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The Art and Science of C by Eric Roberts Recommended

ISBN: 0 201 54322 2       Publisher: Addison-Wesley       Pages: 701pp       Price: £21-95

Categories:   beginner's c

Reviewed by Francis Glassborow in C Vu 7-3 (Mar 1995)

Of course there are nits that I can pick such as a failure to provide a return statement at the end of main() but most books perpetrate much worse defects (and positive errors). There are places where I would have been more explicit (such as order of evaluation of terms in an expression or statement) but the broad sweep of this book is on target.

An interesting point is that the author never mentions the infamous gets() function but simply uses fgets() where line input is desirable. He does not attempt to cover the whole Standard C Library but selects parts that are useful to the novice and uses them constructively.

There is a supplement for instructors and the source code is available from an ftp site. The later is becoming standard practice for books from Addison- Wesley, a facility for which they should be complimented.

If you want to learn programming in C or are planning to teach a course on that topic you should check this book out as it is very likely to meet your needs.