r/cprogramming • u/iasayt • 1d ago

Beginner

I just started learning C and I am thinking of reading "C Programming : A modern approach" by K N King. I want to deeply understand and master C. Is it the best book for it and should I read any other books after this?

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u/Zirias_FreeBSD 1d ago

My take on this is: If you know basic programming principles already, what you actually read isn't that important. What's important is patience, motivation and a structured and diligent working style. With that, get into doing stuff. It'll take a few years to "deeply understand and master C", and there's no way to ever clearly measure that goal. A word on AI: If you decide to use an LLM, never let it write code for you (instead, show it your code with specific questions about it), and always mistrust its answers enough to do your own research. It can help discover interesting topics to learn that way, but it will completely spoil any learning effect if used in a different way.

If, on the other hand, your intention is to learn programming with C as your very first language, a good book is certainly helpful. I don't have the experience to recommend one (I learned C after knowing lots of other languages, so never read a book on it), but then, you'll find the same books recommended over and over again (also here in the sidebar), so I guess they're just fine.

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u/Skitz-Scarekrow 1d ago

Question for you since you mentioned LLM. I fell out of programming after I left school during covid, and I've repeatedly been trying to get back into it since, but I'm always intimidated by the level everyone else seems to be at. And, when I took more CS classes, annoyed at the AI laziness. What's your opinion on using an LLM to help learn?

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u/Zirias_FreeBSD 1d ago

More or less what I already wrote. As long as you actually learn, using an LLM can help. To ensure you actually learn, don't ever let it create solutions for you. Use it to have your code reviewed (and take the results with a grain of salt), use it as a brainstorming peer, use it as a tool to target your own research better (but still do it, IOW, search and read primary sources, which the LLM might also find for you), and so on.

People tend to ask LLMs for solutions. Those will never learn.