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Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming

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Re: Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming

#71

Post by billpollock »

paedubucher wrote: post #58
rcseacord wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This book has a very concise writing style. I really wanted to keep it small enough to carry on an airplane (when we are allowed to fly again). I'm really proud of the final product and very happy with the editing staff at No Starch who helped me produce a very polished product.

Thanks for the insight! I really appreciate when the authors interact with the community. Many books nowadays, also from NoStarch, are released as early access books. Your book does not run under the early access program, or at least not yet. Is this a decision made by you as an author? Or is the kind of book not really suited for early access? I could imagine that introductory books work well as early access books;…

We're getting caught up on our Early Access titles. Our staff is very particular about what they release and they don't like to put chapters in until they feel like they're really final. Given the current world situation I'm making sure that we relax that policy a bit and you'll see more books moving into Early Access in the next 2 or 3 weeks. Just a little hectic around my company at the moment.

Re: Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming

#72

Post by rhexs »

nrclark wrote: post #63
rcseacord wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it's hard to say that I'm the best person to write a modern C book. A slightly lower bar might be, am I the best person who has actually written a modern C Book? Resume-wise, I've been writing C code since 1985, and I've been an expert on the C Standards Committee (WG14) since 2004. I've written two prior books on C Programming including "Secure Coding in C and C++" and "The CERT C Coding Standard". I also teach S…

If I buy a copy of your book, will you abuse your position to get constexpr into C? It would be a big improvement over complex macro magic. I'll buy an extra copy if you can get 'defer' in there too! Those two features would really be the bee's knees :)

If you're looking for a low-level performance targeted language where anyone can add anything whatsoever, I've got great news! C++ already exists!

Re: Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming

#73

Post by zapttt »

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…

the only thing C missed was a stdnet lib, with things like starting a network daemon and http parsers. oh and a decent list stdlib that everyone could agree on and build the rest on top.

had that happened a while ago, we would never have seen php et al.

Re: Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming

#74

Post by sigzero »

billpollock wrote: post #70
sigzero wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope your choice of Cthulhu doesn't mean reading the book will drive you insane!

I believe that was Roberts choice but I love the cover.

Oh, I do too. I am a big reader of Lovecraft and books in the same genre.

Re: Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming

#75

Post by bdelay »

montalbano wrote: post #27

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).

I took Seacord's virtual class (CMU SEI? Can't remember) on Secure C coding a few years back and own, love, and regularly use the The CERT C Secure Coding Standard.

I learned from K&R, but highly recommend Seacord's books if you're looking for how to write secure C and a more modern take on some of the trickier parts of C.

Re: Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming

#76

Post by la_fayette »

zapttt wrote: post #73
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…

the only thing C missed was a stdnet lib, with things like starting a network daemon and http parsers. oh and a decent list stdlib that everyone could agree on and build the rest on top. had that happened a while ago, we would never have seen php et al.

Actually, you should research about the story why php was created... it was primarily envisioned as a templating language and the creator wanted people to use c/c++ for business logic etc, however people didn't do that because it was easier with php.

There is absolutely no reason why a website should be build with c, sry...

Edit: link to rasmus lerdorf on 25 years php: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wCZ5TJCBWMg

Re: Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming

#77

Post by sitkack »

Encouraging C use is at this point, bordering on malpractice. I understand that the author is a leading authority in "secure C coding". While the ABI doesn't have a lot of affordances, we don't have to keep using the language because of the ABI.

Rather

ZetZ -- Symbolic Verifier and Transpiler to C. https://github.com/aep/zz and previous discussions, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22245409

Zig, https://ziglang.org/ https://hn.algolia.com/?q=ziglang

Rust is more of a C++ competitor, https://www.rust-lang.org/

And Dlang has a regime where it can be used w/o a GC. https://dlang.org/spec/garbage.html

I left out any language which forces the use of a garbage collector.

Re: Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming

#78

Post by paedubucher »

la_fayette wrote: post #76
zapttt wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the only thing C missed was a stdnet lib, with things like starting a network daemon and http parsers. oh and a decent list stdlib that everyone could agree on and build the rest on top. had that happened a while ago, we would never have seen php et al.

Actually, you should research about the story why php was created... it was primarily envisioned as a templating language and the creator wanted people to use c/c++ for business logic etc, however people didn't do that because it was easier with php. There is absolutely no reason why a website should be build with c, sry... Edit: link to rasmus lerdorf on 25 years php: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wCZ5TJCBWMg

> There is absolutely no reason why a website should be build with c, sry...

Please tell this Felix von Leitner (fefe.de, blog.fefe.de), and post his reply in this forum.

His blog software is written in C. It's one of the most frequented blog in German speaking countries and running on a single machine (AFAIK).

Of course, not everybody has the expertise to build something like a blog in C.

Re: Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming

#80

Post by paedubucher »

billpollock wrote: post #71
paedubucher wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the insight! I really appreciate when the authors interact with the community. Many books nowadays, also from NoStarch, are released as early access books. Your book does not run under the early access program, or at least not yet. Is this a decision made by you as an author? Or is the kind of book not really suited for early access? I could imagine that introductory books work well as early access books;…

We're getting caught up on our Early Access titles. Our staff is very particular about what they release and they don't like to put chapters in until they feel like they're really final. Given the current world situation I'm making sure that we relax that policy a bit and you'll see more books moving into Early Access in the next 2 or 3 weeks. Just a little hectic around my company at the moment.

My intention was really not putting pressure on the publisher as a buyer of this book. I rather wonder why certain books have an early access option and others don't.

I probably won't be able to read it before July, anyway, because I have to finish my bachelor's degree first. But I think it's not a bad time for a financial contribution to my favorite tech book publisher, so I already bought the book "blindly".

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