Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rphroy!caen!uwm.edu!linac!att!cbnews!jbr0
From: jbr0@cbnews.cb.att.com (joseph.a.brownlee)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: C language book recommendations
Message-ID: <1991Jun11.113014.1132@cbnews.cb.att.com>
Date: 11 Jun 91 11:30:14 GMT
References: <1991May21.125840.12654@ccu.umanitoba.ca> <741@taumet.com> <1991Jun4.212317.1213@keinstr.uucp>
Sender: jbr@cblph.att.com
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 27

In article <1991Jun4.212317.1213@keinstr.uucp> chaplin@keinstr.uucp (Roger
Chaplin) writes:
> In article <741@taumet.com> steve@taumet.com (Stephen Clamage) writes:
> > Look over the material again.  In their book, H&S are not presenting only
> > ANSI C.  They are trying to cover the range of C implementations which have
> > been at all widely used.  [...]
>
>I have the 2nd Edition, which has a separate chapter dealing with "draft
>proposed ANSI C".  I personally prefer this approach, exactly for the
>reason you mention: not all the compilers I use are ANSI.  Perhaps the
>other changes in the 3rd Edition (I assume there are some) would make
>it worthwhile to have.

It is most definitely worth having.  Rather than a chapter on ANSI C, each
aspect of the language contains a discussion on both ANSI and pre-ANSI
implementations, and it points out where the ANSI standard differs from
some earlier commonly used implementations.  This is imporatant to me,
precisely because I must use both pre-ANSI and ANSI compilers.

H&S is the most practical of the C books I have.  I recommend it
whole-heartedly.

-- 
   -      _   Joe Brownlee, Analysts International Corporation @ AT&T Bell Labs
  /_\  @ / `  471 E Broad St, Suite 1610, Columbus, Ohio 43215   (614) 860-7461
 /   \ | \_,  E-mail: jbr@cblph.att.com     Who pays attention to what _I_ say?
 "Scotty, we need warp drive in 3 minutes or we're all dead!" --- James T. Kirk