[ Thanks to David Culp
for this link. ]
“Although the book is titled Teach Yourself C for Linux
Programming in 21 Days, nearly everything in the book pertains to C
in general and will be valid across almost all platforms whether
your working with Linux, Windows, Macs or some other platform. The
Linux specific information does not really begin until chapter 19
which covers process and signals. Chapter 20 covers advanced
compiler usage including a brief overview of the make utility.
Although make is not covered in depth you will be able to make
simple makefiles suitable for most simple applications. Finally
chapter 21 concludes with a brief discussion of GUI programming
with GTK+.”
“The book takes you from the extreme basics all the way to a
few advanced topics and does a good job of it. The code examples
are complete code examples and a short, sweet, and to the
point. There are very few ‘code snippets’ in the book. What I
mean by that is code taken out of context to show an example of a
function or concept in action. I would rather be presented with a
short but complete example and that is exactly what the books does.
Very few of the examples go over 50-60 lines of code and comments.
However, at the end of each week you are presented with an example
that uses everything learned so far and are a good way to see how
everything you have learned meshes together.”
“The only good way to learn programming is to dive in and work
with it. Simply reading about a programming language or technique
is just not enough (at least for me). To really ground the concepts
you have to do something with them to keep them in long term
memory. The exercises allow you to begin the process of
internalizing the C language. However, if you want to really
understand C and programming in general I urge you to go well
beyond those exercises and do something useful after reading the
book. It does not have to be a mammoth project, but you should try
something fairly non-trivial.”