On To C Patrick Henry Winston
Learn the essential language for business and engineering
This book is written in the clear and concise style that has made Winston's C++, Java, and Lisp books popular among programmers who want to add new languages to their repertoires. Using this book, you learn C quickly and effectively, and you learn why so many programmers use C for business, engineering, and science applications.

The Knowledge You Need

You learn the key concepts as features are added to a short, yet representative C++ program. The final version of the program reads information from a file describing stock trades and predicts the next-day's price using a straight-line extrapolation, thereby reflecting the popularity of C in applications involving data analysis. As you see the class-enabled program evolve, you learn how to: define functions o benefit from function abstraction o solve ordering problems with function prototypes o process data from files o create structures and objects o use pointer parameters to avoid argument copying o use pointer parameters to alter values o create new structure objects at run time o define constructors, readers, and writers o benefit from data abstraction o use enumerations and type synonyms to improve readability o use unions to capture class distinctions o use bits to record state information o prevent memory leaks o access command-line arguments o conditionalize a program o organize and compile multiple-file programs and much, much more.

Winston's proven approach

  • Based on extensive teaching experience
  • Features easily digested segments
  • Illustrates ideas via short, yet complete programs
  • Answers your natural questions in a natural order
  • Stresses principles of good-programming practice
  • Recapitulates key points as if othen rules
  • Helps you write programs right away

About the Author

Patrick Henry Winston teaches computer science and directs the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Winston is well known for his work in artificial intelligence and for his clear and insightful books.

Special Feature

Software for this book is available via

http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/phw/Books/