A First Course In Computer Programming Using C: Amazon.co.uk: Melvyn King, John Pardoe, Paul Vickers: Books

Product Description

This book is a first course in the skills of computer programming. It is not intended to cover all aspects of programming in C. The book is intended as a first step along the road to competent computer programming using sensible and proven design principles. The emphasis is always on good design practice and good coding style. The book is a self-contained package, the format of which is a three-part structure made up of short chapters. The first eleven chapters present an introduction to the C language. Chapters twelve to nineteen concentrate on the principles of good program design. The final part, chapters twenty to twenty-seven, combines the lessons learned in the earlier chapters and shows how to proceed from an initial statement of need through to a working program. Further features of C are explored to allow the design and implementation of solutions to more realistic problems. The book comprises the text itself, many short questions designed to elicit understanding of the ideas learned and exercises to put the theory into practice. To support this, the companion floppy disc contains solutions to the exercises using the 'cheat' system. The cheat system allows selective access to specific parts of a solution without showing the complete answer. Refer to the text for more details.

Book Description

This book is a first course in the skills of computer programming. It is not intended to cover all aspects of programming in C. The book is intended as a first step along the road to competent computer programming using sensible and proven design principles. The emphasis is always on good design practice and good coding style. The book is a self-contained package, the format of which is a three-part structure made up of short chapters. The first eleven chapters present an introduction to the C language. Chapters twelve to nineteen concentrate on the principles of good program design. The final part, chapters twenty to twenty-seven, combines the lessons learned in the earlier chapters and shows how to proceed from an initial statement of need through to a working program. Further features of C are explored to allow the design and implementation of solutions to more realistic problems. The book comprises the text itself, many short questions designed to elicit understanding of the ideas learned and exercises to put the theory into practice. To support this, the companion floppy disc contains solutions to the exercises using the `cheat' system. The cheat system allows selective access to specific parts of a solution without showing the complete answer. Refer to the text for more details.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

A positive experience with the King, Pardoe & Vickers book 10 Nov 2002

By S. Payne

Format:Hardcover

Just to buck the trend I would like to give a very positive review of this book. I bought it on instructions for a degree in course in computing a couple of years ago. I worked through the exercises at the end of each chapter and found it a very interestin and helpful book. It was the first serious computer programming book I had worked on, and C was the language I started with. As such, I thought it gave a good level of depth. I compare it with many books on C which people rave about or treat as holy scripture, and they all sem very dry and difficult for a beginner. King, Pardoe & Vickers however was accessible. In all, it was a very worthwile experience in self-study. So I would say, why not buy it and give it a go!

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

A solid introduction but a bit dry 19 Jan 1999

By A Customer

If you want a no-nonsense beginner's book and can't stand "whacky" writers like Dan Gookin (C for Dummies) then this is the book for you. It isn't much to look at and the language is a little unclear at times, but it covers in good detail the most important aspects of the language. There are a couple of interesting chapters at the end about manual debugging and general program design, but apart from that this book covers nothing but the essentials and does it in an efficient but <yawn> quite dull way.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

Good to start from 16 Nov 2000

By jon@secomputers.com

If you are new to programming in C, this book gives the information you need. It is broken down into small chapters with excercises at the end of each. It comes with a diskette which has the answers to the excercise in single lines of code, which means you have to think about the excercises in order to find the right code. But if you buy any starter book they are basically the same, so look at them all before you buy.