bonak@herky.cs.uiowa.edu (Esmail Bonakdarian) (04/04/91)
I am looking for recommendations for a C text. Up to now our system only supported K&R C (i.e., Pre-ANSI) and we used the first edition of K&R. However I do not think that this is a good introductory book for C. I have been looking to get ANSI C on our system and rather than going to the second edition of K&R I am now looking for a different text. I recently received a copy of "C A Software Engineering Approach" by Darnell and Margolis (Springer Verlag) and it looks pretty good. Does anybody have any experience with this book (or can recommend any other book) for an introductory course in programming with C? Thanks, Esmail
duncan@cs.strath.ac.uk (Duncan N Smeed) (04/08/91)
In article <5254@ns-mx.uiowa.edu> bonak@herky.cs.uiowa.edu (Esmail Bonakdarian) writes: > >I recently received a copy of "C A Software Engineering Approach" by >Darnell and Margolis (Springer Verlag) and it looks pretty good. Does >anybody have any experience with this book (or can recommend any other >book) for an introductory course in programming with C? > I have been using this book for a third year class for the past three years. Although not an introductory class (the students have already done two years of Pascal) in programming it is suitable as a 'conversion' text. Since you used to use K&R I assume your students are being 'converted' too ;-). In fact, I have been using the first edition which was called 'Software Engineering in C' and it would appear that the second edition is really just a book title change which more accurately relects the tenet of the book. I.e. it's not really a text about software engineering at all. I looked at innumerable text books on C before deciding on this one. I like it for a number of reasons. Firstly it covered ANSI C (remember I adopted it 3 years ago) by means of 'greyed-out' boxes of ANSI Features contrasting the K&R standard. Secondly, it offers Bug Alert 'boxes' that highlight common mistakes made by novice (and even experienced ;-)) C programmers. Thirdly, it is obviously written by expert C programmers yet in a style which allows anyone familiar with another high-level language to 'convert' relatively painlessly. Fourthly, the authors have provided a full listing of a C Interpreter in an Appendix that serves to reinforce the concepts that they have been expounding. Fifthly, the students' copies rapidly become 'dog-eared' suggesting that they refer to the book constantly and their feedback on the text has been favourable. Finally, it is good value for money with over 600 pages at a reasonable price. In short, thoroughly recommended. >Thanks, >Esmail My pleasure, Duncan -- UUCP: ...!uunet!mcvax!ukc!strath-cs!duncan | Dept. Computer Science ARPA: duncan%cs.strath.ac.uk@ucl-cs.arpa | Livingstone Tower, 26 Richmond St JANET: duncan@uk.ac.strath.cs | University of Strathclyde "If all else fails, lower your standards" | Glasgow, Scotland, U.K. G1 1XH -- -- UUCP: ...!uunet!mcvax!ukc!strath-cs!duncan | Dept. Computer Science ARPA: duncan%cs.strath.ac.uk@ucl-cs.arpa | Livingstone Tower, 26 Richmond St JANET: duncan@uk.ac.strath.cs | University of Strathclyde "If all else fails, lower your standards" | Glasgow, Scotland, U.K. G1 1XH