Wasn't this same book on the front page of HN just a few weeks ago?
It just seems so random to see it appear again today? Was there a special release announcement that I'm not seeing?
Learn C The Hard Way
11–20 of 69 posts
Re: Learn C The Hard Way
#12Yeah that dumbass Zed Shaw, looking at not even half done freetard stuff is a waste of time. There is K&R and a lot of good contributions to stackoverflow [1]. [1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4810664/how-do-i-use-arra...
Nothing is more enjoyable than watching idiots like you imagine that the world is a fully formed perfect thing that can't possibly be a work in-progress. I watch you guys never put anything out there for fear that someone will think it's just not quite perfect enough. Meanwhile, I crap things into my toilet better than anything you'll make mostly because I put stuff up while I'm working on it so I get immediate feedb…
Zed, I admire you immensely. Please don't feed the trolls.
Re: Learn C The Hard Way
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nothing is more enjoyable than watching idiots like you imagine that the world is a fully formed perfect thing that can't possibly be a work in-progress. I watch you guys never put anything out there for fear that someone will think it's just not quite perfect enough. Meanwhile, I crap things into my toilet better than anything you'll make mostly because I put stuff up while I'm working on it so I get immediate feedb…
Zed, I admire you immensely. Please don't feed the trolls.
Agreed. I really love your work Zed. Let haters hate and keep doing what you best do.
Re: Learn C The Hard Way
#14Yeah that dumbass Zed Shaw, looking at not even half done freetard stuff is a waste of time. There is K&R and a lot of good contributions to stackoverflow [1]. [1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4810664/how-do-i-use-arra...
K&R isn't available as an E-Book, it is expensive and as someone who has no knowledge about how C is developed and has advanced the age of the book makes me doubt if it is suitable to learn how people develop C programs nowadays. I don't want to finish it and find out that a third of what I learned is outdated.
I have some pretty serious issues with the content in LCTHW, and I would say that reading this book is absolutely not going to give you a deep understanding of how modern c programming is done.
K&R is an excellent reference, and LCTHW covers some new topics like valgrind, which is great.
However, it fails to point out that some of the exercises are just that; exercises. For example, creating a custom type system in C. Never do this.
Some other failings include; little attention to testing, no mention of cmake (used in major projects like opencv and clang) or lint(!), criticism of K&R systax (arguably validly so, but industry standard is industry standard).
Look there's a lot of good in Learn C the Hard Way. I completely recommend it as a way to learn some C... but don't make the mistake of assuming a new book is better than an old book just because it's new.
If you're programming C, read K&R. If you're doing it professionally, you probably also want to read Deep Sea Programming by Peter van der Linden.
Re: Learn C The Hard Way
#15[deleted]
Re: Learn C The Hard Way
#16Hmm, I've always viewed K&R as kind of a paragon of C perfection -- I first learned C from K&R when I was 16 or so and have used it as a trusty companion to systems C programming all the way through grad school. Not only do I view it as a good book to learn C, I also view it as one of the best computer science textbooks ever written, partially because it manages to encompass so much of the C and UNIX style along with the programming language itself.
So I guess my question is: why not K&R? Learn Python and Learn Ruby always made sense to me because there's a serious lack of definitive texts on learning those languages, especially if you've never programmed before. However, in my opinion C is not the best first language and there already exists a fairly definitive text on it. So I would love it if someone could let me know what I'm missing.
Re: Learn C The Hard Way
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
K&R isn't available as an E-Book, it is expensive and as someone who has no knowledge about how C is developed and has advanced the age of the book makes me doubt if it is suitable to learn how people develop C programs nowadays. I don't want to finish it and find out that a third of what I learned is outdated.
I have some pretty serious issues with the content in LCTHW, and I would say that reading this book is absolutely not going to give you a deep understanding of how modern c programming is done. K&R is an excellent reference, and LCTHW covers some new topics like valgrind, which is great. However, it fails to point out that some of the exercises are just that; exercises. For example, creating a custom type system in C…
If you're serious about programming in C you'll read multiple books anyway. LCTHW seems like a good starting point to me. It's probably not for everyone. No book I've ever read about anything is. But it gets you to from passive reading to actively playing around fast. And it doesn't throw just code in front of you. It also explains the most basic functions of some of the non OS specific tools you will actually use when you'll be doing serious stuff much later. You can build on that pretty well, because you now know more about what you don't know, which gives you a tremendous advantage in terms of further research.
Re: Learn C The Hard Way
#18Yeah that dumbass Zed Shaw, looking at not even half done freetard stuff is a waste of time. There is K&R and a lot of good contributions to stackoverflow [1]. [1] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4810664/how-do-i-use-arra...
Nothing is more enjoyable than watching idiots like you imagine that the world is a fully formed perfect thing that can't possibly be a work in-progress. I watch you guys never put anything out there for fear that someone will think it's just not quite perfect enough. Meanwhile, I crap things into my toilet better than anything you'll make mostly because I put stuff up while I'm working on it so I get immediate feedb…
I wish you weren't so easily baited.
Re: Learn C The Hard Way
#19Caveat: only scanned the structure and read the final chapter.
Regarding the final chapter: K&R, like most programming books (especially those for new language) shows pedagogical code, not for productive use. I highly doubt it was ever intended as the equivalent of the modern-day "Code Complete"!
The value of LCTHW, apart from the intro and availability, is its unusual dissecting/analytical approach, which I welcome and am grateful, and for this reason will read it in its entirety.
Re: Learn C The Hard Way
#20Hmm, I've always viewed K&R as kind of a paragon of C perfection -- I first learned C from K&R when I was 16 or so and have used it as a trusty companion to systems C programming all the way through grad school. Not only do I view it as a good book to learn C, I also view it as one of the best computer science textbooks ever written, partially because it manages to encompass so much of the C and UNIX style along with…
Your question is addressed by the author at the end of the book:
http://c.learncodethehardway.org/book/learn-c-the-hard-waych...