On Thu, Jun 21, 2012 at 05:05:31PM -0500, Chris Bennett wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 21, 2012 at 09:05:42PM +0200, Pieter Verberne wrote:
> > On 2012-06-21 20:09, Bryan Irvine wrote:
> > >On Thu, Jun 21, 2012 at 10:55 AM, Amit Kulkarni
> > ><amitk...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >>>??Talk about learning C Programming and the K&R book being a
> > >>>good one. ??Is
> > >>>this the book?
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>http://www.amazon.com/C-Programming-Language-2nd-Edition/dp/0131103628
> > >>
> > >>yes it is, and i am surprised it is ~ $50. it is such a small book.
> > >>
> > >
> > >That does seem a little bit high. I don't remember what I got mine
> > >for years ago.
> > >
> > >That being said, it is worth a pile of "Learn C in num time"
> > >books. :-)
> >
> > I've got the book too for a few years now. I started it two or three
> > times.
> > Every time I arrive at, lets say page 50 I start another 'hobby'.
> >
>
> Yes, it's a very tough book.
> I have had a similar experience.
>
> I did get a copy of the answers book from an interlibrary loan.
> Did I mention that I like scanners?
>
>
> Anyway, I paid $1 at half price books in the clearance section.
> I have seen it since at $15 - $20 in the same store. Apparently
> clearance books are decided on only by the time not sold
Wel, reading an answers book does not really help. Arriving at the
answers yourself (wich requires effort indeed) is much better.
A mentioned in the preface, K&R requires some knowledge about general
programming concepts and/or access to someone with experience. And it
requires real study, not just causal reading, as others have said
before.
I'm probably biased, I learned C the hard way: I only had access to
the reference manual part of the 1st edition, a long long time ago,
must have been 1985. That reference manuals was about 30 pages
(somehat smaller than the reference manual in the 2nd ed).
If you find K&R hard, still be sure to return to it after you feel
more confortable with C. C is a small language. K&R could not have
said it better in the preface to the 2nd ed: "C is not a big language,
and it is not well served by a big book". While it is a small book
they not only teach the language itself, but a lot about style,
standard idiom and general approach of writing C.
As often, a small book might require more effort, but in the end is
more effective.
-Otto
