473,320 Members | 1,868 Online
Bytes | Software Development & Data Engineering Community
Post Job

Home Posts Topics Members FAQ

Join Bytes to post your question to a community of 473,320 software developers and data experts.

C Programming: A Modern Approach 2nd Edition

the second edition of King's book will be released next year. should i
wait until then or just get the currently available version?
Jun 14 '06 #1
14 3975
"Scott W" writes:
the second edition of King's book will be released next year. should i
wait until then or just get the currently available version?


I would not wait, I suppose the new edition covers C99 and there are very
few actual compilers for that anyway.
Jun 14 '06 #2
On 2006-06-14, Scott W <d3************@gmail.com> wrote:
the second edition of King's book will be released next year. should i
wait until then or just get the currently available version?


Buy K&R and C Unleashed. If you can read through those (or have already)
before the second version comes out, buy the first. Attempt to return it
once you've read that, and buy the second version. Keep the second. And
the first, if you're honest.

--
Andrew Poelstra < http://www.wpsoftware.net/blog >
To email me, use "apoelstra" at the above address.
I know that area of town like the back of my head.
Jun 14 '06 #3
Andrew Poelstra wrote:
On 2006-06-14, Scott W <d3************@gmail.com> wrote:
the second edition of King's book will be released next year. should i
wait until then or just get the currently available version?


Buy K&R and C Unleashed. If you can read through those (or have already)
before the second version comes out, buy the first. Attempt to return it
once you've read that, and buy the second version. Keep the second. And
the first, if you're honest.


well, i've just ordered C Programming off amazon, it's not stocked in
town. i've already got K&R but it's proving to be a tough read (thus the
reason i'm looking at C Programming). like osmium said, it'll cover C99
and from what i've learned, not even GCC fully supports that so i
suppose i've not really got anything to lose. cheers for the advice
anyway ;)
Jun 14 '06 #4
On Wed, 14 Jun 2006 18:03:52 +0100, Scott W <d3************@gmail.com>
wrote:
Andrew Poelstra wrote:
On 2006-06-14, Scott W <d3************@gmail.com> wrote:
the second edition of King's book will be released next year. should i
wait until then or just get the currently available version?
Buy K&R and C Unleashed. If you can read through those (or have already)
before the second version comes out, buy the first. Attempt to return it
once you've read that, and buy the second version. Keep the second. And
the first, if you're honest.


well, i've just ordered C Programming off amazon, it's not stocked in
town. i've already got K&R but it's proving to be a tough read


Slow down. K&R is not designed to be read at a page a minute. Other
books use a thousand pages to say the same thing. With K&R, read a
paragraph and think about it. The subject matter isn't any easier if
that paragraph is turned into a dozen pages.
(thus the
reason i'm looking at C Programming). like osmium said, it'll cover C99
and from what i've learned, not even GCC fully supports that so i
suppose i've not really got anything to lose. cheers for the advice
anyway ;)


--
Al Balmer
Sun City, AZ
Jun 14 '06 #5
Scott W wrote:
the second edition of King's book will be released next year. should i
wait until then or just get the currently available version?


Next year? I wouldn't count on it. His site originally said "early
2005", when I asked him about this in July 2005 he indicated that work
on the book was progressing slowly and that the new edition would be
available early 2006 and he updated the site. Now the site states that
the book is only 75% complete and will be out in 2007, it may be but I
wouldn't hold my breath. The first version of the book is very good
(and very expensive), I wouldn't wait if I were you, the first edition
is a great book to learn from and it is pretty easy to learn the stuff
that is new in C99 afterwards.

Robert Gamble

Jun 14 '06 #6
osmium wrote:
"Scott W" writes:

the second edition of King's book will be released next year. should i
wait until then or just get the currently available version?

I would not wait, I suppose the new edition covers C99 and there are very
few actual compilers for that anyway.


This is wrong.

gcc has a very good C99 implementation.
lcc-win32 (under windows) has most of the C99 functionality

Comeau C99 implementation is 100% compliant.

And there are many others: intel, etc.

Jun 14 '06 #7
Andrew Poelstra <ap*******@localhost.localdomain> wrote:
On 2006-06-14, Scott W <d3************@gmail.com> wrote:
the second edition of King's book will be released next year. should i
wait until then or just get the currently available version?


Buy K&R and C Unleashed. If you can read through those (or have already)
before the second version comes out, buy the first. Attempt to return it
once you've read that, and buy the second version. Keep the second. And
the first, if you're honest.


It's unclear to me what's "dishonest" about returning a book you've
read. Can you explain your reasoning?
Jun 14 '06 #8
On 2006-06-14, Jordan Abel <ra*******@gmail.com> wrote:
Andrew Poelstra <ap*******@localhost.localdomain> wrote:
On 2006-06-14, Scott W <d3************@gmail.com> wrote:
the second edition of King's book will be released next year. should i
wait until then or just get the currently available version?


Buy K&R and C Unleashed. If you can read through those (or have already)
before the second version comes out, buy the first. Attempt to return it
once you've read that, and buy the second version. Keep the second. And
the first, if you're honest.


It's unclear to me what's "dishonest" about returning a book you've
read. Can you explain your reasoning?


That's basically reading a book for free. Like returning an empty potato
chip bag.

That was my reasoning, but then I remembered the concept of a library. I've
really got to get some sleep. :-)

--
Andrew Poelstra < http://www.wpsoftware.net/blog >
To email me, use "apoelstra" at the above address.
I know that area of town like the back of my head.
Jun 14 '06 #9
On Wed, 14 Jun 2006 23:06:19 GMT, Andrew Poelstra
<ap*******@localhost.localdomain> wrote:
On 2006-06-14, Jordan Abel <ra*******@gmail.com> wrote:
Andrew Poelstra <ap*******@localhost.localdomain> wrote:
On 2006-06-14, Scott W <d3************@gmail.com> wrote:
the second edition of King's book will be released next year. should i
wait until then or just get the currently available version?

Buy K&R and C Unleashed. If you can read through those (or have already)
before the second version comes out, buy the first. Attempt to return it
once you've read that, and buy the second version. Keep the second. And
the first, if you're honest.


It's unclear to me what's "dishonest" about returning a book you've
read. Can you explain your reasoning?


That's basically reading a book for free. Like returning an empty potato
chip bag.

That was my reasoning, but then I remembered the concept of a library. I've
really got to get some sleep. :-)


Libraries deal in used books - they don't have to try to sell it to
someone else. Besides, we've already paid for the library copy.
--
Al Balmer
Sun City, AZ
Jun 14 '06 #10
jacob navia wrote:
osmium wrote:
"Scott W" writes:

the second edition of King's book will be released next year. should i
wait until then or just get the currently available version?

I would not wait, I suppose the new edition covers C99 and there are very
few actual compilers for that anyway.


This is wrong.


No it isn't.
gcc has a very good C99 implementation.
gcc is not a C99 compiler.
lcc-win32 (under windows) has most of the C99 functionality
lcc-win32 is not a C99 compiler.
Comeau C99 implementation is 100% compliant.


It is one of the few. There are many compilers that support *parts* of
C99 but only a small handful that are actually fully compliant (and
hence C99 compilers).

Robert Gamble

Jun 15 '06 #11
Robert Gamble a écrit :
jacob navia wrote:
osmium wrote:
"Scott W" writes:

the second edition of King's book will be released next year. should i
wait until then or just get the currently available version?
I would not wait, I suppose the new edition covers C99 and there are very
few actual compilers for that anyway.


This is wrong.

No it isn't.

gcc has a very good C99 implementation.

gcc is not a C99 compiler.

lcc-win32 (under windows) has most of the C99 functionality

lcc-win32 is not a C99 compiler.

Comeau C99 implementation is 100% compliant.

It is one of the few. There are many compilers that support *parts* of
C99 but only a small handful that are actually fully compliant (and
hence C99 compilers).

Robert Gamble

According to your criteria then, there are no c++ compilers either,
since in a survey done by the c/c++ user's journal there were almost no
compilers that had 100% compliance witn ansi c++.

The problems of the gcc c99 implementation are minimal, and stating that
"it is not c99" is just not true.

Jun 15 '06 #12
jacob navia <ja***@jacob.remcomp.fr> writes:
[...]
According to your criteria then, there are no c++ compilers either,
since in a survey done by the c/c++ user's journal there were almost no
compilers that had 100% compliance witn ansi c++.
Perhaps. I don't know enough about the survey or about C++ compiler
to comment.
The problems of the gcc c99 implementation are minimal, and stating that
"it is not c99" is just not true.


In gcc, a number of C99 features either have not been implemented at
all or have not been implemented in accordance with the standard.
That might be good enough for some purposes, but not for all. If I
happen to have a C99 program that depends on extended identifiers,
inline functions, variable-length arrays, complex numbers, or any of
several other features, I can't reliably use gcc to compile it.
(Reference: <http://gcc.gnu.org/c99status.html>.)

The *only* criterion for judging whether the missing features are
significant is whether they're needed by the code you need to compile.
If you don't happen to use those features, good for you, but that's
not necessarily going to be of any relevance to anyone else.

Compare this to the general level of conformance to the C90 standard,
where I can write a program that uses whatever features I like from
the 1990 ISO C standard and count on being able to compile and execute
it correctly on nearly any platform. That's what conformance looks
like, and that's what language standards are for.

--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) ks***@mib.org <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
San Diego Supercomputer Center <*> <http://users.sdsc.edu/~kst>
We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this.
Jun 15 '06 #13
Jordan Abel wrote:
Andrew Poelstra <ap*******@localhost.localdomain> wrote:
On 2006-06-14, Scott W <d3************@gmail.com> wrote:
the second edition of King's book will be released next year. should i
wait until then or just get the currently available version?

Buy K&R and C Unleashed. If you can read through those (or have already)
before the second version comes out, buy the first. Attempt to return it
once you've read that, and buy the second version. Keep the second. And
the first, if you're honest.


It's unclear to me what's "dishonest" about returning a book you've
read. Can you explain your reasoning?


his real name is K.N. King :p
Jun 15 '06 #14
Robert Gamble <rg*******@gmail.comwrote:

<snip>
The first version of the book is very good (and very expensive), I
wouldn't wait if I were you, the first edition is a great book to
learn from and it is pretty easy to learn the stuff that is new in C99
afterwards.
It is a good book, and it is expensive. Don't overlook browsing in used
bookstores (or abebooks.com -- I just checked: they have a copy for US$23)
if you find the price prohibitive. I picked up my copy, in near mint
condition, at a library booksale for a mere 25 cents (because it's
softcover -- hardcovers go for $1). I had no idea it was such a gem until
I got it home (and apparently some local comp-sci student had no idea what
they were donating away...).
--
I.M. (definitely) !Knuth
Jul 18 '06 #15

This thread has been closed and replies have been disabled. Please start a new discussion.

Similar topics

16
by: Feico | last post by:
Dear friends I am an experienced programmer, but I happen to have MS Access, which uses a language unknown to me. I want to perform an operation on all record on a table, like this For...
12
by: G. | last post by:
Hi all, During my degree, BEng (Hons) Electronics and Communications Engineering, we did C programming every year, but I never kept it up, as I had no interest and didn't see the point. But now...
7
by: TechBookReport | last post by:
TechBookReport have just published a review of 'C Programming In Easy Steps', if you're a C beginner looking for an intro book (or an ex-C developer looking for a quick refresh), ready why this is...
13
by: Andrew Au \(Newsgroup\) | last post by:
Hi all, I am switching from Java to C solely for performance, but I wonder are there any coding techniques that can boost performance in C? I am asking such an open-ended question to elicit...
18
by: Simon Morgan | last post by:
Hi, Does anybody have a solution or a hint for Exercise 5 of Chapter 15 of K.N. King's book C Programming: A Modern Approach? I spent all of yesterday evening staring at it and drooling. The...
19
by: JoeC | last post by:
I have seen many books that teack coding for C++. What are ways to improve my techniques for writing larger programs. I have written many demo programs learning some aspects of code wether it be...
30
by: pavan | last post by:
Is there a modern (OO, garbage collected etc...) programming language that can server as a good alternative for C for system programming. I wouldn't want to compromise too much on performance.
17
by: CoreyWhite | last post by:
I bought this book years ago, when I was just learning C++. Since then I've gone through every math course offered at my college, taken courses on coding C & thinking in terms how how to make the...
43
by: sophia.agnes | last post by:
Hi, I was going through Mr "Richard heathfields" site , it is written as follows:- Some people think C has no role to play in the modern programming world. I would consider this opinion to...
0
by: DolphinDB | last post by:
Tired of spending countless mintues downsampling your data? Look no further! In this article, you’ll learn how to efficiently downsample 6.48 billion high-frequency records to 61 million...
0
by: ryjfgjl | last post by:
ExcelToDatabase: batch import excel into database automatically...
0
isladogs
by: isladogs | last post by:
The next Access Europe meeting will be on Wednesday 6 Mar 2024 starting at 18:00 UK time (6PM UTC) and finishing at about 19:15 (7.15PM). In this month's session, we are pleased to welcome back...
1
isladogs
by: isladogs | last post by:
The next Access Europe meeting will be on Wednesday 6 Mar 2024 starting at 18:00 UK time (6PM UTC) and finishing at about 19:15 (7.15PM). In this month's session, we are pleased to welcome back...
0
by: jfyes | last post by:
As a hardware engineer, after seeing that CEIWEI recently released a new tool for Modbus RTU Over TCP/UDP filtering and monitoring, I actively went to its official website to take a look. It turned...
0
by: ArrayDB | last post by:
The error message I've encountered is; ERROR:root:Error generating model response: exception: access violation writing 0x0000000000005140, which seems to be indicative of an access violation...
1
by: PapaRatzi | last post by:
Hello, I am teaching myself MS Access forms design and Visual Basic. I've created a table to capture a list of Top 30 singles and forms to capture new entries. The final step is a form (unbound)...
0
by: CloudSolutions | last post by:
Introduction: For many beginners and individual users, requiring a credit card and email registration may pose a barrier when starting to use cloud servers. However, some cloud server providers now...
0
by: af34tf | last post by:
Hi Guys, I have a domain whose name is BytesLimited.com, and I want to sell it. Does anyone know about platforms that allow me to list my domain in auction for free. Thank you

By using Bytes.com and it's services, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

To disable or enable advertisements and analytics tracking please visit the manage ads & tracking page.