[ale] starting programming

[Joseph Rattz Jr]

If you want to learn C, I would recommend at least two books.  One as
a reference book (which will not teach you how to program), and
another as a learning tool.

For the reference, I recommend ANSI and ISO Standard C Programmer's
Reference by P.J. Plauger and Jim Brodie.  Due to the authority of the
authors, this is probably as good a book on ANSI C as can exist
without actually using the ANSI draft (which is not a simple read). 
This is a $20 book, but I have found several of them discounted and at
one time bought several for $5 at a BooksAMillion.  No, I do not have
any left.  This book is well worth the $20 though.  This book is along
the same lines as the K&R book you will see mentioned again and again.
 But, this book will be a better reference for ANSI than the K&R, and
it is just plain more descriptive.

For the learning book, I would recommend Amiga C For Beginners (or
something like that).  It was published by Abacus, and it is blue. 
You may not be able to find this one very easily though.  Again, I
have seen it at BooksAMillion.  I can't find it on Amazon, so you
might have a hard time finding it.  Though it was aimed at Amiga
developers, I found it one of the easiest to understand.  It breaks
the material down into very small chapters, usually only a couple
pages each.  Be forwarned though...this book has errors in it.  I find
this to be typical of Abacus (or Data Becker) books.  To me, they
always seem poorly edited.  However, having a forum like this for a
reference will make this kind of thing much easier.  Others may be
ablt o point you to a better book for this purpose.  I have taken a
good look at Teachyourself C in pi minutes and C For Dummies, and
didn't like either.  The TYS C had errors, and the C For Dummies was
bloated with humor.  While this makes for entertaining reading, it
makes it take much longer to realize the entire point they are trying
to make can be summed up in the one single sentence buried in the 4th
paragraph.




---Tri <merlintm at atlnet.com> wrote:
>
> I want to learn to program in C, but don't know where to get
started. I
> know basically nothing about programming so I'm a newbie. I was
> wondering if anyone here could give me some pointers on what I should
> do. Like if there were any classes I can take (I'm a freshman in
> highschool) right now or if there you have any recommendations for
books
> and other things. When I do learn to program linux, of course, would
be
> my main programming, developing platform, so I don't think this e-mail
> is too off subject.
> Tri
> 
> 

==
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