Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming • Hacker News Board

Re: Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming

#21

Post by jfkebwjsbx » Sun, Mar 29, 2020, 2:23 PM UTC

tzjmetron wrote: post #6

ponow wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's as fair that you can refuse to pay $60 as it is for the author to ask for it. It strikes me that most people who would pay $30 would also be willing pay $60 in this instance, as it's not as if many new C books are coming out nowadays. So I'm guessing that the author will do better at $60. Medieval notions of profit and the physical costs are mostly irrelevant, but the effort and expertise of the author are not.

It's not about the absolute cost. $60 in a developing country is a substantial sum of money.

So? Should we price everything according to developing countries? Then only those living there could produce things.

Re: Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming

#22

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Mar 29, 2020, 2:30 PM UTC

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #2

I'm sorry, $60? I'm all in favor of fair remuneration for an excellent piece of work, but this is really too much. $30 would be much more fair. (And it doesn't matter if it's a physical book or e-book, the cost of printing nowadays is ca. $1 for each 100 pages.)

[deleted]

Re: Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming

#23

Post by sramsay » Sun, Mar 29, 2020, 2:43 PM UTC

What is going on with the sudden profusion of books on C? 21st century C, Modern C, Understanding and Using C Pointers?

Okay, I realize "profusion" might seem a bit overblown, but honestly, in C world (and in comparison to other languages), this is practically a publishing boom.

Not that I'm complaining; C was my first programming language (back some time in the mid-90s), and it's still my favorite. But I wonder why we're suddenly getting new books on it? The language itself hasn't undergone any substantial changes recently, and if anything, "memory safety" is all the rage -- a thing that C most assuredly is not.

Re: Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming

#24

Post by throwaway17_17 » Sun, Mar 29, 2020, 2:46 PM UTC

paedubucher wrote: post #8

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #2

I'm sorry, $60? I'm all in favor of fair remuneration for an excellent piece of work, but this is really too much. $30 would be much more fair. (And it doesn't matter if it's a physical book or e-book, the cost of printing nowadays is ca. $1 for each 100 pages.)

Maybe the others here in the forum can tell me, why I should risk buying the pre-order (30% off), when I have no chance of reading a sample chapter yet. (I'm actually thinking of doing this, because I'm looking for a good second book on C after having worked through K&R before.) When I see that Brian W. Kernighan releases a book, it's an instant buy for me.

It is a risk to by the preorder sight unseen. If you are not familiar with author and his style you could end up feeling like you wasted that money.

So until a preview chapter or similar is available I’ll through this link to Modern C, 2nd Ed by Gustedt. It has been well received and I thought Jens writing style was solid.

I don’t know if it is the perfect second book to read on C, but it seems well paced and things are well explained.

https://modernc.gforge.inria.fr/

Re: Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming

#25

Post by ThrowawayR2 » Sun, Mar 29, 2020, 2:46 PM UTC

sramsay wrote: post #23

What is going on with the sudden profusion of books on C? 21st century C, Modern C, Understanding and Using C Pointers? Okay, I realize "profusion" might seem a bit overblown, but honestly, in C world (and in comparison to other languages), this is practically a publishing boom. Not that I'm complaining; C was my first programming language (back some time in the mid-90s), and it's still my favorite. But I wonder why…

My guess would be the increasing interest in IoT and mobile non-phone devices.

Re: Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming

#26

Post by Koshkin » Sun, Mar 29, 2020, 2:50 PM UTC

sramsay wrote: post #23

What is going on with the sudden profusion of books on C? 21st century C, Modern C, Understanding and Using C Pointers? Okay, I realize "profusion" might seem a bit overblown, but honestly, in C world (and in comparison to other languages), this is practically a publishing boom. Not that I'm complaining; C was my first programming language (back some time in the mid-90s), and it's still my favorite. But I wonder why…

Undergone any changes or not, taking advantage of a market opportunity never gets old.

Re: Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming

#27

Post by montalbano » Sun, Mar 29, 2020, 2:52 PM UTC

Can any more experienced C developers give an opinion on the author/contents of this book?

I'm a Python/Julia developer starting to learn C. I have K&R already, and Test Driven Development for Embedded C (Grenning).

I did order 'Modern C' by Gustedt but the publisher never delivered to Waterstones so they had to cancel the order (about 6 months ago, book still unavailable from Waterstones as of today).

Re: Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming

#28

Post by dvfjsdhgfv » Sun, Mar 29, 2020, 2:54 PM UTC

clarry wrote: post #16

paedubucher wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, fuqit, I'll just buy it ;-) NoStarch never let me down so far, and paying USD 60 (or 40, or whatever) is such a marginal difference for a book you're going to spends dozens of hours on.

> for a book you're going to spends dozens of hours on. Is that a feature? I'm constantly frustrated by books that use many words to say little. Wasting hours on such books tends to be negative value, and I shouldn't buy them even for two cents..

This is an interesting issue. I remember when I started studying discrete math, I actually bought two books. One was by Ross, and it's the one I prefer, but at places it was a bit terse. So when I had trouble understanding something right away, I looked at the same subject in Susanna Epp's book and usually I could find a relevant explanation or example straight away, but in the long term I couldn't stand this verbose style. (By the way, both books cost $80, but you can buy used copies at 1/10.)

Re: Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming

#29

Post by ghostpepper » Sun, Mar 29, 2020, 2:58 PM UTC

petee wrote: post #4

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #2

I'm sorry, $60? I'm all in favor of fair remuneration for an excellent piece of work, but this is really too much. $30 would be much more fair. (And it doesn't matter if it's a physical book or e-book, the cost of printing nowadays is ca. $1 for each 100 pages.)

For 272 pages written by probably the best person to be writing modern C books, from a small publisher who is known for quality books, sixty dollars doesn't sound unreasonable at all

Not to be rude to the author but what makes him the best person to be writing modern C books?

Re: Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming

#30

Post by billpollock » Sun, Mar 29, 2020, 3:12 PM UTC

bogomipz wrote: post #20

Could someone who purchased the early release say how any chapters are currently available? Usually Nostarch bolds the the currently available chapters in the table of contents and this looks like all of them.

This book is just about to go to the printer. The book business has been turned upside down by COVID-19. We still offer free ebooks with print books purchased directly from our site but we don't know when we'll be able to ship to our customers directly again.

We'll also be pushing out a promotional offer on this book, likely this coming week so you may want to wait for that. Just trying to keep things on track now that our company is completely remote and physical book stores are closing left and right.