Practical C Programming: Why Does 2+2 = 5986?

By Gimp Documentation Team

There are lots of introductory C books, but this is the first one that has the no-nonsense, practical approach that has made Nutshell Handbooks(R) famous. C programming is more than just getting the syntax right. Style and debugging also play a tremendous part in creating programs that run well and are easy to maintain. This book teaches you not only the mechanics of programming, but also describes how to create programs that are easy to read, debug, and update. Practical rules are stressed. For example, there are fifteen precedence rules in C (&& comes before comes before ?: ). The practical programmer reduces these to two: Multiplication and division come before addition and subtraction. Contrary to popular belief, most programmers do not spend most of their time creating code. Most of their time is spent modifying someone else's code. This books shows you how to avoid the all-too-common obfuscated uses of C (and also to recognize these uses when you encounter them in existing programs) and thereby to leave code that the programmer responsible for maintenance does not have to struggle with. Electronic Archaeology, the art of going through someone else's code, is described. This third edition introduces popular Integrated Development Environments on Windows systems, as well as UNIX programming utilities, and features a large statistics-generating program to pull together the concepts and features in the language. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565923065
• ISBN13: 9781565923065
• Release Date: September 1997
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 454 Pages
• Weight: 1.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.2" x 1.1" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

good book

I am torn as to give it 4 or 5 stars. I'd really like to give it 4 1/2 stars but I have 4 or 5 to choose from.I don't know if it's just that I've read about pointers so many times and finally got it but this book seems to me to have the best explanation on them yet. I mean most books tell you about them but in trying to describe them they loose me on why I should use them. This book gave a quick explanation of what they are...

Best C book I have Ever read

Undoubtedly the best C book I have ever read. Stresses readability of code over size. Demonstrates how to effectively Debug code, how to optimize code, and gives down to earth practical instruction on C programming. I would recomend this book to anyone wanting to learn C, or to anyone who knows C and wants to further their knowledge of good C programming theory.

O'Reilly - A way of life...

Reading other people's reviews for most of the O'Reilly series books, what most people are forgetting is that O'Reilly books are not for the faint hearted. These books are written by people who use these languages for a living. They teach people in the more advanced capabilities of the language and the proper ways to use it. In fact, several of the books are written by people who were developing the languages. Practical...

A Very Good C Book. Typical O'Reilly Excellence.

If you are at all familiar with O'Reilly computer books, you know that they typically put out a good product. This book is no exception. It is not a book for "dummies" or "idiots" in that it does not present the material in 5 sentence paragraphs and have zillions of useless pictures. In addition, it does not purport to teach you something as complex a C programming in an exorbitantly short period. What is DOES do,...

The BEST C book this C programmer has ever read!

I own literally shelves full of C and C++ books, and I've been programming in C professionally for almost ten years. This is THE book to have on C. I insist that every junior programmer I work with has a copy! It addresses not only programming syntax but good software engineering practices, and it has the most realistic real-world types of problems I have ever seen. When he asks you to find the bug in a section of code,...