stanwyck@ihuxr.UUCP (Don Stanwyck) (08/03/84)
I have been teaching UNIX(tm) at the community college level for awhile, but this fall have been requested to teach C as UNIX isn't being offered. While I work with C in my every-day work, I have never had to try to find a good textbook for teaching C. The Students: Community College (2 year), offers AS in DP, most courses centered on COBOL on IBM mainframes/minis. Also expect a few local area professionals with computer background (again, probably COBOL, probably IBM). Example of range: My summer UNIX course had both a high school student and a person with a PhD in Math and CS, and those inbetween were mechanics looking to change jobs through BSCS with MBA wondering what all the fuss about UNIX was. The Course: Introduction to C, a special topics course offered by the DP Department. Taught on IBM-PCs or DEC-RSTS mini (not yet determined.) Topics to be covered: - what is C - good for what (as compared to COBOL, etc.) - C programming - some data structure and recursion (1 lecture between the two) - some programming assignments. 3 semester credit hour course. (Meets once a week for 3 hours) Wanted: - Textbook recommendations - Programming assignment recommendations (Serious only, please) - ideas on presentation of COBOL vs C, RPG-II vs C, etc. - Suggestions on general teaching of C Thanx lotz, az i no u will all b very helpfull. -- ________ ( ) Don Stanwyck @( o o )@ 312-979-3062 ( || ) Cornet-367-3062 ( \__/ ) ihnp4!ihuxr!stanwyck (______) Bell Labs @ Naperville, IL
mlip@nadc.ARPA (08/15/84)
I ordered a C Primer from one of the computer book clubs. I found it to be very simple and informative. I have lent this book to several new employees who had to learn C from scratch. All of them found it much easier to follow than Kernighan's and Ritchie's book. The reaction to the book was so positive that our organization is ordering several more to serve as our official tutorial to C. Title: The C Primer Authors: Les Hancock & Morris Krieger Publisher: McGraw-Hill Date : 1982 ISBN #: 0-07-025981-X # Pages: 235 Price: ~$12.00 Michael Lipczynski (mlip@nadc) Naval Air Development Center Warminster, Pa. 215-441-1690
arndt@ttds.UUCP (Arndt Jonasson) (08/22/84)
In "The C Primer" (which for me has been a very good means of getting introduced to C), the authors refer to a book called The C puzzle book by Alan R Feuer Prentice-Hall, 1982 and explains the lack of exercises in "The C Primer" with the fact that the exercises they had in mind had already been collected into this book. Does anyone have any experiences with this book? How advanced is it? Are there solutions or discussions accompanying the puzzles? What does it cost? Thanks in advance. ..mcvax!enea!ttds!arndt (new on the net, therefore no signature yet)
gwyn@BRL-VLD.ARPA@sri-unix.UUCP (08/25/84)
From: Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn@BRL-VLD.ARPA>
The C Puzzle Book, by Ale.R. Feuer (Prentice-Hall, 1982)
ISBN 0-13-109934-5 (hardbound)
ISBN 0-13-109926-4 (paperback)
Abridged Table of Contents:
PUZZLES
Operators
Basic Types
Included Files
Control Flow
Programming Style
Storage Classes
Pointers and Arrays
Structures
Preprocessor
SOLUTIONS
APPENDICES
Precedence Table
Operator Summary Table
ASCII Table
Type Hierarchy Chart
>From the Preface:
... a workbook intended to be used with a C language textbook ...
The programs are sprinkled with print statements. The primary task
is to discover what each program prints. ... The larger portion of
the book is devoted to step-by-step derivations of the puzzle
solutions. Many of the derivations are accompanied by tips and
caveats for programming in C. ...
Warning:
This book is not a self-contained C tutorial; it must be
augmented by a good C text such as Kernighan & Ritchie.langraph@oliven.UUCP (Chung Chen) (09/01/84)
In answer to your questions regarding the "C Puzzle Book": i) There are discussions and explanations to the non trivial questions. ii) The "C Puzzle Book" costs about 20$. Its an amusing exercise and we use some of the puzzles to test C compilers, while waiting for the ANSI people to publish standards and hopefully test suites.