Book on Microsoft C

[Steve Summit]

A while ago, someone wrote:

>	I am looking for a good book on Microsoft C (version 5).

Why are there so many books on particular implementations of
languages?  C is supposed to be, and can be, quite portable.
To be sure, there will always be compiler-specific details, which
are the proper province of the compiler user's manuals.  Those
manuals are not always well-written, but they usually tell you
how to invoke the compiler, which ideally is the only compiler-
specific detail you'd need to know.  All of the language
extensions inevitably provided should be avoided whenever
possible, not exploited.

It bugs me to glance into a technical bookstore and see shelf
after shelf of "Programming in Turbo C," "Graphics programming
for the IBM PC," etc.  These books may be the only source of
important documentation, which the irresponsible vendors have
neglected to provide, but they also teach you (if only
implicitly) to write machine-, system-, compiler-, and device-
dependent code.

                                            Steve Summit
                                            scs at adam.pika.mit.edu