Average Customer Review: 
| A Very Good C Book. Typical O'Reilly Excellence. | |
If you are at all familiar with O'Reilly computer books, you know that they typically put out a good product. This book is no exception. It is not a book for "dummies" or "idiots" in that it does not present the material in 5 sentence paragraphs and have zillions of useless pictures. In addition, it does not purport to teach you something as complex a C programming in an exorbitantly short period. What is DOES do, is teach you C Programming in a straight forward and through manner. The O'Reilly books -- and this one is no exception -- are no nonsense technical books. They get to the heart of the subject matter and deal with it. You don't have to be a computer guru; but you must posses some basic common sense and a willingness to learn a subject, and not just expect to be an expert by reading a book. Programming is learnt by doing, Period!. This book acts as your guide as you practice and learn this wonderful skill. All the source code in the book (i.e. the examples) can be downloaded from O'Reilly's web site. If you want to learn C, get this book. (P.S. No, I do not have any vested interest or personal stake in O'Reilly Publishing... I am just tired of sub-standard books in the computer industry and applaud this company's quality work.)
| O'Reilly - A way of life... | |
Reading other people's reviews for most of the O'Reilly series books, what most people are forgetting is that O'Reilly books are not for the faint hearted. These books are written by people who use these languages for a living. They teach people in the more advanced capabilities of the language and the proper ways to use it. In fact, several of the books are written by people who were developing the languages. Practical C Programming and all other books in the Nutshell series are for technicly enclined people, not for beginners to the area. These books have been ranked as the best of the best for a reason, their real. Any book that tells you your going to learn a language in 21 days is not going to teach you any details and turn you into a code copier, not a code programmer. But then again, that's MHO.
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.
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