Product Description

For software engineers and computer programmers who are writing, developing, testing, debugging software on either IBM PCs or Unix systems.

Written for experienced C programmers who want to quickly pick up some of the insights and techniques of experts and master the fine arts of ANSI C, this volume passes on the wisdom of a highly experienced C compiler writer and his colleagues to help programmers reach new heights, and avoid common software pitfalls along the way. Using an original approach and a humorous style that makes deep knowledge both easy and accessible, it gathers into one place, tips, hints, shortcuts, guidelines, ideas, idioms, heuristics, tools, anecdotes, C folklore, and techniques that are often penciled in margins and on backs of papers by those working in the programming trenches—working on many different kinds of projects, over many, many years.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #249640 in Books
• Published on: 1994-07-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Defying the stereotypical notion that technical books tend to be boring, Expert C Programming offers a lively and often humorous look at many aspects of C--from how memory is laid out to the details of pointers and arrays. The author reveals his points through invaluable anecdotes, such as stories of costly bugs, and through folklore, such as the contents of Donald Knuth's first publication. Each chapter ends with a section entitled "Some Light Relief," which discusses topics (topics that some may consider to be "recreational"), such as programming contests. A fabulous appendix on job interview questions finishes the book. --Jake Bond

From the Back Cover

This is a very different book on the C language! In an easy, conversational style, Peter van der Linden, of Sun's compiler and OS kernel group, presents dozens of astonishing examples drawn from practical experience, including:

• Software that blew up the space probe to Venus
• The C bug that shut down the entire AT&T phone system
• C programmer job interview secrets
• Why programmers can't tell Halloween from Christmas day
• The C code for a complete BASIC interpreter

Expert C Programming reveals the coding techniques used by the best C programmers. It relates C to other languages, and includes an introduction to C++ that can be understood by an programmer without weeks of mind-bending study. Covering both the IBM PC and UNIX systems, it is an entertaining and educational romp through C showing how experts really use it. Expert C Programming is a must read for anyone who wants to learn more about the implementation, practical use, and folklore of C.

"Not just clearly written, but fun to read. The tone and style of this text should make this a popular book with professional programmers. However, the tone of this book will make it very popular with undergraduates. Appendix A alone would make the purchase of this book a must. It's filled with great advice."

—Professor Jack Beidler, Chairman, Department of Computer Science, University of Scranton

"So that's why extern char *cp isn't the same as extern char cp. I knew that it didn't work despite their superficial equivalence, but I didn't know why. I also love the job interview test questions on C."

—David S. Platt, Rolling Thunder Computing

"In Expert C Programming, Peter van der Linden combines C language expertise and a subtle sense of humor to deliver a C programming book that stands out from the pack. In a genre too often known for windy, lifeless prose, van der Linden's crisp language, tongue-in-cheek attitude, and real-world examples engage and instruct."

—John Barry, author of Sunburst, Technobabble, and other books

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Customer Reviews

Learn from experience in the book.
I wrote C for ten years eight hours a day. This book accumulates what I have learned over this time period and even had something new for me.

Recommended!
I liked this book, especially the way he comes up with funny phrases you don't see coming. I've read several other programming books (Safer C, Writing Solid Code, No Bugs!, etc), but this is definitely one of the ones that is enjoyable to read. It adds a light humour to the serious, useful information he provides.

He goes into depth into the subjects of C declarations, memory, pointers, and arrays. He also explains some of the concepts behind the procedure activation record (used when calling a function), linking and compiling. He also challenges the reader with programming assignments to discover more, and provides programming advice.

An intermediate book
The title of this book is somewhat misleading. If you are an expert or advanced user of the C language you will probably be disappointed with this book. It is really a book in the beginner to intermediate range. A great amount of the material is useless C trivia and folklore. There is a very minimal amount of code in the book. Learning the correct way to free a singly-linked list and how to declare arrays and function pointers is by no means in the "expert" category in my opinion. Much of the material in this book is presented in a first semester course on programming and all of the topics that are superficially covered in this tiny book are better explained in other books.

I found about 4 to 5 pages of useful information in the book and the rest was just fluf. If you want to learn about operating systems, assembly language, pointers and dynamic memory management, data structures, or algorithms, then get books that deal with topics explicitly. You wont find that kind of information in this little book. This book concerns itself with topics that show how to unscramble poorly written code like: z = y+++x; I dont know anyone who writes code like that!

If your still having trouble with arrays and pointers, then this book can be of help, otherwise I dont think the price of this book is justified.