The New C Standard

derek_farn writes "At a very late stage Addison Wesley decided not to publish my book, 'The New C Standard: An economic and cultural commentary'. Now that the copyright issues have been sorted out I am making the pdf freely available. You can download the pdf (mirror 1). The organization is rather unusual in that the commentary covers each sentence of the C Standard (actually the latest draft of C0X, excluding library) one by one (all 2022 of them). One major new angle is using the results from studies in cognitive psychology to try and figure out how developers comprehend code. The aim being to try and produce some coding guidelines that reduce costs (ie, reduce the time needed and bugs created). The book also contains the results of lots of measurements (over 400 figures and tables) in an attempt to back the arguments being made -- another unusual feature since most software related books don't publish any figures to back up what they say. Other subsections discuss common implementations and differences between the latest draft standard and C90/C++. More background on the project is available from the Inquirer.

Why would you use this?

[Anonymous Coward]

C is over with already, geez. Slow, cumbersome, and nobody has a compiler for it. You should be switching to Java by now. It's fast, portable, and the JVM is everywhere. The Novell JVM is the fastest. Dennis Ritchie's time is past. Let the dinosaur turn into oil already and upgrade to the technology that will take us into the 22nd century and beyond. JAVA!

Because...

[crow_t_robot]

...you don't have any cool graphics on your cover page.

Re:Why would you use this?

[satan666]

Puh-leaze! Java-this and Java-that. Why not use a language that is designed for speed: COBOL

1616

[mnemonic_]

That's the number of the beast multiplied by 2.426! Incredible!

I'm waiting for D

[winkydink]

I don't think this C-thing is going to catch on. :)

C0X

[zephc]

It seems that some men love C0X, but most men want nothing to do with C0X. The men that like C0X say there's nothing like the feel of the thick C0X standard in your hands.

Re:Nice to have on the bookshelf...for a few of us

[Doctor Memory]

where is the Karma Reset button

Around here that's known as a "trigger"...

Not Again...

[uberdave]

No. This is obviously the NEW C standard they've been talking about. I haven't read the article, but clearly they've loosend up on punctuation. Also, any comparisons to directives starting with MAX must automatically default to a "less than" comparison.

Re:One Thousand Sixteen Pages?

[Anonymous Coward]

(It's actually 1616 pages)

From the back of K&R: "C is not a big language, and it is not well served by a big book."

I guess K&R must be rolling over in their graves (or soon will).

Re:Thinly Veiled Job Request

[iminplaya]

(Score:0, Redundant)

Do'h!

Now that the copyright issues have been sorted out

[Trinition]

Now that the copyright issues have been sorted out...

As I was reading this sentence, my heart stopped and my mind jumped for joy. I thought the RIAA/MPAA/etc. had finally given up, congress had rolled back copyright terms, and the GPL was finally successfully tested in court.

Then I read the rest... *sigh* oh well.

Re:Not Again...

[Kloog]

Hopefully they will soon apologize and bring back the old standard as "C Classic."

1983 called...

[tundog]

1983 called and it wants its 'new' standard back...

Re:Author comments

[Anonymous Coward]

the ISBN number is

No. It is not a ISBN number. It is a ISBN, or ISB number. Do you also say ATM machine, NASA administration and PIN number?

bored now...

[h4x0r-3l337]

I got bored just reading the slashdot article about this book. No wonder Addison Wesley decided not to publish it.

Re:At over 1600 pages?!

[lisany]

Not counting the citations at the end, the book is 1,577 pages of "guidelines." Who's got that kind of time for a hobby? Who, having a job as a programmer, even has the time to read a book like that?

1577 pages? Ever hear of Lord of the Rings?

1616 pages

[St. Arbirix]

Mmm, this'll be nice for benchmarking my printer.

Re:At over 1600 pages?!

[Pollardito]

Not counting the citations at the end, the book is 1,577 pages of "guidelines." Who's got that kind of time for a hobby? Who, having a job as a programmer, even has the time to read a book like that?

if you don't have time, just wait for the 30 CD audio version

Re:At over 1600 pages?!

[pommiekiwifruit]

Well, that Donald Knuth guy still hasn't finished writing his book "The Art of Computer Programming" so he's got a way to go before getting the "gets side-tracked" award :-)

And IIRC John Harrison (the Chronometer guy) wrote multi-page paragraphs, so some georgian and victorian writers can get fairly lengthy :-)

Mother of God

[Hard_Code]

Wow, if you are thrilled by language specifications, they you will shit your pants at the bonus 80 pages of experimental psychology background!

But seriously, good work dude ;)

"Sir, none of our techniques are breaking the prisoner"
"I was worried about this, they must have trained him on The New C Standard"