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From: pockrand@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu (Mitch Pockrandt)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Programming books
Summary: Better than K&R
Keywords: books c
Message-ID: <1990Feb9.065453.6508@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu>
Date: 9 Feb 90 06:54:53 GMT
References: <498@unicorn.WWU.EDU> <2502@leah.Albany.Edu> <898@orange9.qtp.ufl.edu>
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis - CSCI Dept.
Lines: 49


For reference work that is much more helpful than K&R's book, I highly
recommend:
_C:A_Reference_Manual_ by Samual P. Harbison and Guy L.Steele Jr.
(of Tartan Laboratories). Pub:Prentice-Hall. 
ISBN: 0-13-109802-0
This includes all that K&R did and goes on to describe the ANSI proposals as 
well.  (Note: I bought this before K&R's most recent edition, I understand
that they too include ANSI now.)  The most beneficial feature of this book
is that the authors took pains to cover what compilers have actually been
doing in addition to what the standards describe.  This has helped solve 
at least a few compile time problems.  It also describes most of the common
run-time libraries found with most compilers.

For a new Amiga C programmer, the following book is worth checking out:
_Inside_The_Amiga_ , John Thomas Berry , Pub:Howard W.Sams (1986)
ISBN:0-672-22468-2
This is a useful tutorial to using C to make use of Intuition, AmigaDos, 
drawing functions, sprites, sound, speech, and a little bit about disk
files. This book assumes that you are somewhat familiar with C but by no
means need to be expert at it.  It also assumes that you know how to use
your C compiler but otherwise are new to programming on the Amiga.

For a new C programmer, Sams also publishes a book that I found very 
useful even though it is written for the IBM PC crowd:
_Microsoft_C_Programming_For_The_IBM_ , Robert Lafore
ISBN: 0-672-22515-8
While it is written to a specific compiler and machine, this book is general
enough to be used on any compiler and machine if you ignore the IBM specific
parts of the text (ROM BIOS, Graphics, keyboard,etc).  It presents the 
material in a format which is very good for learning the language from  
scratch.  Some sort of programming skills are assumed by the author.

These books and the Addison-Wesley Amiga reference books have gotten me thru
99% of my C programming on the Amiga.  I think they are worth checking into
if you are looking to improve your programming bookshelf and/or need help
with C on the Amiga.

===========================================================================
  Mitchell S. Pockrandt - University of Minnesota - Computer Science Dept.
    Internet: pockrand@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu
    Bitnet  : pockrand%umn-cs.cs.umn.edu@UMNACVX.BITNET
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-- 
===========================================================================
  Mitchell S. Pockrandt - Computer Science Dept. - University of Minnesota
      Internet:  pockrand@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu
      Bitnet  :  pockrand%umn-cs.cs.umn.edu@UMNACVX.BITNET