ANSI C /K&R 2nd edition questions,...

[cschmidt at lynx.northeastern.edu]

> If there should be a general or common opinion that the 2nd edition of
> K&R is not adequate for knowing the ANSI standard, can anyone
> recommend something readable/usable?

For advice on the new ANSI C, I like the book "Standard C" by Plauger
and Brodie, copyright 1989.  The authors were members of the committee
that developed the new ANSI standard for the C programming language,
and their book is meant to present the work of that committee.
Plauger was the Secretary and Brodie the "Chair" of that committee.

This book is one of the Microsoft Press "Programmer's Quick Reference
Series".  The list price is about 8 dollars (USA).  I know of no other
reference book of equal authority on the new standard.  The book is
concise, well-written, and reasonably priced.

I am interested in knowing what you think about this book, in
particular whether you agree that is the best reference for writing
portable programs using the new standard.

> There are plenty of books that purport to `boil down' the standard
> into nice, easy, bite-sized bits, but none of them will give you the
> Ultimate Answer to any question.

Really?  Consider a common example: The book "Standard C" includes a
list of standard header files.  If you want to know whether one of the
header files provided with your compiler can be counted on when you
port your program to another ANSI C compiler, this book provides an
answer.  Metaphysics aside, is it true or not that the answer is
reliable?  If we cannot get reliable answers to simple questions like
this, then the ANSI C committee has failed.

Christopher Schmidt
cschmidt at lynx.northeastern.edu