The C programming Language
By Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie.
Published by Prentice-Hall in 1988
ISBN 0-13-110362-8 (paperback)
ISBN 0-13-110370-9
Download
http://www.duckload.com/download/3610984/The_C_Programming_Language.pdf
By Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie.
Published by Prentice-Hall in 1988
ISBN 0-13-110362-8 (paperback)
ISBN 0-13-110370-9
The computing world has undergone a revolution since the publication of The C Programming Language
in 1978. Big computers are much bigger, and personal computers have capabilities that rival mainframes
of a decade ago. During this time, C has changed too, although only modestly, and it has spread far
beyond its origins as the language of the UNIX operating system.
The growing popularity of C, the changes in the language over the years, and the creation of compilers
by groups not involved in its design, combined to demonstrate a need for a more precise and more
contemporary definition of the language than the first edition of this book provided. In 1983, the
American National Standards Institute (ANSI) established a committee whose goal was to produce ``an
unambiguous and machine-independent definition of the language C'', while still retaining its spirit. The
result is the ANSI standard for C.
The standard formalizes constructions that were hinted but not described in the first edition, particularly
structure assignment and enumerations. It provides a new form of function declaration that permits crosschecking
of definition with use. It specifies a standard library, with an extensive set of functions for
performing input and output, memory management, string manipulation, and similar tasks. It makes
precise the behavior of features that were not spelled out in the original definition, and at the same time
states explicitly which aspects of the language remain machine-dependent.
This Second Edition of The C Programming Language describes C as defined by the ANSI standard.
Although we have noted the places where the language has evolved, we have chosen to write exclusively
in the new form. For the most part, this makes no significant difference; the most visible change is the
new form of function declaration and definition. Modern compilers already support most features of the
standard.
We have tried to retain the brevity of the first edition. C is not a big language, and it is not well served by
a big book. We have improved the exposition of critical features, such as pointers, that are central to C
programming. We have refined the original examples, and have added new examples in several chapters.
For instance, the treatment of complicated declarations is augmented by programs that convert
declarations into words and vice versa. As before, all examples have been tested directly from the text,
which is in machine-readable form.
in 1978. Big computers are much bigger, and personal computers have capabilities that rival mainframes
of a decade ago. During this time, C has changed too, although only modestly, and it has spread far
beyond its origins as the language of the UNIX operating system.
The growing popularity of C, the changes in the language over the years, and the creation of compilers
by groups not involved in its design, combined to demonstrate a need for a more precise and more
contemporary definition of the language than the first edition of this book provided. In 1983, the
American National Standards Institute (ANSI) established a committee whose goal was to produce ``an
unambiguous and machine-independent definition of the language C'', while still retaining its spirit. The
result is the ANSI standard for C.
The standard formalizes constructions that were hinted but not described in the first edition, particularly
structure assignment and enumerations. It provides a new form of function declaration that permits crosschecking
of definition with use. It specifies a standard library, with an extensive set of functions for
performing input and output, memory management, string manipulation, and similar tasks. It makes
precise the behavior of features that were not spelled out in the original definition, and at the same time
states explicitly which aspects of the language remain machine-dependent.
This Second Edition of The C Programming Language describes C as defined by the ANSI standard.
Although we have noted the places where the language has evolved, we have chosen to write exclusively
in the new form. For the most part, this makes no significant difference; the most visible change is the
new form of function declaration and definition. Modern compilers already support most features of the
standard.
We have tried to retain the brevity of the first edition. C is not a big language, and it is not well served by
a big book. We have improved the exposition of critical features, such as pointers, that are central to C
programming. We have refined the original examples, and have added new examples in several chapters.
For instance, the treatment of complicated declarations is augmented by programs that convert
declarations into words and vice versa. As before, all examples have been tested directly from the text,
which is in machine-readable form.
standard in a smaller space. It is meant for easy comprehension by programmers, but not as a definition
for compiler writers -- that role properly belongs to the standard itself. Appendix B is a summary of the
facilities of the standard library. It too is meant for reference by programmers, not implementers.
Appendix C is a concise summary of the changes from the original version.
As we said in the preface to the first edition, C ``wears well as one's experience with it grows''. With a
decade more experience, we still feel that way. We hope that this book will help you learn C and use it
well.
We are deeply indebted to friends who helped us to produce this second edition. Jon Bently, Doug Gwyn,
Doug McIlroy, Peter Nelson, and Rob Pike gave us perceptive comments on almost every page of draft
manuscripts. We are grateful for careful reading by Al Aho, Dennis Allison, Joe Campbell, G.R. Emlin,
Karen Fortgang, Allen Holub, Andrew Hume, Dave Kristol, John Linderman, Dave Prosser, Gene
Spafford, and Chris van Wyk. We also received helpful suggestions from Bill Cheswick, Mark
Kernighan, Andy Koenig, Robin Lake, Tom London, Jim Reeds, Clovis Tondo, and Peter Weinberger.
Dave Prosser answered many detailed questions about the ANSI standard. We used Bjarne Stroustrup's
C++ translator extensively for local testing of our programs, and Dave Kristol provided us with an ANSI
C compiler for final testing. Rich Drechsler helped greatly with typesetting.
for compiler writers -- that role properly belongs to the standard itself. Appendix B is a summary of the
facilities of the standard library. It too is meant for reference by programmers, not implementers.
Appendix C is a concise summary of the changes from the original version.
As we said in the preface to the first edition, C ``wears well as one's experience with it grows''. With a
decade more experience, we still feel that way. We hope that this book will help you learn C and use it
well.
We are deeply indebted to friends who helped us to produce this second edition. Jon Bently, Doug Gwyn,
Doug McIlroy, Peter Nelson, and Rob Pike gave us perceptive comments on almost every page of draft
manuscripts. We are grateful for careful reading by Al Aho, Dennis Allison, Joe Campbell, G.R. Emlin,
Karen Fortgang, Allen Holub, Andrew Hume, Dave Kristol, John Linderman, Dave Prosser, Gene
Spafford, and Chris van Wyk. We also received helpful suggestions from Bill Cheswick, Mark
Kernighan, Andy Koenig, Robin Lake, Tom London, Jim Reeds, Clovis Tondo, and Peter Weinberger.
Dave Prosser answered many detailed questions about the ANSI standard. We used Bjarne Stroustrup's
C++ translator extensively for local testing of our programs, and Dave Kristol provided us with an ANSI
C compiler for final testing. Rich Drechsler helped greatly with typesetting.
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http://www.duckload.com/download/3610984/The_C_Programming_Language.pdf
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