Found in 3 comments on Hacker News
autarch · 2016-05-01
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thread
I cannot recommend Understanding and Using C Pointers by Richard Reese highly enough (http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Using-Pointers-Richard-R...)
Learning C syntax is pretty easy. Learning to use the standard library is mostly a matter of reading man pages and other people's code. But I found understanding pointers and memory management completely opaque until I read that book. It definitely brought me from "beginning C hacker flailing about" to "intermediate C hacker flailing about in a more dangerous way".
millerm · 2013-08-01
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thread
Thanks for the link. I will pass this onto other developers I know who have trouble understanding this topic.
I recently read this book and it's the best book I've ever read about pointers in C:
Understanding and Using C Pointers Core techniques for memory management By Richard Reese Publisher: O'Reilly Media Released: May 2013 Pages: 226
I think the primary topic to master in C is pointers. This is where most falter. It takes a few years to "master" (if we ever do). Here I would recommend "Understanding and Using C Pointers", Richard Reese. [2]
If you are interested in networking, any of the classic "TCP/IP Illustrated Vols I/II/III", W. Richard Stevens, [3] contain a ton of C code to implement components of TCP/IP.
If you are interested in Graphics, then "Graphics Gems", Andrew Glassner [4] is a good source.
"An Introduction to GCC", Brian Gough, [5] to understand the tooling and its various bells and whistles.
My learning swimming by jumping into the deep end of the pool experience was realized by learning Windows Programming using the Charles Petzold book and navigating through Microsoft Foundation Classes in the late 80s/early 90s. The state of the art in tooling wasn't that great in those days and I spent months with the book to get things going. This was done after I had built a foundation with K&R and a decent amount of Unix network programming.
I see a lot of the other posts recommend more modern books. But you still need to build your foundation on C and Pointers in particular.
Good luck on your journey.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Programming-Language-2nd-Brian-Kernig...
[2] https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Using-Pointers-Techniqu...
[3] https://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Protocols-Addison-Wes...
[4] https://www.amazon.com/Graphics-Gems-Andrew-S-Glassner/dp/01...
[5] https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-GCC-GNU-Compilers/dp/095...