Comments on new Kelley and Pohl /A Book on C/, other C teaching stuff

[George W. Leach]

In article <25f1f465.347a at polyslo.CalPoly.EDU> jdudeck at polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (John R. Dudeck) writes:

>I would like to comment that I think the most effective teaching occurs when
>the material is covered in depth of detail, energetically, and in a logical
>sequence that does not require the student to figure out unexplained 
>constructs.  I also have been helped a lot by the "dissection" approach,
>where a code sample is explained construct-by-construct.

    I think we can all agree upon the above approach.

>I learned C by reading K&R and working the examples, (I bought it when it
>sold for $13.95) and from there reading other code, books, and writing
>stuff.  Personally I have been very disappointed with most of the books
>on C, and still findk K&R to be the most valuable.

    I also learned from K&R, simply because it was the only thing available
at the time!  I still find it is the most useful book on C that I own.  
Although Harbison & Steele get a great deal of attention as well.

    I am using K&R for a course that I am teaching.  The choice was not mine.
I like using this book because the students will be able to use it long after
the course is done with.  However, it is difficult to overcome the problem of
constructs being used in examples long before they are covered.  For example,
we are just starting on arrays and points.  However, arrays are all over the
book prior to the chapter that covers them.  

    However, on the other hand, this forces me to come up with alternative
examples that do *not* include constructs that have not been introduced thus
far.  I think this helps the students tremendously.  I give them alternatives
to what is in the book.

George

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