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Summary: Ignore those who say this book is too complicated...
Review: Although it is unfortunate that this book does not come with the answers to the exercises, (an e-mail response from KNKING himself stated that the book was used as a study text in many university courses and it was his responsibility to protect the authors who might assign the exercises as assignments) it is an extremely well thought out and methodicaly laid out book. Exercises increase in difficulty as the book goes on. Those who had problems with the so called algebra were probably never meant to learn C anyways. If you remember that PI means 3.14 and some basics like circumference, area, volume you'll be fine with this book. Remember C doesn't allow anything more than adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying. All other manuevers must be derrived from these. So do not be dissauded by others who claim that the math is too complicated. (Exercise 5 on page 30 is easy as pie - ignore that boston person). I had no previous experience with any programming language and am working my way through the book with ease and speed.
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Summary: It is a masterpiece
Review: Do not listen to the Boston And Vermont guys. This book is incredibly easy to understand and useful. All the common pitfalls of C programming are well outlined. This book is ideal for a person who has a little (very little) previous experience in a simpler programming language but can also be used by somebody with no previous experience. Most of the examples require at most a knowledge of grade eight math. I have looked at other books on C and C++ programming and would have to say that this book is by far the best I have ever read.
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Summary: Excellent
Review: great beginner's c book. Useful examples and organized properly. Team this book with kernighan & Ritchie's and your all set for beginning programming in C.
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Summary: C++ to come?
Review: Great book for students just starting out on the programming trail. Lots of good examples and challenging exercises for the beginner. I heard rumors of King developing a C++ book. Is this true? If any body has more information please email me.
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Summary: Excellent programming book
Review: Great book. Comprehensive and conversational. This covers a lot of reference-book-style material in a friendly and easy to understand style. The only drawback would be that it is slightly difficult to find material one is looking for from time to time as some of the material is relegated to a FAQ section behind each chapter. Other great general C programming books are C: A Reference Manual, Harbison and Steele, and Programming with GNU Software, Loukides and Oram.
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Summary: The best book available for C
Review: Having read a half dozen or so introductory/beginner's books on C, I found this book to be the best of all by far. It covers all major (and most minor) aspects of C, and will keep you from getting lost in the complexity and intricacies of this language. Its basically a textbook format, not written in a "21 day" style tutorial, and is best used in conjunction with either lectures or a step by step tutorial (book or online).
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Summary: Can't get any better or luckier than this!
Review: I had the unsual opportunity and privilege to learn C from this book and directly taught by the author himself. K.N.King has mastered not only the art of C programming but also the art of communicating his knowledge of the subject even to the least common experienced programmer(believe me, I have first hand experience with the author. and Boy I do miss all those office hours!) The book is internationally appealing(It is used in many countries by programmers of all levels) It really stands head and shoulder above the rest of all of them. It's unique in its spiral approach to the subject.It also does a pretty good job of shutting out all the critics who claim that you can't be a big shot C programmer right out of college. Not if you read this book from cover to cover and stop complaining about page 30 exercise #5!
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Summary: One of the best books to learn C
Review: I have bought about 6 different C books to learn C, but King's C Programming is at the top of my list.
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Summary: For the Serious Student or Up-and-coming C Programmer
Review: I have browsed some C and C++ books in major bookstores to see how the materials are organized and presented. This one was not a book I had a chance to browse, but one which I had to buy for an extension course (Introductory C Programming) at UCLA last summer.At first I thought King's book was hard because of a certain depth of penetration into elements of good programming practices with examples one after another. As I became serious and started to reading intently, I found out how effective King was in paving the way toward a comprehensive understanding of C programming through worked out code and annotations. King is very skilled in breaking down and building up C code, unlike certain celebrated C programming language experts who apparently do not care to be clear or are simply ineffective. So my conclusion is: Read this each chapter of this book very closely, carefully and seriously, and try to understand every last point King is raising. Also, do not neglect working out some of his exercises at the end of each chapter for the benefit of practice as well as learning C. In almost every chapter of the book, he gives very good, organized and annotated but not tedious and complex examples. The problems are generally reasonable and hardly ever too complicated because I never found them overwhelming, either from a coding perspective or mathematically. Perhaps it is because King comes across as someone who emphasizes organization, detail, clarity and explanation in his style of presentation. There are no problems dealing with heavy scientific or engineering applications for those who dread them. Great points: (1) Fundamentals - beginning chapters goes into detail for a solid grounding of C language basics (syntax, etc.); and (2) Pointers - excellent exposition with examples, diagrams and exercises, extremely well presented for the starters who easily get confused by what pointers in C are all about; and (3) Ideas are very well connected from chapter to chapter -- some chapters are even as great as stand-alone ones for referencing. The only problems I found were: (1) Description of struct types, which are passed by value from function to function -- implied but not clearly or succintly stated in the book (compare the description in the excellent book by Kelley and Pohl, "A Book in C"); (2) Chapter on program design, which I found to be very terse and scanty in terms of information topics about designing medium size to large C programs -- also jumps into encapsulation and C++ too soon and leaves out one too many basic ideas in C program organization -- "Look before you leap", C++ is object-oriented, and is therefore much more complex and evolved, so why do too much of C++ when one must learn basics of ANSI C well beforehand! For some reason, I feel strongly that King is following the writing style and presentation of the classical work in C programming by Kernighan and Ritchie. He even discusses the significant contributions of Kernighan in establishing the C language as the mainstay of modern programming for all kinds of applications. There are some uncanny resemblance in style and other parallels I sense in his book. King also retains a lot of the clarity in thinking and intrinsic simplicity reflected in Kernighan and Ritchie's writing style. Because of the lengthy chapters and reading required, this is not the best ANSI C reference book in my view. Kelley and Pohl's excellent paperback, entitled "A Book in C", does far better in that respect. However, King has more good illustrated examples in his book for the newcomer. You will like his book if you like Kernighan and Ritchie's paperback classic. In fact, King has more for you. The only caveat may be that any newcomer would be well advised to try to understand a little about C before attempting to read the book, because only afterwards does King's treatment only makes sense and becomes meaningful and stimulating. Also, it may help out considerably if one finds a good instructor to teach ANSI C in formal classroom environment using King's book here (as I did last summer at UCLA Extension). All in all: A very good no-nonsense book for the motivated beginner in C programming.
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Summary: Nice work Prof King !!!
Review: I have never read any C book like this one. I certainly have no advise for the good author except to ask him to give the world even a larger book without being afraid of those experts who say that C is not served well by a big book.It is difficult to find a good C book that reads like a good novel.My only advice to beginners like myself. Read and reread the chapters and you will soon call yourself a C programmer. Before learning from news groups who may deceive you such as those who claim it is possible to exchange the contents of two variables without using a temporary variable please read King`s book first.I did like to see more examples on strings in his next book as well as a thorough handling of low level programming. Practical examples from cryptography as well as embedded systems may not hurt since those who do not need it can safely skip them.
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