C development, like most languages, isn't really "taught" at all. You might have some teaching on the structure of the language and a basic getting started course on main(), but that's just the beginning. Everything from there up seems to be self-taught, either from the internet, code examples, or working it out from first principles.

There are a lot more risks in C than more recent languages. Koenig's book "C Traps And Pitfalls" https://www.amazon.co.uk/C-Traps-Pitfalls-Andrew-Koenig/dp/0... was extremely useful to me when I was learning the language (available at my local library!). I don't know if there's a more modern version that takes into account recent changes to the C standard.

I note that a lot of the time in embedded work you don't get to use the latest version of the standard because you're using a weird or obsolete toolchain that doesn't support it. Or architectures like PIC, where your stack is hardware limited to 8 levels and indirect addressing is inefficient.

I think a lot of the "pure C" people are disguised as electronics engineers - doing PCB design and microcontroller programming together.

A good place to start:

http://www.amazon.com/The-CERT-Secure-Coding-Standard/dp/032...

Online:

https://www.securecoding.cert.org/confluence/display/seccode...

Others:

http://www.amazon.com/Secure-Coding-Edition-Software-Enginee...

http://www.amazon.com/Style-Guidelines-Programming-Professio...

http://www.amazon.com/C-Traps-Pitfalls-Andrew-Koenig/dp/0201...

OK, if you don't have any real experience in low-level embedded coding (relevant to device drivers), RTOS or OS design in general, file systems, data structures, algorithms, interfaces, etc. And, if you have "hobby level" experience with Assembler, C and C++. And, if your intent is to write a desktop OS, from the ground up, without making use of existing technologies, drivers, file systems, memory management, POSIX, etc. Here's a list of books that could be considered required reading before you can really start to write specifications and code. Pick twenty of these and that might be a good start.

In no particular order:

1- http://www.amazon.com/C-Programming-Language-2nd-Edition/dp/...

2- http://www.amazon.com/The-Answer-Book-Solutions-Programming/...

3- http://www.amazon.com/The-Standard-Library-P-J-Plauger/dp/01...

4- http://www.amazon.com/C-Traps-Pitfalls-Andrew-Koenig/dp/0201...

5- http://www.amazon.com/Expert-Programming-Peter-van-Linden/dp...

6- http://www.amazon.com/Data-Structures-In-Noel-Kalicharan/dp/...

7- http://www.amazon.com/Data-Structures-Using-Aaron-Tenenbaum/...

8- http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Algorithms-C-Kyle-Loudon/dp/...

9- http://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Const...

10- http://www.amazon.com/Design-Patterns-Elements-Reusable-Obje...

11- http://www.amazon.com/The-Mythical-Man-Month-Engineering-Ann...

12- http://www.amazon.com/The-Programming-Language-4th-Edition/d...

13- http://www.amazon.com/The-Standard-Library-Tutorial-Referenc...

14- http://www.amazon.com/API-Design-C-Martin-Reddy/dp/012385003...

15- http://www.amazon.com/The-Linux-Programming-Interface-Handbo...

16- http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Systems-Programmers-Perspecti...

17- http://www.amazon.com/System-Programming-Unix-Adam-Hoover/dp...

18- http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Programming-Concept-Frantisek-F...

19- http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Management-Implementations-Prog...

20- http://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Filesystems-Evolution-Design-Impl...

21- http://www.amazon.com/PCI-System-Architecture-4th-Edition/dp...

22- http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Serial-System-Architecture-E...

23- http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-PCI-Express-Hardware-Deve...

24- http://www.amazon.com/Serial-Storage-Architecture-Applicatio...

25- http://www.amazon.com/SATA-Storage-Technology-Serial-ATA/dp/...

26- http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-BIOS-Developing-Extensible-Inte...

27- http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Assembly-Language-Program...

28- http://www.amazon.com/Linux-Kernel-Development-3rd-Edition/d...

29- http://www.amazon.com/Version-Control-Git-collaborative-deve...

30- http://www.amazon.com/Embedded-Software-Primer-David-Simon/d...

31- http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Embedded-Systems-C/dp/1565...

32- http://www.amazon.com/Making-Embedded-Systems-Patterns-Softw...

33- http://www.amazon.com/Operating-System-Concepts-Abraham-Silb...

34- http://www.amazon.com/Performance-Preemptive-Multitasking-Mi...

35- http://www.amazon.com/Design-Operating-System-Prentice-Hall-...

36- http://www.amazon.com/Unix-Network-Programming-Sockets-Netwo...

37- http://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Volume-Addison-Wesley-...

38- http://www.amazon.com/TCP-IP-Illustrated-Vol-Implementation/...

39- http://www.amazon.com/TCP-Illustrated-Vol-Transactions-Proto...

40- http://www.amazon.com/User-Interface-Design-Programmers-Spol...

41- http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Interfaces-Jenifer-Tidwell/d...

42- http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Interfaces-Jenifer-Tidwell/d...

43- http://www.amazon.com/Programming-POSIX-Threads-David-Butenh...

44- http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/embedded/hwsw/software/hd-gma#d...

45- http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/architectu...

46- http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/embedded/hwsw/hardware/core-b75...

47- http://www.hdmi.org/index.aspx

48- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface

49- http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Device-Drivers-Sreekrishnan-...

50- http://www.amazon.com/Making-Embedded-Systems-Patterns-Softw...

51- http://www.amazon.com/Python-Programming-Introduction-Comput...

52- http://www.amazon.com/Practical-System-Design-Dominic-Giampa...

53- http://www.amazon.com/File-Systems-Structures-Thomas-Harbron...

54- ...well, I'll stop here.

Of course, the equivalent knowledge can be obtained by trial-and-error, which would take longer and might result in costly errors and imperfect design. The greater danger here is that a sole developer, without the feedback and interaction of even a small group of capable and experienced programmers could simply burn a lot of time repeating the mistakes made by those who have already trenched that territory.

If the goal is to write a small RTOS on a small but nicely-featured microcontroller, then the C books and the uC/OS book might be a good shove in the right direction. Things start getting complicated if you need to write such things as a full USB stack, PCIe subsystem, graphics drivers, etc.

Konig's Traps and Pitfalls, another slim book

http://www.amazon.com/C-Traps-Pitfalls-Andrew-Koenig/dp/0201...

I may be using the word 'modern' a bit liberally here, but these are all more recent than K&R at least. 'C A Reference Manual' I think is what a lot of people really want out of a C book and 'Expert C'/'C Traps and Pitfalls' both help with all of the less intuitive parts of the language that you don't really get out of K&R.

C A Reference Manual http://www.amazon.com/Reference-Manual-Samuel-P-Harbison/dp/...

Expert C http://www.amazon.com/Expert-Programming-Peter-van-Linden/dp...

C Interfaces and Implementations http://www.amazon.com/Interfaces-Implementations-Techniques-...

C Traps and Pitfalls http://www.amazon.com/C-Traps-Pitfalls-Andrew-Koenig/dp/0201...

+1 learn different paradigms. Besides reading language tutorials, read some PLT (prog lang theory on Lambda the ultimate, and these survey type things. (And you'l frequently see ruby, python, erlang folks say "We have to drop down in C to get plausible performance" or "this algo was already thoroughly tested in C or java". You kinda have to know C and java to get s##t done.

http://mvanier.livejournal.com/998.html

http://matt.might.net/articles/best-programming-languages/

http://www.info.ucl.ac.be/~pvr/VanRoyChapter.pdf

http://www.info.ucl.ac.be/~pvr/paradigmsDIAGRAMeng101.pdf

http://www.slideshare.net/brweber2/functional-concepts-for-o...

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Oh, SICP and books like PL pragmatics

http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Language-Pragmatics-Michae...

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and i love "Traps/pitfalls" from 1989!)

http://www.amazon.com/C-Traps-Pitfalls-Andrew-Koenig/dp/0201...

If you enjoyed reading those 29 pages, you might find the entire book a decent read as well: http://www.amazon.com/C-Traps-Pitfalls-Andrew-Koenig/dp/0201...