C Review

[Jon Forrest]

I do freelance technical reviewing for several publishers and
have some feel for what goes into such reviews. I think the major
reason for your surprise is because the reviewer that examined
your book (not me, by the way) may have been including
people who program in C on micros in his comments. These people
don't always have the same level of experience as Unix (or VMS)
hackers. Anyway, I've added a few well chosen comments to
those of your reviewer.

> 
> "... 95% of all C programmers couldn't give you a good
> explanation of the term lvalue..."
> 
	Probably less than 95% but more than 50%

> "... Switch/case could be classified as rarely used and should be
> kept till later.
> 
	Completely wrong

> "... very few C programmers know much about sizeof..."
> 
	Probably wrong

> "... 99%  of  all  professional C  programmers  have no idea
> what typedef is all about, couldn't care less and probably
> won't ever need it."
> 
	Again, probably less than 99% but more than 50%

> "... 99%  of  all  professional C  programmers  have no idea
> what the comma operator is all about, couldn't care less and
> probably won't ever need it."
> 
	Again, probably less than 99% but more than 50%

> "... Leave the comma operator altogether. An intro book is no
> place for obscure and unmaintainable tricks..."

	Depending on how complete your book is intented to be,
	this may be a good idea. However, C is such a small language
	that there really is no reason to leave anything out.

> 
> "... Pointers to functions ... few C programmers understand
> them or would ever need them..."

	Completely wrong

> 
> "... a C programmer never needs to know what a byte is..."

	Completely wrong

Jon Forrest
ucbvax!mtxinu!blia!forrest