| Overview
Learning a language--any language--involves a process wherein you
learn to rely less and less on instruction and more increasingly on
the aspects of the language you've mastered. Whether you're
learning French, Java, or C, at some point you'll set aside the
tutorial and attempt to converse on your own. It's not necessary to
know every subtle facet of French in order to speak it well,
especially if there's a good dictionary available. Likewise, C
programmers don't need to memorize every detail of C in order to
write good programs. What they need instead is a reliable,
comprehensive reference that they can keep nearby. C in a
Nutshell is that reference.
This long-awaited book is a complete reference to the C
programming language and C runtime library. Its purpose is to serve
as a convenient, reliable companion in your day-to-day work as a C
programmer. C in a Nutshell covers virtually everything you need to
program in C, describing all the elements of the language and
illustrating their use with numerous examples. The book is divided into three distinct parts. The first part is
a fast-paced description, reminiscent of the classic Kernighan
& Ritchie text on which many C programmers cut their teeth. It
focuses specifically on the C language and preprocessor directives,
including extensions introduced to the ANSI standard in 1999. These
topics and others are covered: Numeric constants Implicit and explicit type conversions Expressions and operators Functions Fixed-length and variable-length arrays Pointers Dynamic memory management Input and output
The second part of the book is a comprehensive reference to the
C runtime library; it includes an overview of the contents of the
standard headers and a description of each standard library
function. Part III provides the necessary knowledge of the C
programmer's basic tools: the compiler, the make utility, and the
debugger. The tools described here are those in the GNU software
collection. C in a Nutshell is the perfect companion to K&R, and
destined to be the most reached-for reference on your desk.
Editorial ReviewsProduct DescriptionLearning a language--any language--involves a process wherein you learn to rely less and less on instruction and more increasingly on the aspects of the language you've mastered. Whether you're learning French, Java, or C, at some point you'll set aside the tutorial and attempt to converse on your own. It's not necessary to know every subtle facet of French in order to speak it well, especially if there's a good dictionary available. Likewise, C programmers don't need to memorize every detail of C in order to write good programs. What they need instead is a reliable, comprehensive reference that they can keep nearby. C in a Nutshell is that reference. This long-awaited book is a complete reference to the C programming language and C runtime library. Its purpose is to serve as a convenient, reliable companion in your day-to-day work as a C programmer. C in a Nutshell covers virtually everything you need to program in C, describing all the elements of the language and illustrating their use with numerous examples. The book is divided into three distinct parts. The first part is a fast-paced description, reminiscent of the classic Kernighan & Ritchie text on which many C programmers cut their teeth. It focuses specifically on the C language and preprocessor directives, including extensions introduced to the ANSI standard in 1999. These topics and others are covered: - Numeric constants
- Implicit and explicit type conversions
- Expressions and operators
- Functions
- Fixed-length and variable-length arrays
- Pointers
- Dynamic memory management
- Input and output
The second part of the book is a comprehensive reference to the C runtime library; it includes an overview of the contents of the standard headers and a description of each standard library function. Part III provides the necessary knowledge of the C programmer's basic tools: the compiler, the make utility, and the debugger. The tools described here are those in the GNU software collection. C in a Nutshell is the perfect companion to K&R;, and destined to be the most reached-for reference on your desk. |
Other Readers Also Read | Browse Similar Topics | | Top Level Categories:Sub-Categories: | | | |
Reader Reviews From Amazon (Ranked by 'Helpfulness') Average Customer Rating: based on 8 reviews. Don't read if you aren't already familiar with C, 2008-09-07 Reviewer rating: This is not a bad book, but not a great one either. The authors assume that the reader already knows almost everything about C and they are just filling in the holes. Constant references to topics that won't be covered formally until four or five chapters later are jarring. This would make more sense in a book structured strictly as a syntax reference. Don't consider this book if you are trying to learn C; if you already program it may be a useful reference. | Excellent Reference, 2008-06-05 Reviewer rating: This book is a model of brevity and thoroughness. I wish every programming reference could be written this way. Heck, I wish I could write this way. | a comprehensive reference and much more, 2007-12-02 Reviewer rating: every day there are fewer reasons to purchase computer books. so much documentation is online or included as "man" or "info" pages that reference manuals have almost become extinct. "c in a nutshell" proves there can be real value in a book, even on a topic as "settled" as c. the reference is exhaustive, and there are many examples. but there is more to this book than just a c reference...this book really addresses the entirety of developing with common c tools like gcc and make, as well as adding discussion for memory management, pointers, and other thornier topics. the nice thing is that because the world of c isn't likely to change radically from this point, you can likely get use out of this book for another decade.
| Good supplemental resource, 2007-09-21 Reviewer rating: I'll admit that I'm a fan first and foremost of K&R;, but this is a good reference too. It takes a little more time to explain some concepts than K&R;, and does it in a way that can increase your learning. So while I wouldn't call this a drop-in replacement for K&R;, it is definitely a good additional resource, one that I turn to almost as often as I turn to K&R.; | Excellent reference, 2007-06-13 Reviewer rating: A really good book that explains C clearly. I especially like the standard library reference that is included and also the sections on GCC and GDB.
|
Some information above was provided using data from Amazon.com. View at Amazon > |
| |
|
|
