Introductory C: Pointers, Functions, and Files - Softcover

Petersen, Richard L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0125521421 ISBN 13: 9780125521420

Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann, 1996

Synopsis

C differs from most programming languages in its use of pointers, functions, and files. For those learning C, pointers are the greatest source of confusion. The primary aim of this book is to provide working models of how pointers are used in C. Pointers are used differently with every programming feature and Introductory C, Second Edition, emphasizes how each new programming feature relates to the use of pointers to provide a thorough understanding of the applications throughout C.
Introductory C, Second Edition, offers a detailed explanation of Arrays in C over several chapters, describing strings, arrays of structures, multi-dimensional arrays, and arrays of pointers. The underlying implementation of arrays using pointersis described in detail with such features as pointers to elements, pointers to arrays, and pointers to pointers. File access methods using text and binary files are also given thorough coverage: character, line, formatted text files, and record binary files are described, and the implementation of file access functions is described in detail. This book will be of great use to programmers at all levels.

Key Features
* Includes three new chapters introducing C++, including coverage of classes, objects, constructors, overloading, inheritance, and derivation
* Contains a floppy disk with source code from examples in the book

About this title

About the Author:

Richard Petersen teaches C Programming and UNIX courses at the University of California, Berkeley. His doctoral work was in artificial intelligence applications to information retrieval. He has pursued studies in cognitive science, philosophy, and aesthetics with particular emphasis on skill acquisition.

Review:

Petersen's book is both a good C manual for beginners and pleasant reading for those who are fond of C programmming. The language notions are introduced gradually, and a large number of valuable examples, figures, and tables help readers learn. Every chapter begins with short definintions, contains a richly illustrated text and ends with a summary and a set of exercies. The exercises are useful for gaining a better undestanding of the material. The sample programs throughout the book are presented in boxes and are fully explained. The book could be used as a classroom text. -- Computing Reviews April, 1993

This book offers a comprehensible introduction to ANSI-C, which is suitable for readers with little or no knowledge of programming and programming languages. Nevertheless it does contain a lot of advanced features of C. The table of contents includes: binary representation of data types, type conversions, memory organization, precompiler commands, string functions, functions with variable number of parameters, recursion, data structures (linked lists, trees), data protection, system calls and bit operations. Every new feature is explained with simple and increasingly complex examples, and each chapter ends with a summary. Special care is taken to explain in length every detail which has to do with pointers and arrays, a theme, which is expecially difficult to comprehend, not only for a beginner. The presentation is UNIX-oriented, including MAKE and makefile's, but MS-DOS files are treated also. Differences between ANSI and PRE-ANSI-C are made explicit and clarified in corresponding examples. The text contains some dozens of exercises, all with solutions. The book can be recommended for self study and, because of the appendices, for quick refernce also. -- Zentralblat fur Mathematik

About this edition

• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0125521421
• ISBN 13: 9780125521420
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 876