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Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference"

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From Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com>
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Subject Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference"
Date Sun, 11 Sep 2022 06:31:09 -0700
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John Forkosh <forkosh@panix.com> writes:

> [...] what's your (and any others') review of the book?
> Worth reading?  Or more importantly to me, good reference
> (including good index, table-of-contents, and, of course,
> good content)?

My reactions, fwiw...

The book is not so much about C as it is about Stallman's way of
thinking about C.  If you want to think about C in the same way
that he does, this book is almost certainly the best available.
If on the other hand you want to think about C in the same way
that C is described and defined in the ISO C standard, this book
will probably be more distracting than helpful.  Looking over the
book (I certainly didn't read the whole thing), my impression is
RMS can't make up his mind whether he is writing a reference, a
tutorial, or a style guide.  I realize that mixing these three
aspects is common and fashionable these days when writing about
programming languages, but personally it irks me.  K&R very
wisely divided its material into two parts:  one, an introduction
and informal description of the language, and two, a reference.
That was an excellent choice.  The current blender style of
mixing everything together is unfortunately more popular now.

Also, a low-level detail, but one worth mentioning:  the layout
and formatting choices in the book, both for prose and for code,
reflect (in all likelihood) Stallman's preferences.  I'm reminded
of Abraham Lincoln's comment, "For people who like this sort of
thing, this is the sort of thing that these people like."
Personally I prefer a cleaner formatting and layout style (and
yes both for code and for prose).

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"Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> - 2022-09-09 12:49 -0500
  Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2022-09-09 19:03 +0000
  Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Thiago Adams <thiago.adams@gmail.com> - 2022-09-09 12:54 -0700
    Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2022-09-09 20:06 +0000
      Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" John Forkosh <forkosh@panix.com> - 2022-09-10 02:00 +0000
        Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" John Forkosh <forkosh@panix.com> - 2022-09-10 12:09 +0000
        Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-09-11 06:31 -0700
          Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" John Forkosh <forkosh@panix.com> - 2022-09-13 02:19 +0000
    Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2022-09-09 13:10 -0700
    Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2022-09-09 20:11 +0000
      Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Thiago Adams <thiago.adams@gmail.com> - 2022-09-09 16:34 -0700
  Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2022-09-10 18:16 +0200
    Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2022-09-10 17:04 +0000
      Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Muttley@dastardlyhq.com - 2022-09-11 08:29 +0000
      Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Manfred <noname@add.invalid> - 2022-09-24 16:24 +0200
        C++ is for real, C is just a toy (Was: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference") gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2022-09-24 15:54 +0000
          Re: C++ is for real, C is just a toy (Was: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference") Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2022-09-24 18:07 +0200
    Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Muttley@dastardlyhq.com - 2022-09-11 08:29 +0000
      Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2022-09-11 11:16 +0200
        Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Muttley@dastardlyhq.com - 2022-09-11 09:44 +0000
          Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2022-09-11 13:42 +0200
            Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Muttley@dastardlyhq.com - 2022-09-11 15:44 +0000
              Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2022-09-11 17:55 +0200
                Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Muttley@dastardlyhq.com - 2022-09-11 16:17 +0000
                Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2022-09-11 18:22 +0200
                Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" "Chris M. Thomasson" <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> - 2022-09-11 12:41 -0700
                Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2022-09-12 06:10 +0200
                Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" "Chris M. Thomasson" <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> - 2022-09-12 00:27 -0700
              Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Bo Persson <bo@bo-persson.se> - 2022-09-12 09:18 +0200
                Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2022-09-12 09:42 +0200
                Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Muttley@dastardlyhq.com - 2022-09-12 15:58 +0000
                Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2022-09-12 18:48 +0200
              Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2022-09-13 06:47 +0000
                Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Muttley@dastardlyhq.com - 2022-09-13 13:29 +0000
                Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Juha Nieminen <nospam@thanks.invalid> - 2022-09-14 05:56 +0000
                Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Muttley@dastardlyhq.com - 2022-09-14 09:37 +0000
        Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2022-09-11 16:26 +0000
          Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2022-09-11 18:35 +0200
        Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Opus <ifonly@youknew.org> - 2022-09-12 19:22 +0200
          Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" legalize+jeeves@mail.xmission.com (Richard) - 2022-09-22 19:24 +0000
  Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Manu Raju <MR@invalid.invalid> - 2022-09-11 00:01 +0100
    Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2022-09-10 16:26 -0700
  Re: "Richard Stallman Announces C Reference" legalize+jeeves@mail.xmission.com (Richard) - 2022-09-22 19:21 +0000

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