Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Practical C Programming, 3rd Edition by Steve Oualline ISBN: 1-56592-306-5 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates Pub. Date: 03 August, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (42 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: One of the Best!
Comment: I'm surprised at some of the single-star reviews for this book. IMHO, anyone who thinks this book isn't clearly written simply didn't spend enough time reading and thinking about the material. Let's face it, programming isn't easy -- you need to learn some basic concepts, then learn the syntax of a language, then practice and move on to advanced features. This book does an excellent job of helping programmers, even complete novices, do just that.
The author also goes beyond the basics, and covers some hints and tips that are not mentioned in any other beginner's book that I can find. For example, many beginner's books warn about the erratic behavior of scanf(), but only Practical C takes the extra step by providing a complete workaround (the author advises not to use scanf(), and to use fgets() and sscanf() instead).
I'm only a beginner, and so far I have purchased and read through Greg Perry's Absolute Beginner's Guide to C, Dave Mark's Learn C on the Macintosh (and on Win 95), the classic K&R C Programming Language, and Practical C. All of these books have their advantages, but I think K&R is a bit too difficult for complete newbies. The Perry and Mark books may be a little too simple, but they're excellent quick reads. Practical C is the perfect middle ground, and I recommend that it be read in conjuction with one of the easier books before moving on to K&R.
I also recommend that you read through a chapter completely to get the concepts, then go back and do all the exercises for reinforcement. That's what I did, and even though I struggled to "get" some of the material the first time around, on the second read-through everything managed to sink in.
I can't recommend this book highly enough -- it is clear, accurate, and a pleasure to read and work through.
Rating: 5
Summary: good book
Comment: 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 and then showed a practical example of how they are used. To me, this was very important.
This is also the first book I've read that really explained the preprocessor to me and now I finally understand that #include "whatever.h" really isn't c-code but rather preprocessor stuff. It contained very good explanations of this and macros.
While I don't know that I would recommend this to a beginner, it certainly helps the intermediate programmer (which I feel that I am) move up a little. It is also one of the first technical books that I really didn't want to put down and that I read like a novel. While I skipped over most of the exercises, as I felt I would go back to them, I felt a lot of the questions that are in the book are good examples of how to spot common errors. Mostly stupid programmer errors like forgetting to close a comment which I think helps make the book more "practical" like the title suggests.
If you write code for a living, this probably isn't the book for you. If you don't already know a programming language more complicated than BASIC or don't have some basic knowledge of C then this book is not for you. HOWEVER, if you've taken a class in c, read a book but didn't really feel like you've really understood c, this book is for you.
Rating: 4
Summary: a good C book but not a reference or turtorial
Comment: the book talks all the interesting aspects of C, and very useful if you are familiar with it. but not a good book if you need one for reference.
 |
Title: Mastering Algorithms with C by Kyle Loudon ISBN: 1565924533 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates Pub. Date: 01 August, 1999 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
 |
Title: C Pocket Reference by Peter Prinz, Ulla Kirch-Prinz ISBN: 0596004362 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates Pub. Date: 21 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
 |
Title: C Programming Language (2nd Edition) by Brian W. Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie, Dennis M. Ritchie ISBN: 0131103628 Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR Pub. Date: 22 March, 1988 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
 |
Title: Practical C++ Programming, Second Edition by Steve Oualline ISBN: 0596004192 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates Pub. Date: January, 2003 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
 |
Title: C: A Reference Manual (5th Edition) by Samuel P. Harbison, Guy L. Steele ISBN: 013089592X Publisher: Prentice Hall Pub. Date: 21 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $44.99 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
