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Comment by quackulus | Hacker News Reader

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quackulus·

How does it compare to KnR?

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The article states that it’s “generally an average-to-poor book”. Is KnR a poor book?

I meant coverage, not impression. I think KnR is a great book.

I’m always a little confused by the hype of KnR. It seems like just an introduction on the syntax of c?

It doesn’t seem to really tell you how to build great programs with C or anything more complex than the absolute basics which you can find on the internet for free.

I found the Annotated ANSI C Standard by Herbert Schildt to be far more helpful in understanding C syntax than the K&R book ever was. I was lucky enough to find it in a local book store while still in high school in 1993.

Thanks, although I’m puzzled after reading that Schildt has “clear style that leaves the reader confident but dangerously ignorant.” [0]

[0] http://herbert.the-little-red-haired-girl.org/en/c-links/ind...

This book was so bad it inspired a new word:

http://catb.org/jargon/html/B/bullschildt.html

I'm going to start using this word :D

That's a different book than the one I was referring to. I was referring to The Annotated ANSI C Standard: American National Standard for Programming Languages-C : Ansi/Iso 9899-1990.

I learned C in the early 90's with one of Schildt books. I actually did learn something. So there is that. It has a place close to my heart but I have to agree with most. It's not a great book.

I wish I would have a couple of good examples at hand, though

The actual information is a bit out of date, and it's not a best practices manual or anything like that.

K&R's strength is its exceptional style. It's a real masterpiece in clarity, and sets a mark that most technical literature fails to pass.

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