14: Highlights

• C is a programming language that encourages you to think in terms of memory chunks of various sizes, but not in terms of computer-specific instructions.
• C enjoys considerable popularity, because C is easy to learn, C programs are fast, C programs are concise, C programs allow you to think intimately in terms of bits and bytes but not in terms of computer-specific instruction sets, C compilers are usually fast and concise, C compilers and C programs run on all sorts of computers, off-the-shelf C programs are widely available, and Unix, a popular operating system, happens to be written in C.
• This book gets you up and running in C quickly; it answers your basic questions explicitly; it equips you with program patterns that you can adapt to your own purposes; and it deepens your understanding of the art of good programming practice.