Not sure what the point is in bashing a book thats known to be crap.
You check everything, recheck names, and it still crashes.
You try to find out if you are using the compiler right, if you have the correct version, still crashes.
So you try to type it in another editor, maybe the editor is adding CRLF from dos, and the compiler is expecting Unix EOL, nope, still crashing.
Maybe there is a problem with the machine, so try a different machine, nope, still crashing.
It is enough to turn anyone off of computer science. When you are first starting out, there are so many things that already can go wrong, and so much to learn. This is just bad!
How bad do you have to be to not continuously improve what you did before? Also, his examples to me scream that he hasn't or doesn't really write code for a living, or if he does, it's with a community of other fossils like him.
I can't respect any programming book writer who doesn't have some kind of automation in place to ensure all his code samples (1) compile, and (2) work as expected.
Basic stuff nowadays.
And even me, with not very much C cred, can see his C code is clearly not idiomatic for C these days, if you compare it to some well-written OSS C.
I find the tone of the intro of the updated article very amusing, I guess it's the typical underdog story. He used to be some random guy on the Internet who liked C; now he's an experienced professional who spent almost a decade on the C committee. Awesome.
"Schildt's books have a reputation for being written in a clear style that is very easy to understand.[10] Their technical accuracy, especially of the earlier works, has been challenged by reviewers, including ISO C committee members Peter Seebach,[11] and Clive Feather,[12] Steve Summit, author of the C FAQ[13], and numerous reviews in C Vu from the ACCU.[14]"
I'm not an expert on C, writing, publishing or proof reading. Over the last twenty years, whenever Schildt's name or books have come up in conversation online or off, there has always been an associated foul odor.
There are so many good books on C, it's just not worth it to waste your time and space on his books.
It's a little dated now, I suppose, but it may be worth remembering that Schildt's books were very popular at one point. Quite a number of people learned C from that awful book, with no idea how many bad habits they were ingesting.
It does not only warn (new) people to stay away from it, it also reflects badly on the publisher, who only seems able to bring out shoddy work.