good coding habits from the start.
K&R2 provides a helpful introduction to programmers, which gives an overview of what the C programming language is (and is not). The introduction explains C's typing system and basic features. The meat of the book is well organized into chapters that sequentially build upon previous chapters. Chapter 5, "Pointers and Arrays," for example, does a great job at elucidating a difficult computer science concept. A lot of people are well aware of nasty bugs deriving from using pointers and arrays, but the authors explain pointers and arrays in a very clear way, which draws the important distinctions between them.
After the main tutorial chapters, the appendix follows in an amazingly compact, yet thorough reference, which includes a C grammar, overview of the standard libraries, and more. Oftentimes, this reference is the most convenient and concise source for information (note that the C Standard is *the* authoritative source on the C specification). For example, the section covering the "*printf" and "*scanf" conversion specifiers is extremely helpful and much easier to digest than most man pages.
For such a relatively small text, it's amazing how thorough it is. Although it's no substitute for having a copy of the ISO C Standard at hand, it's still an indispensable reference to have. Also, since C99 has yet to be fully implemented on many common implementations, developers still look to the ANSI C standard for ensuring their code is as portable as possible.
I feel K&R2 is the best reference for learning C; it has been considered canon for all these years for a reason.
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One of the Most Recommended Programming Books of All Time
"It is hard for me to describe just how profoundly that book affected my career. I remember reading it by a campfire in my back yard—my original still smells of smoke—puzzling over the code, and standing to cheer for the concepts. The simple elegance of the writing; the pragmatic outlook of the authors; the sheer beauty of the language thrilled me as no language had before—or has since."
Robert "Uncle Bob" Martin, author of Clean Code.
"K&R is one of my favorite books. The style of the tutorial chapters is so deceptively light and simple and the manual so crisp. Much of C's reputation of simplicity comes from the clarity and great little examples from this book. My 1978 copy has lost its cover and my K&R2 is somewhat dog eared. Above all, K&R is a useful book."
Bjarne Stroustrup, designer and original implementer of C++, and author of The C++ Programming Language
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This book is well printed, has a complete Table of Contents, an appendix, and an index. This is my first and only recommendation for learning C ESPECIALLY as a beginner. If you’re coming from Python having good syntax might throw you off but once you adjust you will see why everyone hates writing in Python.
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Reviewed in Germany on May 16, 2024
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Reviewed in Germany on May 16, 2024
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