C Programming books after K&R?

Google · 2010-08-08 06:32:00

I finished "The C Programming Book" by K&R. I understand most of the book. I am a little foggy on a few things, in particular pointers to struct functions and struct functions, and some complex pointer arguments etc, but I am slowly understanding it more and more. I found some video lectures concerning structs and pointers, and it's helping.

What I am looking for now is a book to read for C programming after K&R, since I finished it. Is there any more 'advanced' book similar to K&R? I liked how K&R was right to the point and no fluff. It's a pretty standard C book, and I want another good book of the same quality.

Any ideas?

Last edited by Google (2010-08-08 06:33:09)

Ari'osika · 2010-08-08 07:07:59

Seeing that you've just read the (definitive)? source on the C language...

"Sams Teach Yourself C" would have been my suggestion but re-reading the description on wikipedia, my suggestion is probably not meant for you. Sorry

A bit off-topic;
The C Programming Book is much like the "Camel Book" used by perl hackers. Once I read it, it kinda made other perl programming books pale in comparision.

Google · 2010-08-08 07:17:48

I know it's the definitive book, and it is fantastic. The problem is now I don't know what to read, haha. I don't really know 'where to go' from here. I assume I could dig deeper and deeper into the standard library and learn that more, and learn more about recursion, structs and arrays/pointers.. but it would be nice if there is a second holy book for C to make this easier ^___^,

If anyone knows of any good books let me know~ I have found a lot of books for C... but the thing is a lot of them are just rehashed versions of the C Programming Book, or don't dig any deeper than the the C book.

Ari'osika · 2010-08-08 07:25:39

Ah okay, didn't (really) know, I'm not a C programmer

Perhaps you should try looking for other books about C, written by the same author?

michaelr · 2010-08-08 08:03:04

You could try some of the books mentioned in the comp.lang.c FAQ Bibliography. There are some gems in there..

http://c-faq.com/sx2/index.html

Google · 2010-08-08 08:26:11

Thanks, checking into them

mikesd · 2010-08-08 08:36:01

I found "C Programming - A Modern Approach" by K. N. King to be quite good.

I learnt C a long time ago and this book clearly marks the C89 and C99 additions to the language that I wasn't aware of. Things like new types, keywords, designated initializers, variable length arrays, etc.

bobdob · 2010-08-08 11:29:03

You should have a look at C in a Nutshell. It covers C as well as make, gcc and gdb.
What I have read of it, it is a nice book and goes into lots of detail.

anrxc · 2010-08-08 12:06:00

The problem is now I don't know what to read, haha. I don't really know 'where to go' from here.

You should go and write some code.

Google · 2010-08-08 12:35:04

"What to code" is another question all together. I have a few ideas and I am always coding small stuff to better learn stuff I read, but I want to work on a 'big' project of some sort. I am just trying to work out what I want to code...

I am going to check out C in a Nutshell, and keep trying to code.

Any more ideas? How do you 'improve' the most? Any more advice?

anrxc · 2010-08-08 16:10:42

Best learning is by doing... but yeah, finding something useful and meaningful to write is not easy. Also once you do there is great power in being able to write your own tools, and in building your toolset.

lustikus · 2010-08-08 16:45:59

http://projecteuler.net/ is a good way to improve your skills. While most problems there don't have any "real world" usage you will still learn alot about efficienct algorithms.

Google · 2010-08-09 01:01:12

Thanks, I am reading C in a Nutshell for the GDB help, and the chapter on make files. I am also reading more on pointers and structs. I think they are a huge topic that needs to be solidified. I want to be able to use them without thinking twice about it (if that's even possible).

I also read, "C Traps and Pitfalls." It was an interesting paper.

I am also reading Unix Systems Programming, and I want to read more on Windows programming and the win32 API. Any good bible books for Windows? I would prefer Unix only, but I know some time down the line Windows knowledge is going to be needed.

The ideas for coding are good. I like to make tools, and I also like to sometimes challenge myself with an unrelated problem. I will try to use both coding practices.

Thanks a lot!

Themaister · 2010-08-09 01:30:32

Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment (2nd edition) is just plain awesome at least. UNIX/POSIX bible. All examples are in C (obviously), but it's not a language tutorial.

PirateJonno · 2010-08-09 11:34:36

Google wrote:

I am also reading Unix Systems Programming, and I want to read more on Windows programming and the win32 API. Any good bible books for Windows? I would prefer Unix only, but I know some time down the line Windows knowledge is going to be needed.

If you're ever going to need Windows knowledge, it will most likely be .NET in C#/Visual whatever. Maybe the only exception to this is DirectX, which is probably best done in C++ anyway. My advice would be to stay away from Win32 if you can possibly help it.

On the other hand, Unix has some nice user-level libraries for C, not least of which are GLib/Gtk+ etc. I would recommend looking at them if you are interested in higher-level programming and aren't a devout KDE user or anything.

Soumyadeep · 2010-08-09 12:04:27

IMO all books of Yashavant kanetkar are gems! Have a look at "Let us C"

jmp · 2010-08-09 17:47:52

Here's a yet another suggestion: Expert C Programming by Peter van der Linden. I haven't yet finished reading it myself, but it seems like something you might be interested in. It explains a lot of pitfalls, especially related to arrays, pointers (and the relationship of the two) and memory usage, and also has little programming challenges (with solutions!) that you can try for fun. I find it a pleasant read for a technical book.

Last edited by jmp (2010-08-09 17:52:35)

saline · 2010-08-09 23:16:33

jmp wrote:

Here's a yet another suggestion: Expert C Programming by Peter van der Linden. I haven't yet finished reading it myself, but it seems like something you might be interested in. It explains a lot of pitfalls, especially related to arrays, pointers (and the relationship of the two) and memory usage, and also has little programming challenges (with solutions!) that you can try for fun. I find it a pleasant read for a technical book.

+1

Google · 2010-08-10 00:37:22

I pretty much read most of C in a Nutshell. I find the GDB and make file chapters to be very useful. I also like the array and pointer chapters. Basically from chapters 8~9 to the end were a nice review.

I will give Expert C Programming a shot this time. Thanks!

sand_man · 2010-08-10 05:54:01

Not really directed at C but a good book nonetheless, UNIX Programming Environment

Google · 2010-08-10 05:58:07

Is it similar to Unix Systems Programming?

http://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Systems-Prog … 0130424110

I am also reading that, but slower than the rest. It's quite dense.

sand_man · 2010-08-10 06:36:29

Google wrote:

Is it similar to Unix Systems Programming?
http://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Systems-Prog … 0130424110
I am also reading that, but slower than the rest. It's quite dense.

I don't think so. The one I posted is "old school". It's written by Brian Kernighan who (I think) wrote some of the original UNIX tools back in the day.
Most of the book refers to old UNIX tools but it is still quite relevant today.

cesura · 2010-08-10 06:45:01

A little off-topic, but my view on programming books is that they don't work very well, at least not for me. Okay, the beginning of a programming book is useful for learning the bare minimum about the language, but the rest is useless to me. When I want to learn a language, it is usually because I want to make something. I wanted to make websites so I tried PHP. I wanted to make quick graphical apps so I tried Python + wxPython, as well as Django for web apps. I wanted to go a bit lower in terms of code level so I learned C. I wanted to program a bootloader and kernel, so I learned Assembly. The list goes on.

Through every single one of those, I learned the bare minimum about the language and kept going on through trial and error. "Oh, the str() function converts something to a string" or "Oh, so video memory begins at 0x8000h" were things that I heard myself saying along the way. Through many failed attempts and too many Google searches to count, I finally succeeded in creating whatever it was I was trying to make and in the process learned a new programming language!

manzinger · 2010-08-11 13:39:17

I also read K&R and now thought about expanding my knowledge to C++.
I took a quick look at "Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++" by B. Stroustrup in the library, but right in the beginning he mentions that it might be problematic to write a C++ book now that the new C++0x standard is coming.
How much of an issue is this really?

retry · 2010-08-11 13:58:09

And what about Thinking in Cpp vol 1 and vol 2 by Bruce Eckel? They are freely available on his website

Arch Linux

#1 2010-08-08 06:32:00

C Programming books after K&R?

#2 2010-08-08 07:07:59

Re: C Programming books after K&R?

#3 2010-08-08 07:17:48

Re: C Programming books after K&R?

#4 2010-08-08 07:25:39

Re: C Programming books after K&R?

#5 2010-08-08 08:03:04

Re: C Programming books after K&R?

#6 2010-08-08 08:26:11

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#7 2010-08-08 08:36:01

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#8 2010-08-08 11:29:03

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#11 2010-08-08 16:10:42

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