Book Reviews

The C Programming Language
Author : Brian W. Kernighan & Dennis M.Ritchie
Publisher : Prentice Hall
Rating : MUST HAVE!
Reader : Intermediate and Advanced
Note: You can order this book through Amazon.com, click on the book.

This book is probably the best & and complete book available in the world. Written by Kernighan & Ritchie the creator of C. This book is not for a complete beginner. Suitable for intermediate, and advance. The topic discussed in this book is generic and not compiler specific, and even the routines dicussed in this book is a very basic routine.

More important. This book acts as a complete reference to the language itself. What makes C is a programming language. Here the author consider C is a language spoken, contains grammar and language synthax which is in general. Every C programmer-to-be must own this or you are not.

C++ For C Programmers
Author : Ira Pohl
Publisher : The Benjamin/Cumings Publishing Co. Inc
Rating : 9/10
Reader : Intermediate and Advanced
Note: You can order this book through Amazon.com, click on the book.

Now you think you have to switch to C++, well, this book is the one. The book discussed all about new features that C++ offers. So, you save your money for just having the right and enough information to convert to C++. The author's examples which is very clear and easy to understand and he discussed it line by line which makes us analyse each important line. Far more important is that the reader must have STRONG background in C and his knowledge must covers every aspects of C. If you think you are well fluent in C and you are bored by limitation of C language. Go ahead, read this book.

Simple C : A beginners guide
Author : Ian Sinclair
Publisher : David Fulton Publisher
Rating : 9/10
Reader : Beginners
Note: You can order this book through Amazon.com, click on the book.

Well, this book is intended for beginners, but I suggested that the C-beginner must have basic foundation in other programming languages like BASIC or PASCAL. The author uses comparations of BASIC programming language to teach reader how to use C. The major drawbacks is the pointer section. There is not much explaination on pointers furthermore pointer is the most important thing in C. If you get stuck at pointer, do look for a another book. And yes, he start from the beginning of C.

	Pascal Author : Elliot B. Koffman Publisher : Addison Wesley Publishing Company Rating : 6/10 Reader : Beginner and Intermediate So you want to learn pascal instead. Read this book. Not much I can say about this book but all of my Pascal friends are using it. Give it a try.

C: How to Program
Author : H.M. Deitel & P.J. Deitel
Publisher : Prentice Hall
Rating : 8/10
Reader : Beginner and Intermediate

This book covers all about C and C++ despite the name it has. Included in the each chapter, the common error for specific topic made by beginner programmer and also tips for faster performance. Exercises are included at the end of each topic.

The half part of the book is about C++ (chapter 15 to chapter 21). Well here you are, C and C++ together in one book. Save money, save time. The description were lengthy (950 pages) as it is cover almost everything in C but it is not for impatient people who like to skip chapters. If you are willing to spend hours in front of your computer to master C and C++, this book is for you.

foundation of World Wide Web Programming with HTML & CGI
Author : ED Tittle, Mark Gaither, Sebastian Hassinger, Mike Erwin
Publisher : IDG
Rating : 10/10
Reader : Advanced

HTML and CGI's, two topic covered side by side. Absolutely, this book is not for beginner or for dummies to WWW and HTML, because it focus more on CGI scripts like Perl, and TCL and on how to build a dynamically web page and using HTML to create the GUI for visitor.

From 34 topics, area covered such as building index page, creating spiders/robots, Database Management, security and so on. No wonder this book won the Annual Computer Press Award in 1992 and 1993.

A word of concern, this book require you to have a webserver in UNIX environment to test codes supplied with this book and a vast knowledge of Internet Communications. If you just a simple user with windows 95, just forget it.

Salina
Pengarang : A. Samad Said
Penerbit : Dewan Bahasa Dan Pustaka
Rating: 9/10

Salina menceritakan kehidupan mesyarakat melayu di Kampung Kambing, Singapura,

selepas Perang Dunia Kedua. Novel ini menggambarkan kemiskinan, keruntuhan moral di kota dan pergelutan untuk melangsungkan survival di tengah-tengah kehancuran kehidupan selepas perang. Pemerintahan jepun yang singkat di Singapura dan penderitaan masyarakat akibat perang memberikan kesan yang cukup kuat dalam diri Samad yang pada masa itu masih anak-anak lagi. Dia mengutip kembali butir-butir pengalaman itu untuk menceritakan keadaan orang Melayu dan orang-orang Indonesia yang hanyut berkelana dan menjadi buruh di Singapura. Ini bukanlah persoalan yang sama sekali asing dalam kesusasteraan Melayu, tetapi A.Samad Said telah memperlihatkan kebolehan seninya dengan melukis semua hal ini secara artistik melalui dialog-dialog dan tingkah laku watak-wataknya. Manusia yang lahir dalam Salina adalah manusia yang natural dan bukannya yang menjelma sebagai boneka dengan sifat-sifat hitam putihnya. Memang Samad mempunyai kekuatan dalam hal ini kerana ketelitian mengamati watak-watak orang. (Ringkasan ini diekstrak dari buku Salina)