C, a reference manual

What Hacker News says

1. SyzygiesOct 2022
   I read the first edition of K&R when it came out, and switched to C for a computer algebra system that got me tenure as a math professor. K&R is a religious scripture, and remains the benchmark against which I measure all other programming books. It's in the same league as the aspirational SICP, and a far easier read.

   In college I'd programmed Fortran on punched cards. APL was like dropping acid, and I worked one summer as a commercial APL programmer, but it wasn't appropriate for what I needed. Pascal didn't quite fit either. C was in that context mind-blowing. The future had arrived! I had full access to the machine!

   If one is learning to become a plumber, one might not be so interested in how plumbing worked in 1840. If however, one is a herding dog, and needs serious work to avoid getting bored and destructive, reading K&R would put C in historical context.

   Later, as I depended on C, I bought each edition of C: A Reference Manual by Harbison and Steele, and read it as if I were studying to be a lawyer.

   I now program in Haskell, and wish I was equally versed in Clojure and Rust. If I were returning to C, I'd instead choose Rust. For my work, I have a free choice.

   Show morethread
2. sireatSep 2022
   GNU manual is quite nice actually, a welcome companion to my worn copy of C: A Reference Manual, 5th Edition by Guy Steele and Harbison

   Looking at https://crms.tiiny.site/#Function-Pointers I am glad I do not have to program C anymore..

     /\* Declare a function returning char *.  */
     char *a (char *);
     /\* Declare a pointer to a function returning char.  */
     char (*a) (char *);
     /* Declare a pointer to a function returning char *.  */
     char *(*a) (char \*);
   

   This brings up 20 year old memories of pain. How did I ever remember this?
   Show morethread
3. nkkavNov 2020
   On the cheap side, books, but not all of them. My buys are "hit or miss", lately mostly hits.

   I would recommend:

   - The Elements of Style, aka, "the Little book". Made me a credible editor (and documentation writer at the time) almost at zero time.

   - Zero to One: in-depth, honest, and non-conformist view of the tech startup landscape. "How Google Works" is a close second.

   - The Embedded Systems Dictionary. Not in print but the second-hand paperback is worth it. Great refresher, written with a wit.

   Another book I use is "The Developer's Guide to Debugging".

   In general I like zero-bullshit or more politely, zero fat books. "The Elements of Style" is one. "The Developer's Guide to Debugging" is also very low in fat, war stories and other nonsense.

   There are other books that I like that are less influential.

   Aphorism: I don't believe in software books. Exceptions are well-researched reference volumes, e.g., "C: A Reference Manual, 5th edition". I believe in undisputed truths, not in one person's preference or experience over another's.

   These days I mostly consult manuals and standard documents. Technical books will only give you that much; see them as a vehicle to learn how to learn. Exceptions are again reference handbooks, that will have to be exhaustive.

   I don't believe in trainings, fast, slow or anything. Self-learner here, learned reading by myself around the age of 3 (shocking revelation: have you realized that you can only recall detailed memories only after you have learnt how to read?) Actually it was exactly the winter of 1980 (born 1977). I was a serviceable reader by the coming of sprint 1980 and could read subtitles as fast as the adult is assumed to by early 1981. Educated physicist but self-educated programmer.

   Show morethread
4. LocalManMar 2020
   I've written many tens of thousands of lines of C, but retired 15 years ago. The two best books I know are:

   1. C: A Reference Manual, by Harbison and Steele. https://www.amazon.com/Reference-Manual-Samuel-P-Harbison/dp...

   2. The C Puzzle Book, by Alan Fueur. https://www.amazon.com/Puzzle-Book-Alan-R-Feuer/dp/020160461...

   Harbison and Steele has much better explanations than K&R. The Fueur book taught me a lot about C declarations. Declarations are that part of C language that is them most unnecessarily difficult.

   You asked about a slightly different question, best practices. But in the real world you'll run into a lot of code that practices below that level.

   Show morethread
5. pksadiqJan 2018
   I would recommend C: A Reference Manual (by Samuel P. Harbison and Guy L. Steele Jr.) along with K&R The C programming language.

   C has lots of edges where it's easy for a beginner to make mistakes. Say for example the minimal range of a char is -127 to 127 (yes, C cares 1's complement machines) or 0 to 255. Not knowing this may result in a code working in one machine while broken on others. So learning the standard is a must, especially, the undefined behaviors.

   Show morethread
6. sohkamyungOct 2016
   There are other books on C besides K&R. My current reference is C: A Reference Manual, Fifth Edition [1], which I usually pull out when I need to check on syntax and standard libraries.

   - http://careferencemanual.com/

   thread