Reviews for C for Dummies

1. Brilliant for beginners

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, January 12st, 2009

   I bought this book because I was bored in the holidays and deceided that in my last week I would learn to write some programs on my laptop that could make fun of my friends and do my math homework for me. I had literally never even tried to write a computer program before but this with this book I was quickly doing simple examples (which also helped break up the text) and found the difficulty of the examples increasing at a gradual but not dull rate. The book features detailed examples and explainations for every line of text.
   I only used it with my windows (non-vista) laptop and unfortunately cannot offer any advice for non windows users besides the fact that the book does make some reference to non windows systems but I can't tell how good this is obviously; I just hope its as good as the windows instructions which were excellent.
   Finally, do not buy this book if you are not willing to read the jokes thrown in by the author to keep it fresh (which I personally enjoyed, but I could understand how they would annoy some people).
   All in all a fantastic choice for beginners.
   

2. Too superficial for the serious student

   Rated 2 out of 5 stars, January 12rd, 2008

   I bought this book as a total newcomer to C. Easy to read it introduces the student to the foundations of C. Because it lacks exercises and more seriously skips over many important features of C it is difficult to recommend this work to anyone other than the casual reader. The serious student would be well advised to purchase the author's other work frequently recommended in this book i.e. C All-in-One Reference for Dummies - far better, comprehensive and capable of delivering a working knowledge of all features of the language. Nonetheless the book demonstrates the capability of the author to explain difficult concepts in easy to understand plain English, refreshingly peppered with American humour.

3. Not sure it's worth it

   Rated 2 out of 5 stars, April 12th, 2007

   I started C for Dummies as an all-but total beginner at programming. As a teenager in the 80s I'd fooled around with BASIC, but everybody who owned a computer in those days did that and it didn't get me very far. In my thirties I wanted to be able to write simple C code, so I got this book.
   
   It's simple, all right. The author condensed this version of it from his vastly overwritten two-volume first edition, in which the useful stuff was buried in reams of weak jokes and guff. This edition is much slimmer and less unwieldy, and unless you have some kind of really severe learning difficulties, you will get something out of it. By the time I got to the end of it, I was able to write my own - very elementary - programs. The trouble was, if your programs (like mine) turn out to be full of bugs, Gookin can't help you; his book is only really useful for teaching you to write the programs he provides. He can tell you how to perform simple tasks, but not suggest what the tasks mean, or how they can be linked up to perform more interesting things. This book is like a primer on learning English that takes 408 pages to teach you how to say 'Good morning'. By the time you get to the end you'll know how to say it, but you won't be able to do anything else. And as a reference book it's a disaster; you still have to sift through Gookin's whimsical prose before you find the bit that tells you what you need to know, and quite often it isn't there.
   
   I subsequently got Kernighan and Ritchie's 'The C Programming Language', which I found far more helpful. But then Dennis Ritchie invented C in the first place, and K&R happens to be a model book of its kind - concise, elegantly written and intelligently laid out.
   
   If you really have been stumped by every book on C you've ever tried to read, then you should have a go at this, but bear in mind that once you've finished it you will a.) never need or want to read it again and b.) need to spend money on another book that covers the rest of the language in more detail. And it will probably be K&R.
   
   

4. Fantastic for absolute beginners

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, April 12th, 2007

   I have nearly zero programming knowledge. I tried to jump in at the deep end, and learn C++, but found this too hard, as it assumed a knowledge of C, so I went back to the beginning, and bought this C book.
   
   This book assumes you know nothing, and takes you through all the steps of how to type in a program, and how to install a compiler on your computer to allow you to create the working program, and then run it. It assumes you can create a directory on your hard drive for this process, and get to the DOS prompt. The author's website is also very helpful for this. Details in the book.
   
   The book is very slow moving, but I consider this to be a good thing for a beginner. You write programs in chapters 1-3, and run them, and all seems OK, but I was asking "Yeah, but why does that work like that?" and then everything starts to get explained from chapter 3 onwards; a great way to start I think. If you find the book slow moving, you can modify the example programs, or lengthen them as you see fit, as you gain confidence. The American humour (lots of this) is quite a relief, even for a Brit, as it breaks up some of the lengthy explanations of issues.
   
   Some of the examples I just read through, understood them, and moved on, rather than spend more time typing programs in.
   
   If you're an absolute beginner, or last did C programming a long time ago, this book is ideal. If you have a little more experience, you may prefer the quick reference book. I now use the quick reference book almost exclusively. The two books, as a pair, are a fantastic resource. As soon as I'm ready, I'll buy the C++ for dummies book (although this is a different author).
   
   
   
   

5. Great Book - Easy to read

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, June 12th, 2005

   I have got this book since last week, I have been reading it day or night if I feel like that, it's absolutely great.

   I am still a C beginner, I tried to read K&R as a first book, forget it, C for Dummies is just great, it explains C from scratch, even for the less computer literates, and goes up to detailed explanations, keeping a constant pass, and an easy to follow langauge, too funny and intriguing to put it away on the dusty shelf again...

   I would recommend this book if you are just starting with C, then move to C all in one Desk Reference for Dummies, and then K&R for more advanced stuff.

   Have fun ;)

6. Don't buy this

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, April 12th, 2010

   I bought this book predictably to help me, a beginner, learn C++. That's what the book sets out to do and fails completely. The above review describes how it does this so I won't go into great detail. I would however recommend C++ A Beginner's Guide by Herbert Schildt instead. It's far more clear and concise, and omits the terrible "humour" (I understand the authors aren't comedians and have been told to add this element to their books to maintain the dummies theme, but it's still annoying) you get in "dummies" books.

7. Pthfffff

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, March 12th, 2010

   This is just one more example in the wide range of c++ books that seem designed put you off coding. Sacrificing clarity for low humour and terrible descriptions, this book is about as obtuse as you can get and assumes, outright, that you already know what it is talking about. It has a habit of messing about and saying things like "Oh, so it's an integer! I'll never know why they call it int!" Super. So what, exactly, is an integer? Or a Function? What do these words MEAN in programing terms? I keep hearing them, but nobody wants to explain! Is it a secret? Do you have to know the special handshake before you are allowed to see the beginners books that tell you?
   
   Strings, long, double, 1u, n1, characters as variables. It would be lovely if they actually stopped and told you what they were talking about, but this book has a habit of convoluted writing, it will happily go on for three pages confusing something that could be summed up in a paragraph, and once you are finished reading those pages the only thing you will be left with is the feeling that you have just read about something incredibly simple that has been dressed up to sound horrendously complicated.