sorcerer_see

PS I synthesize here in my own words what King teaches, re-write all his example programs, character by character, solve all the C exercises he hands out, and if I do not understand something fully I use Bermudez' CP: AMA Study Guide to find clarification. I comment to what King teaches cursively. I do not copy-paste anything from the book!

CPaMA 1Ed - Pages xix to xxv - 01.08% Completion

Preface

King says in his preface that he does not like the attention to detail that C requires, in order to avoid errors.

That is exactly what I like about C!
Mr King is probably more practical than I, hence the success he has had in his career :) .

He also says he does not like the elitism among some C developers.

I m probably a bit elitist about C myself.

He also says positive things about the language and concludes that, for better or worse, it is useful to learn C, because C is the lingua franca of the computer world.

This was 1996, but I think this is still the case. If you know C + how classes work I think one knows all languages, more or less. At least that is what I make from what experienced people are saying. I still have to discover this for myself.

The goals he sets out for his book:
- to be clear, readable, and if possible, entertaining
- be accessible to a broad range of beginners
- be organized for easy learning
- show the practical motivation for language features
- underlining the importance of a personal but consistent style of writing C
- to explain stuff independently from machine. compiler or operating system, since C is a portable language used across platforms
- to use illustrations to clarify clear concepts

He also explains how he strives in his book for 'a modern approach' to C
- focus on the C standard (ISO C90)
- debunking of ideas about C that are untrue
- focus on proper software engineering, so that programs are readable, portable, maintainable and reliable
- postpone low-level features of C to later in the book, since that is only a small part of it's modern application
- avoid shortcut techniques of programming and instead stick to the standard methods, because, even if it takes slightly more writing, eventually, he believes, this is proves efficient
- to aim for compatibility with C++

Further he explains how he uses FAQ's at the end of each chapter and how he uses icons to put the attention to certain points of interest or importance.

The programs he includes are of medium length because he finds that if programs are too short the reader will not be able to understand real world application and if they are too long the learner can get lost because of too many functional detail.

He will cover C++ in a fashion that learns readers to write C that is compatible with C++ so that they can combine the two languages into single programs.

Be reminded that C++ back then was less far evolved away from C.

Further he explains that his target audience for his book are under-graduate students that want to learn C. If they have some former programming experience it is helpful.

The book is organized into 4 parts:
- Basic Features of C
- Advanced Features of C
- The Standard C Library
- Reference

On top of this the book holds over 300 exercises which he deems essential to memorize / master what has been read.

To conclude his preface he writes to where errors may be reported and then he acknowledges a series of people that benefited the writing of the book.

That's it for King's Preface!