6. Books on C and C++ Programming

6.1 C and C++

The C Programming Language (Second Edition)

Kernighan, Brian W.; Ritchie, Dennis M; Prentice-Hall; 1988; ISBN 0-13-110362-8, 272pp.

The improved second edition, covering ANSI C, of the original classic C book coauthored by C's designer, "K&R". Still the best!

Who's Afraid of C++?

Heller, Steve; Academic Press; 1996; ISBN 0-12-339097; 508pp.

The best introductory book on C++ I have seen.

6.2 C System Call Interface

POSIX Programmer's Guide: Writing Portable Unix Programs

Lewine, Donald; O'Reilly; 1992; ISBN 0-937175-73-0; 607pp.
See http://www.ora.com/catalog/posix/noframes.html.

An excellent programmer's reference on the POSIX.1 standard. I like this one better than JH's choice.

The Posix.1 Standard: A Programmer's Guide

Zlotnick, Fred; Benjamin, Cummings; 1991; ISBN 0-8053-9605-5; 379pp.; $35.95 (USA).

JH: "When I complained about the lack of Section 2 man pages in Linux, somebody told me just to get a POSIX book, because that's what Linux does. I like this book because I'm not a professional programmer and the author gives copious explanations and examples."

Advanced Programming in The Unix Environment

Stevens, Richard; 1992; ISBN 0-201-56317; Addison-Wesley

A book on general Unix programming that is every bit as good as Stevens's classic on network programming.

Linux Application Development

Michael K. Johnson, Erik W. Troan; 1998; ISBN 0201308215; Addison-Wesley.

The best reference to the C API of Linux.