[alt.religion.computers] Programming books

jet@karazm.tmc.edu (j. eric townsend) (02/18/90)

(Mild flame alert.)
In article <898@orange9.qtp.ufl.edu> sutherla@orange9 (scott sutherland) writes:
>	When I first decided to learn C, I was told that this book was the
>"C bible", so I got a copy (not 2nd ed.).  Well, it may be complete, but
>speaking as a person who went from BASIC to C, it STINKS as a tutorial
>book from which to learn the language.  Stick with the C Primer Plus,
>...
>After you have mastered the basics of C, the K&R book can be quite helpful.


Hm.  Maybe you should learn to program first.  The K&R book is
excellent as a guide to learning the BNF for C, a language that
allows you to write Pascalish or assemblish code as you like.

If you want something to teach you how to program in the style that
C is good for, try an entry-level Pascal book.  (Or maybe one of the
Sam's books for C, they're not too bad.)

Step 1 in learning a real language:  Unlearn all the stupid languages
you know.  I'm speaking as a convert -- I had to unlearn a *lot* of COBOL. :-)
--
J. Eric Townsend
University of Houston Dept. of Mathematics
jet@karazm.math.uh.edu
Skate UNIX(tm).

gilmore@vms.macc.wisc.edu (Neil Gilmore) (02/18/90)

In article <1990Feb18.083802.26571@lavaca.uh.edu>, jet@karazm.tmc.edu (j. eric townsend) writes...

>Step 1 in learning a real language:  Unlearn all the stupid languages
>you know.  I'm speaking as a convert -- I had to unlearn a *lot* of COBOL. :-)

Not me. I spent too much money learning COBOL to unlearn it. Too bad I 
never use it, although I have been toying about with the idea of writing 
a COBOL compiler for 68000 (just as an exercise, you know, something 
simple).

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