We have refined the original examples, and have added new examples in several chapters. We have improved the exposition of critical features, such as pointers, that are central to C programming. C is not a big language, and it is not well served by a big book. We have tried to retain the brevity of the first edition. Examples generally consist of complete programs of the type one is likely to encounter in daily use of the language, with an emphasis on system programming. The C Programming Language has often been cited as a model for technical writing, with reviewers describing it as having clear presentation and concise treatment. You're also working too hard if you make it the only book on C that you buy.' Influence He continued, 'You can learn the C language without getting Kernighan and Ritchie, but that's doing it the hard way. Don't read any further until you have this book!' Jerry Pournelle wrote in the magazine that year that the book 'is still the standard.

However, no new edition of The C Programming Language has been issued to cover the more recent standards.īyte magazine stated in August 1983, ' is the definitive work on the C language. In 2012, an eBook version of the second edition was published in ePub, Mobi, and PDF formats.ĪNSI C, first standardized in 1989 (as ANSI X3.159-1989), has since undergone several revisions, the most recent of which is ISO/IEC 9899:2018 (also termed C17 or C18), adopted as an ANSI standard in June 2018. The second edition of the book (and as of 2021, the most recent) has since been translated into over 20 languages. In April 1988, the second edition of the book was published, updated to cover the changes to the language resulting from the then-new ANSI C standard, particularly with the inclusion of reference material on standard libraries.

Its version of C is sometimes termed K&R C (after the book's authors), often to distinguish this early version from the later version of C standardized as ANSI C. The first edition, published February 22, 1978, was the first widely available book on the C programming language. Kernighan would write most of the book's 'expository' material, and Ritchie's reference manual became its appendices. Īnother Bell Labs employee, Brian Kernighan, had written the first C tutorial, Īnd he persuaded Ritchie to coauthor a book on the language. C was created by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs in the early 1970s as an augmented version of Ken Thompson's B.

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