Your bookshelf with C books

A

Andrey Lanin

Hi, everyone!

Here is mine bookshelf (books are sorted by frequency of use):

general purpose :
"C A Reference Manual", Fifth Edition, Samuel P. Harbison III, Guy L. Steel Jr., 2002
"C in a Nutshell", Second Edition, Peter Prinz and Tony Crawford, 2016
"SEI CERT C Coding Standard, Rules for Developing Safe, Reliable, and Secure Systems", 2016 Edition

"ThreadTime, The Multithreaded Programming Guide", Scott J. Norton, Mark D. DiPasquale, 1997
"Window via C/C++", Jeffrey Richter, Christophe Nasarre, 2007
"Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment", Third Edition, W. Richard Stevens, Stephen A. Rago, 2013
"The Linux Programming Interface", Michael Kerrisk, 2010

"Effective C, An Introduction to Professional C Programming", Robert C. Seacord, 2020
"Modern C", Jens Gustedt, 2020
"Secure Coding in C and C++", Second Edition, Robert C. Seacord, 2013

"UNIX Network Programming, Volume 2", W. Richard Stevens, 1999
"Solaris Systems Programming", Rich Teer, 2005

"Expert C Programming: Deep C Secrets", Peter van der Linden, 1994
"21st Century C", Second Edition, Ben Klemens, 2015
"Understanding and Using C Pointers", Richard Reese, 2013

"The Standard C Library", P.J. Plauger, 1992
"Pointers on C", Kenneth Reek, 1997
"C Traps and Pitfalls", Andrew Koenig, 1989

algorithms :
"Algorithms in C Parts 1-4, Fundamentals, Data Structures, Sorting, Searching", Third Edition, Robert Sedgewick, 2001
"Algorithms in C, Part 5 Graphs", Third Edition, Robert Sedgewick, 2001
"Programming in C", Second Edition, Pradip Dey, Manas Ghosh, 2011
"Mastering Algorithms with C", Kyle Loudon, 1999

Some excellent books related to specific area (with the C code inside) :
"UNIX Network Programming, Volume 1", W. Richard Stevens, 1998
"UNIX Network Programming, Volume 1", Second Edition, W. Richard Stevens, Bill Fenner, Andrew M. Rudoff, 2004
"TCP/IP Illustrated Volume 2", Gary R. Wright, W. Richard Stevens, 1995
"Solaris Internals", Second Edition, Richard McDougall, Jim Mauro, 2007
"Programming The Microsoft Windows Driver Model", Second Edition, Walter Oney, 2002

my first C book :
"Encyclopedia jezyka С dla IBM РС", Jan Bielecki, 1989 (translated from Polish into Russian)
 
Any specific ones you could recommend for 'new' users and which ones for more 'advanced' users?
 
Too many to actually list my favorites but my top ones:

"The C Programming Language" by Kernighan and Ritchie (2 copies, both from Bell Labs, one heavily taped back together). To me the gold standard of the language.
C Programming Guide by Jack Purdum (a goto reference, I think good for beginners)
 
Sorry if this is slightly off-topic for this thread, but as C is my favorite programming language, I just have to answer this:
  • None.
Well, maybe due to the fact that by the time I started seriously using C, I didn't buy books any more as you could already find lots of info online ?
 
SirDice said:
Any specific ones you could recommend for 'new' users and which ones for more 'advanced' users?
Click to expand...
For 'new' users:
"C in a Nutshell", Second Edition, Peter Prinz and Tony Crawford, 2016
"Effective C, An Introduction to Professional C Programming", Robert C. Seacord, 2020
"Understanding and Using C Pointers", Richard Reese, 2013
"21st Century C", Second Edition, Ben Klemens, 2015
"Programming in C", Second Edition, Pradip Dey, Manas Ghosh, 2011
For more 'advanced' users:
"Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment", Third Edition, W. Richard Stevens, Stephen A. Rago, 2013
"The Linux Programming Interface", Michael Kerrisk, 2010
"UNIX Network Programming, Volume 2", W. Richard Stevens, 1999 (a little outdated, but the style of presentation is very good)
and then:
"ThreadTime, The Multithreaded Programming Guide", Scott J. Norton, Mark D. DiPasquale, 1997 (the best in its field)
"Window via C/C++", Jeffrey Richter, Christophe Nasarre, 2007
for specialists of a higher level of knowledge С :
"Mastering Algorithms with C", Kyle Loudon, 1999
then (on demand - very specific):
"Algorithms in C Parts 1-4, Fundamentals, Data Structures, Sorting, Searching", Third Edition, Robert Sedgewick, 2001
"Algorithms in C, Part 5 Graphs", Third Edition, Robert Sedgewick, 2001

W. Richard Stevens' books UNP and TCP/IP - you can try to start reading at "more advanced" level.
 
zirias@ as time goes by, one does need fewer and fewer books. There is a chance that I graduated university before you were born ( I would have had 36 yr college anniversary recently ) so getting started, books were the only way to learn anything. O'Reilly was the publisher of choice for a long time.
Now, any questions I just start at Stack Overflow.
 
zirias@ said:
Sorry if this is slightly off-topic for this thread, but as C is my favorite programming language, I just have to answer this:
  • None.
Well, maybe due to the fact that by the time I started seriously using C, I didn't buy books any more as you could already find lots of info online ?
Click to expand...
yes, I have also been using online resources lately (for ex - https://en.cppreference.com/w/ , https://www.drdobbs.com/ , ... ), but a book ... - you can read it without sitting at a computer and / or without breaking your eyes on a smartphone.

Edit: sorry - https://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/farewell-dr-dobbs/240169421
 
I'm a bit stuck in a vicious cycle. I learned C a long time ago and I think I have a fairly decent grasp of the language. But I rarely, if ever, code in C so I'm severely lacking experience. Because I lack the experience I don't code in C, thus never get that needed experience either.
 
One of the nice things of the C language is that it doesn't provide a lot. It's a simple language. You can literally teach someone how to write C code in one day. There isn't as much to learn about the C language itself compared to other languages.

And this is where the important difference between "writing code" and "programming" comes in: The real "challenge" is to write good code using what C provides. But this has little to do with "learning C" compared to "learning programming".
 
SirDice said:
I'm a bit stuck in a vicious cycle. I learned C a long time ago and I think I have a fairly decent grasp of the language. But I rarely, if ever, code in C so I'm severely lacking experience. Because I lack the experience I don't code in C, thus never get that needed experience either.
Click to expand...
we (our company) write in C at the request of the customer - our software (libraries) are built into the customer's code. For other customers, we write in C++. And for my own pleasure and to automate my work, I write in Perl.
jbodenmann said:
The real "challenge" is to write good code using what C provides.
Click to expand...
Exactly!
 
jbodenmann said:
The real "challenge" is to write good code using what C provides.
Click to expand...
I would say that is true of any language. That's why after a while, a good developer can use any language after learning the syntax. Maybe takes more time to truly master it, but that's true of anything (even getting out of bed and walking).

As for SirDice dilemma, a lot of current languages are syntactically similar to C, heck even JavaScript is not that much different, so using languages that are close translates to C, so the working memory of C comes back quickly with use.
 
mer said:
As for @SirDice dilemma, a lot of current languages are syntactically similar to C, heck even JavaScript is not that much different, so using languages that are close translates to C, so the working memory of C comes back quickly with use.
Click to expand...
It's not like I don't code at all. Especially nowadays with "Infrastructure as Code" being pushed everywhere I go. There's often no need to code in C for me.
 
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Andrey Lanin said:
"C A Reference Manual", Fifth Edition, Samuel P. Harbison III, Guy L. Steel Jr., 2002
"Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment", Third Edition, W. Richard Stevens, Stephen A. Rago, 2013
"The Linux Programming Interface", Michael Kerrisk, 2010
"UNIX Network Programming, Volume 2", W. Richard Stevens, 1999
Click to expand...

I agree with those. Also K&R is a must though outdated if you use C99 or later.

Andrey Lanin said:
"Solaris Systems Programming", Rich Teer, 2005
Click to expand...

This one doesn't add much to APUE from which it is heavily inspired.

Andrey Lanin said:
"Expert C Programming: Deep C Secrets", Peter van der Linden, 1994
"The Standard C Library", P.J. Plauger, 1992
"C Traps and Pitfalls", Andrew Koenig, 1989
Click to expand...

These 3 are OK. Plauger print quality as abysmal.

Also agree with (almost) anything by the late W Richard Stevens.

algorithms
Knuth
Also the 2 books by Alex Stepanov are fantastic
Hacker's Delight, 2e Warren. Every developer should have this on their desk.

FreeBSD
D&I, McKusick Neville-Neil and Watson

I have (almost literally) a ton of C++ books which I'm going to mention despite the topic, but just a few
The C++ Programming Language, Stroustrup
Effective Modern C++, Meyers
Anything by Sutter, Josuttis, Vandevoorde and Alexandrescu is worth reading.

performance
All of Brendan Gregg's publications.

scientific programming
It's almost a universal truth that scientifiic programmers write shit code but even still Numerical Analysis 3e is worth a pop

testing
Working Effectively with Legacy Code, Feathers

low level (wish there were more on this subject)
Inside the C++ Object Model, Lippman
Linkers and Loders, Levine
 
Paul Floyd said:
"Solaris Systems Programming", Rich Teer, 2005
This one doesn't add much to APUE from which it is heavily inspired.
Click to expand...
Agree. There was even an article somewhere that the author copied not only the style but also the text from Stevens' book. But nevertheless, when I worked on Solaris, this book helped me a lot.

Paul Floyd said:
I have (almost literally) a ton of C++ books which I'm going to mention despite the topic, but just a few
The C++ Programming Language, Stroustrup
Effective Modern C++, Meyers
Anything by Sutter, Josuttis, Vandevoorde and Alexandrescu is worth reading.
Click to expand...
As for C++, I also have a lot of books:
"The C++ Programming Language", Fourth Edition, Bjarne Stroustrup, 2013
"C++ Primer", Fifth Edition, Stanley B. Lippman, Josée Lajoie, Barbara E. Moo, 2013
"The C++ Standard Library", Second Edition, Nicolai M. Josuttis, 2012
"C++ Templates, The Complete Guide", Second Edition, David Vandevoorde, Nicolai M. Josuttis, Douglas Gregor, 2018
"Effective Modern C++", Scott Meyers, 2015
"C++ Concurrency in Action", Second Edition, Anthony Williams, 2019
"C++17 - The Complete Guide", Nicolai M. Josuttis, 2017-2022
"C++ Move Semantics, The Complete Guide", Nicolai M. Josuttis, 2020-2022
"C++20, The Complete Guide", Nicolai M. Josuttis, 2022- (in progress)
"C++17 in Detail", Bartłomiej Filipek, 2018
"C++ Lambda Story", Bartłomiej Filipek, 2021
"Functional Programming in C++", IVAN ČUKIĆ, 2019
"C++20", Rainer Grimm, 2020-2022
"Concurrency with Modern C++", Rainer Grimm, 2017-2022
"The C++ Standard Library", Rainer Grimm, 2016-2022
"Thinking in C++ vol 1", Second Edition, Bruce Eckel, 2000
"Thinking in C++ vol 2", Bruce Eckel, Chuck Allison, 2004
"More Effective C++" (3 books), Scott Meyers, 1996-2005
"Effective STL", Scott Meyers, 2001
"C++ Common Knoweledge", Stephen C. Dewhurst, 2005
"C++ Gotchas", Stephen C. Dewhurst, 2003
"Exceptional C++" (2 books), Herb Sutter, 2002, 2005

But the interest was precisely in C books, because there are far fewer good C books than there are good C++ books :-/
 
A problem with all these books is that most of us don't read them very thoroughly or at all. We become book collectors and not readers.

Once one learns some C, picking up any new book will assume you don't know anything about C. Then you have to trudge through all the beginnings again and you get bored. Then it sits on the shelf until the next ambition you get.

I started life as an electronic engineer. I would get every magazine and newspaper I could get my hands on. There were 20 to 30 I would get every week or month. I soon found out they were all covering the same topics at the same time and started filling up with too much advertising. I wittled that list down to four.

The same can be done with books on C. One for the basics. The Stevens books should be on everyone's shelf.

When I did electronic design, the only languages I knew were bit slicing (micro-coding) and assembly. Our boss, with his all so fancy MIT Master's degree hanging on the wall, decided to drag us, kicking and screaming, to learn C. Bought us all the white book and told us to read it. It's the only C book I've read cover-to-cover (this was 1985). I still have that book on my shelf next to the Stevens books.

Anything I learned later in life was from looking at other people's code. One guy looking over my shoulder once exclaimed, "I didn't know you could do that!". There are cool things in the FreeBSD source we could all learn from.

Most learning nowadays is how to glue other people's code into yours. That's not how you learn programming.
 
I mostly program in a language with a default garbage collector. So C is not included.
I own:
- K&R The C Programming language.
- Herbert Schildt , C The Complete Reference
The latter is a really good book.
 
drhowarddrfine said:
We become book collectors and not readers.
Click to expand...
This is sadly so true for me lately. I bought few very nice books and read pretty much nothing since I bought them. I can give you handful of excuses why it is but in the end it doesn't matter. :|

K&R C book is my most favorite, I own the 2nd edition. Also back in the 90s, inspired by this book Czech author wrote a book, roughly translated to "textbook of C language" (Učebnice jazyka C, Pavel Herout). This was my first book about C and I remember reading it through and through several times. Also remember that feeling when I first opened a page on pointers. Rite of passage for a newbie.

Computer Press published several books that got translated to Czech (original publisher Pearson Education) about C++. I own two: C++ primer plus and Programming Microsoft Visual C++. The later I didn't read all the way. I didn't like the OOP (and still don't), I stirred my focus to assembly. Back then to x86 one.
Most of my books now are the original titles (O'Reilly, NoStarch Press), something that was very hard to get in the early 90s.
 
I never programmed much in straight C; I went very quickly from C to C++ (around 1992 or so). My C bookshelf: K&R 2nd edition (the ANSI one, I own two copies so I can have one at home and one in the office, plus I own one pre-ANSI version). Then the Plauger "Standard C library". For OS interfaces, I early on decided that the differences between different Unix versions were TOO annoying, so I bought several O'Reilly volumes about POSIX (including Bill Gallmeister's book on POSIX.4), and used those as reference manuals).

On book I particularly like is Brad Cox "Object Oriented Programming: An evolutionary approach", which teaches how to do OO in C (not C++) and Objective-C. Very insightful. Not useful at all today, but it teaches the fundamentals of how OO works.

And then obviously all the W. Richard Stevens books.
 
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