http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/418HAJPHYDL._SL500_AA240_.jpg * ''The C Programming Language'' by BrianKernighan and DennisRitchie * ISBN 978-0131103627, ISBN 0131103628 * Publisher: PrenticeHall PTR; 2 edition (April 1, 1988) * http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/cbook/ * ProgrammingBookAcronym: K&R Dennis developed C and with Brian wrote the definitive language reference. It was thin and to the point when the tradition was far more puffy. Hardly a manual is written today that doesn't mimic multiple aspects of K&R's style, not the least of which is the HelloWorld example. ---- I picked this up in 1982 at a fire sale (literally, my copy and several hundred others had been rescued from a fire at a university bookstore and still smelled of smoke several months later when I found it in a bargain bin at the local liquidator's). I learned C from it. Later, my father, who had mastered Fortran, RPG, PL/I and a host of other historical languages, admitted he had been unable to grok C. In retrospect, I think that says more about C than about my father. -- David Brantley ---- K&R is now on its second edition--which was published in 1988; shortly before the AnsiCee standard was published (but the contents of AnsiCee were well known). Now that AnsiCee has undergone a major revision--is a third edtion of K&R forthcoming? I would hope so. -- ScottJohnson Back in 2000 DennisRitchie said that he and BrianKernighan were still considering whether to do a third edition. (http://www.itworld.com/Comp/3380/lw-12-ritchie/) By now (2006) I guess it's safe to assume that they won't. (DennisRitchie wasn't involved in the C99 process, and wasn't overly happy with the changes in the new standard.) ---- More recent printings of the second edition use paper which is much thicker and somewhat cheap-looking. More seriously, the cleanness of the type has worsened dramatically. It seems that the publishers (Prentice Hall) haven't reset the book in years, despite the now-embarrassing smudginess and the fact that there are several known errors in the text: see http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/cbook/2ediffs.html . Of course it's still a full-price title - presumably the heavier paper was an attempt to make it look like better value for money to less-informed buyers who are likely to weigh it visually against the many thicker books on the programming shelves. ---- CategoryBook CategoryCee