Expert C Programming

Expert C Programming, 1/e

Peter van der Linden
Sun Microsystems Press, Palo Alto, CA

Published June, 1994 by Prentice Hall PTR (ECS Professional)

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Written for experienced C programmers who want to quickly pick up some of the insights and techniques of experts and master the fine arts of ANSI C, this volume passes on the wisdom of a highly experienced C compiler writer and his colleagues to help programmers reach new heights, and avoid common software pitfalls along the way. Using an original approach and a humorous style that makes deep knowledge both easy and accessible, it gathers into one place, tips, hints, shortcuts, guidelines, ideas, idioms, heuristics, tools, anecdotes, C folklore, and techniques that are often penciled in margins and on backs of papers by those working in the programming trenches—working on many different kinds of projects, over many, many years.

Each chapter is divided into self-contained sections. Includes extended discussions of major topics such as declarations and arrays/pointers; offers a great many hints and mnemonics; covers topics that many C programmers find confusing; and features one of the best introductions to C++, and the rationale behind it. Throughout, technical details are interspersed with many true stories of how C programming works in practice, and each chapter ends with an amusing C story or piece of software folklore. engineers and computer programmers who are writing, developing, testing, debugging software on either IBM PCs or Unix systems.

Introduction.
1. The ANSI C Standard.
2. It's Not a Bug, It's a Language Feature!
3. Unscrambling Declarations in C.
4. Thinking of Linking.
5. Poetry in Motion—Runtime Data Structures.
6. Why Programmers Can't Tell Halloween from Christmas Day.
7. The Shocking Truth: Arrays and Pointers Are Not Equivalent!
8. More about Arrays.
9. More about Pointers.
10. You Know C—C++ Is Easy!
Appendix: C Interview Secrets.