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From: scm3775@tamsun.tamu.edu (Sean Malloy)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Can Novices Jump Directly in C? (Books)
Message-ID: <11929@helios.TAMU.EDU>
Date: 8 Feb 91 04:38:05 GMT
References: <1991Feb6.121722.1@hulaw1.harvard.edu> <ENAG.91Feb8021615@holmenkollen.ifi.uio.no>
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>>	 Can anyone recommend an introduction to programming book that
>> uses C?  I'm not referring to C-For-Pascal-Programmers etc. kind of
>> books.  I'm aware that most introduction to programming books use
>> Pascal, Basic, or Scheme as their language, but I haven't seen
>> anybooks that start a novice out directly with C.
>>	 The purpose of this is to help someone I know who intends to
>> teach an introduction to programming class in C (it was formerly
>> taught in Pascal).
>
><opinion>
>
>C is not well suited for first time programmers due to its intimacy
>with the hardware.  It's better to learn some assembly language and
>then "discover" the power of C by a little induction than to be given
>the crypticity of C to handle in addition to learning what a loop is
>good for.
>

I'm afraid that I have to agree with the above gentleman; C is not
generally good for first-time students unless they have a basic
knowledge of the hardware underneath.  I assume that you're wanting to
use (probably) Turbo C on PC's.  Check out _C Through Design_ by
Defenbaugh & Smedley.  It's being used for an introductory-level
class in C here at Texas A&M (Though prior programming experience is
reccommended for these students, this seems to be laziness on the
part of the instructor, and not a shortcoming in the book).  For
hardware background, I'd suggest _Peter Norton's Programmer's
Guide to the IBM PC/PS2_  (at least excerpts - students should
be familiar with what's available in the BIOS before jumping into
some of the more advanced features of C; it makes life easier, and
it makes students realize that there's more than one way to do things)

-Sean