
Effective C
An Introduction to Professional C Programming
by Robert C. Seacord · first published 2020
8mentions
8recommended by
8HN commenters
2020–2025first – last mentioned
100% recommend
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https://nostarch.com/Effective_C by Robert C. Seacord. a little about the book and the motivation behind "Why C": https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9237323
on “Ask HN: I'm looking for a good book on the fundamentals of CS” ↗Love the intro and overview — looking forward to more! These weren't mentioned in the post but have been very helpful in my journey as a C beginner so far: - Effective C by Robert C. Seacord. It covers a lot of the footguns and gotchas without assuming too much systems or comp-sci background knowledge. https://nostarch.com/Effective_C (Also, how can you not buy a book…
on “Everything I wish I knew when learning C” ↗…is easy to learn and with the above “support structures” one can become productive in no time. Plus there are newer books in the market that can teach you C properly, one I have read and recommend is "Effective C by Robert C. Seacord" - the author is one of the C standards committee members so you can't go wrong with the choice.
on “Teaching C (2016)” ↗…favorite Japanese book in a long time. Among technical books, re-read The Mythical Man Month, probably more relevant than it ever was in an age of artifical man-hours added to projects. Robert Seacord Effective C, after not having written C in a long time. Really good intermediate level book for modern C. Also making my way through The Little Schemer as a replacement for advent of code in the second half of the…
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗Anyone who wants a very good modern C book that's only 272 pages, take a look at 'Effective C - An Introduction to Professional C Programming by Robert C. Seacord. [1]. It's from 2020. Robert Seacord is a Technical Director at NCC Group where he develops and delivers secure coding training in…
on “Modern C and What We Can Learn from It [video]” ↗Since 2020 there was a new good book on C from Robert Seacord from the C Standards committee: https://nostarch.com/Effective_C
on “Teaching C (2016)” ↗Apart from the compulsory K&R's, I would also suggest Robert Seacord's Effective C.
on “Ask HN: How to Learn C in 2024?” ↗Or Robert Seacord’s Effective C
on “New Google SRE book: Building Secure and Reliable Systems” ↗