C Programming: A Modern Approach 2nd Edition

S

Scott W

the second edition of King's book will be released next year. should i
wait until then or just get the currently available version?
 
O

osmium

Scott W said:
the second edition of King's book will be released next year. should i
wait until then or just get the currently available version?

I would not wait, I suppose the new edition covers C99 and there are very
few actual compilers for that anyway.
 
A

Andrew Poelstra

the second edition of King's book will be released next year. should i
wait until then or just get the currently available version?

Buy K&R and C Unleashed. If you can read through those (or have already)
before the second version comes out, buy the first. Attempt to return it
once you've read that, and buy the second version. Keep the second. And
the first, if you're honest.
 
S

Scott W

Andrew said:
Buy K&R and C Unleashed. If you can read through those (or have already)
before the second version comes out, buy the first. Attempt to return it
once you've read that, and buy the second version. Keep the second. And
the first, if you're honest.

well, i've just ordered C Programming off amazon, it's not stocked in
town. i've already got K&R but it's proving to be a tough read (thus the
reason i'm looking at C Programming). like osmium said, it'll cover C99
and from what i've learned, not even GCC fully supports that so i
suppose i've not really got anything to lose. cheers for the advice
anyway ;)
 
A

Al Balmer

well, i've just ordered C Programming off amazon, it's not stocked in
town. i've already got K&R but it's proving to be a tough read

Slow down. K&R is not designed to be read at a page a minute. Other
books use a thousand pages to say the same thing. With K&R, read a
paragraph and think about it. The subject matter isn't any easier if
that paragraph is turned into a dozen pages.
 
R

Robert Gamble

Scott said:
the second edition of King's book will be released next year. should i
wait until then or just get the currently available version?

Next year? I wouldn't count on it. His site originally said "early
2005", when I asked him about this in July 2005 he indicated that work
on the book was progressing slowly and that the new edition would be
available early 2006 and he updated the site. Now the site states that
the book is only 75% complete and will be out in 2007, it may be but I
wouldn't hold my breath. The first version of the book is very good
(and very expensive), I wouldn't wait if I were you, the first edition
is a great book to learn from and it is pretty easy to learn the stuff
that is new in C99 afterwards.

Robert Gamble
 
J

jacob navia

osmium said:
:




I would not wait, I suppose the new edition covers C99 and there are very
few actual compilers for that anyway.

This is wrong.

gcc has a very good C99 implementation.
lcc-win32 (under windows) has most of the C99 functionality

Comeau C99 implementation is 100% compliant.

And there are many others: intel, etc.
 
J

Jordan Abel

Andrew Poelstra said:
Buy K&R and C Unleashed. If you can read through those (or have already)
before the second version comes out, buy the first. Attempt to return it
once you've read that, and buy the second version. Keep the second. And
the first, if you're honest.

It's unclear to me what's "dishonest" about returning a book you've
read. Can you explain your reasoning?
 
A

Andrew Poelstra

It's unclear to me what's "dishonest" about returning a book you've
read. Can you explain your reasoning?

That's basically reading a book for free. Like returning an empty potato
chip bag.

That was my reasoning, but then I remembered the concept of a library. I've
really got to get some sleep. :)
 
A

Al Balmer

That's basically reading a book for free. Like returning an empty potato
chip bag.

That was my reasoning, but then I remembered the concept of a library. I've
really got to get some sleep. :)

Libraries deal in used books - they don't have to try to sell it to
someone else. Besides, we've already paid for the library copy.
 
R

Robert Gamble

jacob said:
This is wrong.

No it isn't.
gcc has a very good C99 implementation.

gcc is not a C99 compiler.
lcc-win32 (under windows) has most of the C99 functionality

lcc-win32 is not a C99 compiler.
Comeau C99 implementation is 100% compliant.

It is one of the few. There are many compilers that support *parts* of
C99 but only a small handful that are actually fully compliant (and
hence C99 compilers).

Robert Gamble
 
J

jacob navia

Robert Gamble a écrit :
No it isn't.




gcc is not a C99 compiler.




lcc-win32 is not a C99 compiler.




It is one of the few. There are many compilers that support *parts* of
C99 but only a small handful that are actually fully compliant (and
hence C99 compilers).

Robert Gamble


According to your criteria then, there are no c++ compilers either,
since in a survey done by the c/c++ user's journal there were almost no
compilers that had 100% compliance witn ansi c++.

The problems of the gcc c99 implementation are minimal, and stating that
"it is not c99" is just not true.
 
K

Keith Thompson

jacob navia said:
According to your criteria then, there are no c++ compilers either,
since in a survey done by the c/c++ user's journal there were almost no
compilers that had 100% compliance witn ansi c++.

Perhaps. I don't know enough about the survey or about C++ compiler
to comment.
The problems of the gcc c99 implementation are minimal, and stating that
"it is not c99" is just not true.

In gcc, a number of C99 features either have not been implemented at
all or have not been implemented in accordance with the standard.
That might be good enough for some purposes, but not for all. If I
happen to have a C99 program that depends on extended identifiers,
inline functions, variable-length arrays, complex numbers, or any of
several other features, I can't reliably use gcc to compile it.
(Reference: <http://gcc.gnu.org/c99status.html>.)

The *only* criterion for judging whether the missing features are
significant is whether they're needed by the code you need to compile.
If you don't happen to use those features, good for you, but that's
not necessarily going to be of any relevance to anyone else.

Compare this to the general level of conformance to the C90 standard,
where I can write a program that uses whatever features I like from
the 1990 ISO C standard and count on being able to compile and execute
it correctly on nearly any platform. That's what conformance looks
like, and that's what language standards are for.
 
I

I.M. !Knuth

The first version of the book is very good (and very expensive), I
wouldn't wait if I were you, the first edition is a great book to
learn from and it is pretty easy to learn the stuff that is new in C99
afterwards.

It is a good book, and it is expensive. Don't overlook browsing in used
bookstores (or abebooks.com -- I just checked: they have a copy for US$23)
if you find the price prohibitive. I picked up my copy, in near mint
condition, at a library booksale for a mere 25 cents (because it's
softcover -- hardcovers go for $1). I had no idea it was such a gem until
I got it home (and apparently some local comp-sci student had no idea what
they were donating away...).
 

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