| ||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £1.75
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in C: The Complete Reference (Osborne Complete Reference Series) for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £1.75, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
In practice, much of the information in the book remains identical to previous versions and, as at the time of writing, few compilers support all of C99, it might seem unnecessary to buy the new edition at all. However, complete means what it says. Schild keeps all the C89 material (the basis of C++ after all), adds the C99 material and also updates the book to reflect changes in programming practice and style. The C99 additions discussed include new keywords, variable length arrays, complex maths support, the long, long int (64-bit integers), more flexible array structure members and more, all of which are demonstrated in code fragments.
C has the advantage of being a relatively simple, compact language and Schild knows it inside out. If you plan to be a C programmer this is probably the only book on the C language you'll need. --Steve Patient
Product Description
This book divides its description of the C language into two parts. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
are obvious; some of them are subtle. Many of
the examples cannot be compiled by anything even
similar to a C compiler. Many work only by
coincidence, or only on 80386 PC's running DOS
(not windows). The author refuses to correct
these errors.
The book does not cover "ANSI C" - it flatly
contradicts the ANSI/ISO standard on several
occasions.
A list of a few errors may be found at
http://www.solon.com/~seebs/c/c_tcr.html.
(It is far from complete; a cursory scan of the
first 150 pages found about 200 errors.)
gets. Schildt, an observing member of the ANSI
committee, really ought to know better. His
friendly, glib style masks the numerous serious flaws as he attempts to explain the C language.
In reality, it is the "Schildt language", a dialect that only remotely resembles Standard C. This book is so bad as to have a web link devoted to its many faults:
http://solutions.solon.com/%7Eseebs/c/c_tcr.html
Comparing it against other C reference books I now see the deficiencies. Schild's book tries to be all things to all men:
oOo Tutorial: A very chatty manner as it leads you through the workings of each area, I like the description of "make", albeit brief.
oOo Reference manual: It covers most of the C language, but there is incomplete coverage of the C language (eg errno, and bzero).
oOo Algorithm book: It describes the use of Artificial Intelligence, but this is such a huge area it only wets the appetite. A reader attracted by these areas would better off buying a book which concentrates on these areas specifically and in greater depth.
I was disappointed to discover the third edition of this book had the C++ overview removed. The new section, "a C interpreter", which I suspect is to pad out the book after removing the useful chapters from previous editions is practically useless. It would have been better to write something similar to Steel's coverage of writing 'clean C' where a C program runs in a C++ environment to distinguish the conflict areas between C and C++.
Another failing of Schild's book is the all too brief coverage of some areas summarised with the cop out "consult your manufacturer's manual for details".
In the format of a good reference book, Schild lays down many parts of the C language under function headings such as "signal". However, towards the end of each description is a section entitled "see related functions" with an incomplete list of references; for example under "signal" it is "raise", but missing "ssignal, psignal, gsignal". Instead of spreading descriptions around like this it would be easier to read if related functions were grouped under a similar heading, so the reader isn't distracted searching for them.
Schild's book has moved from discussing C in a DOS environment in his first edition to a Windows environment in the third edition. Although Schild does cover UNIX, the platform where C originated, he has skimmed the surface like a pebble across a pond.
In conclusion Schild's book is suitable as a tutorial for beginners but cannot be classed as a reference manual. I would recommend the following books instead:
Reference: C : A Reference Manual, Samuel P. Harbison, Guy L. Steele (September 1994), Prentice Hall; ISBN: 0133262243
Tutorial: C : A modern Approach, K.N. King, (April 1996), W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 0393969452
Algorithm: Algorithms in C : Fundamentals, Data Structures, Sorting, Searching Robert Sedgewick, 3rd edition (October 1997) Addison-Wesley Pub Co; ISBN: 0201314525
The Algorithm Design Manual, Steven S. Skiena, Steve Skiena (November 1997), Springer Verlag; ISBN: 0387948600
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Computing & Internet > Digital Lifestyle > Online Shopping > Amazon
- Books > Computing & Internet > Programming > Languages & Tools
- Books > Computing & Internet > Programming > Languages > C & C++
- Books > Computing & Internet > Programming > Languages > C#
- Books > Computing & Internet > Software & Graphics
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
