Can Novices Jump Directly in C? (Books)

[John Veregge]

peregrin at hulaw1.harvard.edu writes:


>	Can anyone recommend an introduction to programming book that uses C?
>I'm not referring to C-For-Pascal-Programmers etc. kind of books.  I'm aware
>that most introduction to programming books use Pascal, Basic, or Scheme as
>their language, but I haven't seen anybooks that start a novice out directly
>with C.

Actually I learned both C and pascal (and fortran) the same quarter at
UC San Diego. I am no genius (Hell, I wasn't even smart enough to stay in
in school!) but I can program well and most of what I know came from books
and magazines, not experience or classes. My first C book was "A Book on C"
by Al Kelly and Ira Pohl. It was an excellent book that I still enjoy
reading. The authors made no assumptions, and the text flows almost like
well written prose. It is a very nice beginners book.

A good second book (or companion text) is "The C Companion" by Allen Holub.
This book presumes prior knowledge of C, but is written to further explain
the more esoteric and powerful aspects of C to beginners. There is a
presumption that the book's audience is conversant, but not fully fluent
in C. Back then I did not understand how pointers work, since the concepts
were quite alien to me. After reading this book I was able to re-write
a quicksort program from my C class and code away all the array offsets
into pointer in/decrements. This may sound trivial, but try recalling when
you were a beginner, I'll bet pointers were not so trivial to you then.
This book discusses the tools we use (compiler, linker, make, etc), binary
arithmetic, assembly language (using a pseudo code), pointers, advanced
pointers, recursion, programming style, debugging, and an analysis of
printf().

I cannot recommend these two books enough. I can also recommend many more,
but you did stipulate books for the rank beginner. {-:

I would (as a final gasp) compare "A Book On C" to "Oh Pascal".
The differences  are that the pascal text is wordy, humorous, and moves
at a slower pace. I prefered the pace of the C text. I think the pascal
text is one of, if not the, best beginning programming textbooks. But, I
did find the pace of it a might slow. Of course, your mileage may differ.

-- 
John R Veregge                 Section 348 - Flight Command and Data
Jet Propulsion Laboratory      Management (Technology Development)
Calif Institute of Technology  Mail stop: T1704, Office: T1704-P
4800 Oak Grove Drive           Phone: (818) 354-0511, FAX: 393-4494
Pasadena, CA, USA 91109        john at triton.jpl.nasa.gov