Rating:
(39 reviews)
Author: K. N. King
ISBN : 0393979504
New from $63.95
Format: PDF, EPUB
Direct download links available Free C Programming: A Modern Approach, 2nd Edition [Paperback] from 4shared, mediafire, hotfile, and mirror link
The first edition of C Programming: A Modern Approach was popular with students and faculty alike because of its clarity and comprehensiveness as well as its trademark Q&A sections.
Professor King's spiral approach made it accessible to a broad range of readers, from beginners to more advanced students. With adoptions at over 225 colleges, the first edition was one of the leading C textbooks of the last ten years. The second edition maintains all the book's popular features and brings it up to date with coverage of the C99 standard. The new edition also adds a significant number of exercises and longer programming projects, and includes extensive revisions and updates.
Books with free ebook downloads available Free C Programming: A Modern Approach, 2nd Edition
- Paperback: 832 pages
- Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 2 edition (April 19, 2008)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0393979504
- ISBN-13: 978-0393979503
- Product Dimensions: 1.2 x 9.8 x 7.8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Free C Programming: A Modern Approach, 2nd Edition
I ordered K.N. King's ``C Programming: A Modern Approach (Second Edition)'' from Amazon for my recent birthday. Having had more birthdays than I care to admit, this gift to myself is right up there with a Lionel train set I got for my eighth birthday (not from Amazon, of course -- it didn't exist that long ago but passengers trains sure did :)).
In this second edition, I think that KNK is now the logical heir to K&R. That's not meant as blasphemy -- Kernighan and Ritchie's still great volume is around 20 years of age and it's unlikely they'll be getting together for K&R3. The C language has undergone enough changes (with the amendment of 1994) and C99, that a ``Modern Approach'' really is needed.
There's another author familiar to readers of the comp.lang.c newsgroup for his approachable, engaging writing style. That author is a wonderful writer but doesn't let the truth get in the way of good narrative. King, though, is an equally engaging writer but is obviously passionate about correctness and adhering to the C standard. He's also meticulous about portability so that the examples are written in pure C and not some platform-specific variant.
I've the entire book and can find hardly anything even nitpick. Aside from a minor style difference about using parentheses with the ``sizeof'' operator, which King explains his rationale for doing so, that's about it.
His explanation of C99 (and the differences from C90 are clearly indicated) made me aware of some really nice features of the current standard for the language (and makes me wonder why one very notable compiler implementer hasn't yet supported C99).
In short, get this book. The Q&A sections at the end of each chapter are very well done.
I've read a few "language agnostic" books and a few "language-specific" books over the past 2 years. There is generally a wide schism between these two types of books. Let me summarize them here:
Language Agnostic (examples: SICP, Introduction to Algorithms, Introduction to Computer Science):
These books focus on building programming fundamentals. Yes, SICP and Intro to CS use Scheme and Python respectively, but they focus on offering you the foundations to write useful and delightful programs. These aren't "cook books:" they teach you how to think through and understand problems and how to solve them with computers. Most notably, there tends to be many exercises at the end of the chapters that enhance your understanding of the material. These books tend to be long and dense, but well worth the effort.
Language-Specific Books (examples: Clojure Programming, Definitive Guide to Drupal):
I've learned to loathe these kinds of books. While they give you an overview of the features, they really never go through how to combine and mix the parts to make you more comfortable with the language or framework. The thing I hate the most is the incessant language-bashing and chatting up how incredible the languages are. I'm not saying they aren't worth the money, as they usually are, but they tend to only be a starting point, leaving many questions unanswered, and all the talk about "Doing it the hard way or the Drupal Way" and "Clojure raising your game.. and oh yeah, Python, Ruby, and Java sucks" takes away valuable real-estate to get you on your way to confidently use the language when you are done reading it and ultimately distracts me from the learning material. If I wanted to be indoctrinated, I wouldn't spend $30 for a book; I'd read a blog for free.
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