C Primer Plus 5th Edition (2004)

How This Book Is Organized

There are many ways to organize information. One of the most direct approaches is to present everything about topic A, everything about topic B, and so on. This is particularly useful for a reference so you can find all the information about a given topic in one place. But usually it's not the best sequence for learning a subject. For instance, if you began learning English by first learning all the nouns, your ability to express ideas would be severely limited. Sure, you could point to objects and shout their names, but you'd be much better equipped to express yourself if you learned just a few nouns, verbs, adjectives, and so on, along with a few rules about how those parts relate to one another.

To provide you with a more balanced intake of information, this book uses a spiral approach of introducing several topics in earlier chapters and returning later to discuss them more fully. For example, understanding functions is essential to understanding C. Consequently, several of the early chapters include some discussion of functions so that when you reach the full discussion in Chapter 9, "Functions," you'll already have achieved some ease about using functions. Similarly, early chapters preview strings and loops so that you can begin using these useful tools in your programs before learning about them in detail.

• Programming concepts are explained, along with details of the C language; the book does not assume that you are a professional programmer.

• Many short, easily typed examples illustrate just one or two concepts at a time, because learning by doing is one of the most effective ways to master new information.

• Figures and illustrations clarify concepts that are difficult to grasp in words alone.

• Highlight boxes summarize the main features of C for easy reference and review.

• Review questions and programming exercises at the end of each chapter allow you to test and improve your understanding of C.

To gain the greatest benefit, you should take as active a role as possible in studying the topics in this book. Don't just read the examples, enter them into your system, and try them. C is a very portable language, but you may find differences between how a program works on your system and how it works on ours. Experiment—change part of a program to see what the effect is. Modify a program to do something slightly different. Ignore the occasional warnings and see what happens when you do the wrong thing. Try the questions and exercises. The more you do yourself, the more you will learn and remember.

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