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Art and Science of C, The by Eric Roberts [Recommended]

Francis Glassborow writes:
This is the first book about learning C that I have felt comfortable with.

Designing Object Systems by S. Cook & J Daniels [Recommended]

Peter Wippell writes:
Fully recommended and good value for anyone who practises object oriented software design.

Developers Guide to WINHELP.EXE, The by J Mischel [Recommended]

Lester J Devaney writes:
If you want to make help files tick, I thoroughly recommend this book as your starting point.

Digital Woes by Lauren Ruth Wiener [Recommended]

Francis Glassborow writes:
A good antidote for the view of software as magic.

Draft Standard C++ Library, The by P J Plauger [Recommended with Reservations]

Chris Simons writes:
This type of book will be a welcome addition to any C++ programmer's book shelf. Unfortunately, the author appears to have gone to print too soon...

Graphics File Formats by Murray & van Ryper [Recommended]

Francis Glassborow writes:
If you need to know about the format of a graphics file (PCX, GIF, FAX etc.) this book is as close to a definitive reference volume as you will find.

Inside the Windows NT File System by Helen Custer [Recommended]

Francis Glassborow writes:
If you need to know about this topic then read this book.

Learning Perl by Randal L Schwartz [Recommended]

Adrian Wontroba writes:
Although I have read Larry and Randal's 'Programming Perl', I have never managed to get very far with it - until now...

Newnes C++ Pocket Book by Conor Sexton [Recommended]

Jim Bartholomew writes:
For a book of its size, it gives a remarkably full coverage of its subject matter...

Safer C by Les Hatton [Recommended]

Francis Glassborow writes:
If you aspire to writing robust code this is a book that you must read (even if the publishers cannot spell my name correctly).

Understanding Unix (2nd ed) by Stan Kelly-Bootle [Recommended]

Chris Simons writes:
This introductory book would best suit a reader approaching Unix for the first time, possibly in business or as a student at HND or first year undergraduate level.

Please note that opinions are those of the individual reviewers.

The volume of books on C/C++

As I was preparing to write this the doorbell rang and a courier delivered a couple of hems. One was a box of books for review, 20 books and every one with merit, most directly about C or C++ though half a dozen were on other aspects of software engineering. As I unpacked them the thought crossed my mind that we have just about crossed another threshold - I think we are close to the point where it will actually be impossible for anyone to read everything published on C/C++.

Of course there is a lot of poor quality material out there together with some complete rubbish. Some of you wonder why we review the bad as well as the good. By doing so we ensure that you do not miss good books by assuming they must be bad because we have not reviewed them.

Five years ago I expressed the opinion to a publisher that there was no book in print that I would recommend to a novice who wanted to learn C. I do not think that this is true any longer. In future a book will have to have some outstanding feature if I am to give it a positive review despite basic errors in C. Authors who exhibit a lack of understanding of such issues as order of evaluation, who fail to give a clear exposition of topics such as the relationship between arrays and pointer variables, or who insist on re-inventing functions found in the Standard C Library should not be being published. Where they are the publisher has every justification in taking issue with their technical reviewers for failing to identify major flaws in a technical work.

I expect publishers to take proper care to ensure that their product is suitable both in form and content for the purpose for which it is produced. I believe that this requires careful assessment of what should be supplied in print, on disk, via a CD-ROM or through an ftp site. The issue is a much wider one than that so often raised by our reviewers (lack of machine readable source code). Publishing transient reference material such as an Internet directory on paper is inappropriate; such items should, in my opinion, be published on CD-ROM. I hope those of you who review books will consider how they should adapt their own review criteria.

Francis Glassborow
Editor, C Vu