C Review

[Colin Jenkins]

In article <2313 at brl-adm.ARPA> Peter at adm.UUCP writes:
>I am currently finishing up a new text book on C with a colleague
>of mine and we just received the last of several technical reviews.
>This particular reviewer makes some statements that we find hard
>to accept. However, we're just two people, so we decided to get
>some opinions from other C programmers. Below is a list of some
>his statements. Is this guy for real? Your comments would be
>greatly appreciated. 
>
>"... 95% of all C programmers couldn't give you a good
>explanation of the term lvalue..."
>
>"... Switch/case could be classified as rarely used and should be
>kept till later.
>
>"... very few C programmers know much about sizeof..."
>
>"... 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."
>
>"... 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."
>
>"... Leave the comma operator altogether. An intro book is no
>place for obscure and unmaintainable tricks..."
>
>"... Pointers to functions ... few C programmers understand
>them or would ever need them..."
>
>"... a C programmer never needs to know what a byte is..."

Well, personally, I think this guy is pulling your leg.  I use the switch/case
construct all the time and I also depend heavily on the comma operator in my
for loops.  I cannot believe that a C programmer doesn't need to know about
bytes.  Machine dependancies can creep in lots of obscure places, and for C
programmers certain implimentation details (like knowing what a byte is) are
important to know when writing code that is easily portable.

Seriously, the comments made by this programmer(?) make 99% of all C 
programmers appear as little more than barely inteligent.  I have a hard time 
believing that these were comments made by a real C programmer.

			Colin