A Quick Understanding of C Programming

Naseem Mariam

C Programming for the Absolute Beginner, 2nd ed., by Michael A. Vine, Thomson Course Technology, ISBN-13: 978-1-59863-480-8, ISBN-10: 1-59863-480-1, 316 pp.

This book gives a simple introduction to the basics of C programming. Michael A. Vine has over 13 years’ experience in the information technology profession. He’s taught computer programming in universities and currently works full-time as an IT project manager. This exposure to both students and industry engineers has helped him demystify the C programming language and make learning it easy and fun. The book’s language is simple, the reasoning is clear, and the sample code makes for easy reading.

C Programming for the Absolute Beginner is a good primer for the novice and absolute beginner to programming languages, for anyone new to C, and for someone who wants an overview of the subject.

The first five chapters present standard concepts and topics—for example, initializing variables and using the assignment operator, using compound IF structures and input validation as well as structured programming concepts, creating one- and two-dimensional arrays, managing file I/O, and debugging programs.

The book’s highlights are the tips for avoiding common errors, a clear diagram to introduce pointers, and an easy-to-understand description of arrays. It uses icons to separate “Tips and Cautions” from the rest of the text and boxes to highlight key points.

The real test of a C programming book for beginners is the way it handles topics such as pointers, arrays, data structures, and linked lists. This book is singularly clear in its treatment of pointers and arrays. The accompanying diagrams are good and help explain the concepts. Each chapter has a summary review and exercises that let readers test themselves, and the sample code is available as Web downloads.

The book is missing some topics that serious programmers need to know and C primers usually include:

• Error types such as syntax, logical, and runtime errors and how to avoid them; a caution on corrupting memory with examples on accessing out-of-bound memory while manipulating arrays and pointers.
• Examples of malloc subroutines for structures and the arrow operator for accessing members of data structures using pointers, and a caution about operator precedence when using function pointers.
• Pointer arrays, function pointer arrays, structure arrays, and linked lists.
• A memory-allocation diagram on the stack and heap depicting the direction of memory usage and a caution on memory overflow
• Macros and conditional compilations.

Anyone who knows other programming languages will find this book useful in learning C programming. I can also recommend it to the layperson who wants to know more about programming and understand what the C language is. However, I can’t recommend it to beginners who want to make programming a career. The book doesn’t give them complete information.

Naseem Mariam  is an architect and engineering manager currently working in Aricent Technology Holdings Ltd., Chennai. Her interests include communications software, systems design and architecture, and wireless networks. Contact her at naseem.mariam@aricent.com