Dan Creagan wrote:

[snip]
> While I have taught from K&R I don't think it is all that it has been
> hyped
> up to be. It is quite unintelligible to a new person who is starting on
> their own. As a tutorial it sucks the winds out of Africa.  There are
> several books that explain things much better and also address the
> different
> standards issues.  However, as Don points out, the likelihood of finding
> K&R
> in your native language is much greater than anything I will come up
> with.
> It is the seminal text on C.
[useful summary of other C texts snipped]

*Speaking solely for myself* I found K&R to be the single best text on any
programming language that I have ever read, both as a tutorial and as a
reference. It was my good fortune that it was also the *only* available
book on C at the time... (For a note on how far back this was, I paid
$12.95 for my copy of the first edition :-)

OTOH, it should be noted that I did not come to it as my introduction to
programming; C was my 4th or 5th language, and I had a moderate amount of
experience in assembler. Generally speaking, people seem to either adore
K&R or find it incomprehensible. (Guess which camp I fall in...)

I do not wish to start a religous war on the subject (been there, done
that), nor am I disparaging Dan's recomendations; I've read two of them,
and agree that they are worthwhile texts. My point is solely that K&R is
worth at least a look.

-John

--------------------
John Maxwell                                        jmax@toad.net

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