Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but not oustanding.
Review: At first glance the book purports to be similar to other early Bell Labs books about C, specifically, "The C Programming Language", "The Elements of Programming Style", "The C Standard I/O Library", and (not bell labs but another great book) "C: A Reference Manual", etc. However, the author suffers from being a compiler-writer who doesn't really understand the design philosophy of the C language. This is the same afflication that Bjarne Stroustroup and other language designers suffer from. For example, he complains that only 3% of switch statements in his own compiler have case statement fall-throughs, therefore "We conclude that default fall-through on switches is a design defect in C." (p. 38). This is a rant of a dangerous person. Two underlying concepts of the C language are, "No hidden instructions generated where I cannot see them," and "When in doubt, provide open operators for maximum expressiveness - do not restrict expressiveness". Just because this particular compiler-writer lacks the inventiveness to do interesting things with a switch statement he proposes to force his biases upon the rest of the world. I have seen and written macro libraries that allow you to suspend & resume function calls, and these libraries perform fall-through 100% of the time. Therefore, this book is in error and the author is a victim of his own lack of creativity. Another thing I disliked was a tendency to try to impress the reader with irrelevant facts that are not germane to the subject, such as typos in the ANSI C standard or tired-out stories on how to burn out IBM PC displays. These things are irrelevant and do not belong within the book. I recommend you check out the book from a library (as I did) and please do not waste your money on this book.
Rating: 
Summary: just fine
Review: fine book,not a must have or legend.I recommend The C Programming Language for expert C programming.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible, a waste of paper.
Review: For those looking to dig deeper into the nuances of the C language, this is an excellent book! It has given me a better understanding of C that is helping me design better C code. A must have!
Rating:
Summary: Don't Miss This Book!
Review: I agree with another reader that this is not a truly advanced C book. A serious student of C would also do well to buy Harbison and Steele (as Van Der Linden himself suggests). But I utterly disagree with the angry conclusion of the earlier reviewer. The fact is that this is a gem of a book! The chapter Unscrambling Declarations in C and his two chapters clarifying the relationship between arrays and pointers are masterful. The book is also packed with amusing anecdotes that help to maintain interest. I have programmed in C for many years and I would call this a must-have book.
Rating:
Summary: very entertaining read!
Review: is this a bestselling novel? this got to be one of the most entertaining technical book ever! heck, i bought it only to enjoy the humorous sections of the book. i like the funny stories at each section which greatly alleviates the "pain" of reading usual C programming books. the interview section is worth the price of the book. great technical writing demonstrated throughout the book. buy it!
Rating:
Summary: hmm Where to start.
Review: Ok, this is in answer to another review. First, I don't think this book was meant for the 20 yr pro. I know the title implies that but honestly I think it was meant for the beginner/slightly experienced programer. Anybody who has read K&R thru and thru should probably skip this book if your looking for more ways to improve your coding practices. Honestly I don't think you would gain that much from it. I would though suggest reading it for the humor.
=)
And here is where I part with that reviewer. I find most of the humor to be both comprehensible and more to the point, funny. It does take a slightly twisted way at looking at the world. Most of the "wasted" paragraphs etc. are not actually wasted, if you're a mid lvl or beginner programer. Even some with experience can get some use out of this book. I do agree that this is probably a 3rd or 4th book for coders. As to the char** not being the same as const char**, just read it VERY carefully, after a bit you will understand. Though I do agree that the author could have been a bit clearer on that an a few other explanations. I actually liked the varied topics, this book wasn't meant to be a reference encyclopedia nor a indepth analysis of some specific topic. AND personally I am tired of dry books. Which btw, this particular author has been just as guilty as most other computer book authors. Try his Java book and you will see what I mean.
Rating:
Summary: Instructive, entertaining, and masterful.
Review: Peter van der Linden is a rare creature in the high-tech world. He's talented, knowledgeable, a master of his subject, and utterly confident in his abilities, yet he manages to stay tirelessly good-natured. You get a lease on all those qualities when you read this book. Some writers bring pinpoint clarity to an obscure topic; others gracefully disentangle complex subjects with an ease that make the rest of us wonder why we ever had to struggle with them. PvdL does both, and then adds two more wonderful insights to his writing: one, he equates expertise with subtle understanding, not exhaustive knowledge; two, he doesn't demonstrate anything you can easily test for yourself. This book is for the active reader who will test the ideas, but a browsing reader can still enjoy the humor and flow of the text. Throughout the book you get the sense of a busy but amiable mentor who always seems to have time for a confused colleague. He's been through the same confusion himself, and he's come out of it a better programmer who's more than willing to share what he's learned. The perfect desktop for this book would have space for a monitor/keyboard and sketchpad. Any time you stop nodding along with the text (or smiling -- there was a lot of that for me), prop the book open, and challenge what you just read. This book is ideal for that. I've been teaching some C courses this year, as the Java training market has been quite depressed. I've often found myself parroting and recommending this book throughout. Partly that's because I share some tech opinions with the author, but he's also got a mountain of high-caliber experience to back his views up. The "Sun halo" certainly augments his credibility. If you think you understand the C language well, buy a copy of this book; it will give you the most entertaining assessment you'll ever take. If you're worried that becoming a C expert means you have to grow a beard or attend Star Trek conventions to make friends, buy two.
Rating:
Summary: Fun to read and extremely helpful
Review: The title of this message says it all. This is my 2nd time around reading this book. I bought it about 1 year ago and I'm reading it again just for fun really... The author keeps the book humorous throughout and you'll definitely know you're a geek when you find yourself snickering at all of the hilarious comments in the book. These comments aren't "fun filler" like other books use. It's strange how other books will just throw in silly comic headers at the beginning of each chapter or take time away from learning to say something stupid to try and get a laugh. Peter actually has comments that are hilarious, but will help you learn at the same time. Everything is extremely informative. My favorite chapters include: Chapter 3: Unscrambling Declarations in C
Chapter 4: The Shocking Truth: C Arrays and Pointers are NOT the Same!
Chapter 5: Thinking of Linking
Chapter 7: Thanks for the Memory
Chapter 9: More about Arrays
Chapter 10: More about Pointers
Appendix: Secrets of Programmer Job Interviews Yes, even the Appendix was excellent. This book will really help a novice C programmer gain a very FIRM grasp of pointers and C declarations that scared ... us when we first saw C. Find a good book on Algorithms ( Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis in C ) and you're definitely an expert in C!
Rating:
Summary: Fun to read and extremely helpful
Review: The title of this message says it all. This is my 2nd time around reading this book. I bought it about 1 year ago and I'm reading it again just for fun really... The author keeps the book humorous throughout and you'll definitely know you're a geek when you find yourself snickering at all of the hilarious comments in the book. These comments aren't "fun filler" like other books use. It's strange how other books will just throw in silly comic headers at the beginning of each chapter or take time away from learning to say something stupid to try and get a laugh. Peter actually has comments that are hilarious, but will help you learn at the same time. Everything is extremely informative. My favorite chapters include: Chapter 3: Unscrambling Declarations in C
Chapter 4: The Shocking Truth: C Arrays and Pointers are NOT the Same!
Chapter 5: Thinking of Linking
Chapter 7: Thanks for the Memory
Chapter 9: More about Arrays
Chapter 10: More about Pointers
Appendix: Secrets of Programmer Job Interviews Yes, even the Appendix was excellent. This book will really help a novice C programmer gain a very FIRM grasp of pointers and C declarations that scared ... us when we first saw C. Find a good book on Algorithms ( Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis in C ) and you're definitely an expert in C!
Rating:
Summary: What a great book!!
Review: This book is a must have for anyone interested in learning more about C programming. It's funny, and it really makes it enjoyable to learn the more advanced aspects of the language. Thanks Mr. Van Der Linden for this wonderfull book!!
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