In the words of the author, “this book is an introduction to C for readers who are already acquainted with at least one programming language (which will probably be Pascal).” Graham has succeeded in carving a niche for his text. Not only are the constructs and shortcuts unique to C covered clearly, but for once they come supplied with explanations to the Pascal programmer of what they represent and why. These brief sojourns should do wonders to melt the Pascal programmer’s resistance C.

The text covers only ANSI C and its recommended style of programming. The emphasis is on syntax and semantics, not on algorithmic problem solving. The text is replete with understandable, complete examples, however. The exercises at the chapter ends are not complex from a programming perspective, but they suffice to allow learners to test their understanding of the C constructs.

The first two chapters cover the portions of C that are similar to implementations of those ideas in other imperative languages, with only a few C idiosyncrasies such as increment, decrement, and compound assignment included. Chapter 3 introduces conversions. Other chapters cover arrays and pointers, pointer arithmetic and string processing, structures, and finally files and streams. Four appendices follow the text, addressing C keywords, precedence and associativity, integrated development environments, and the memory models used by DOS. The book includes an excellent glossary and a useful index. The layout and fonts, which are often problematic in C texts, are pleasing. I particularly appreciated the final section, which describes works by others for more in-depth study of the language.

This book would not serve as an introduction to programming for the novice, but it is by no means an advanced treatment. Its style is concise without being too brief, resulting in a text that would be easy to carry around. It does not attempt to present C++. Instead, it should serve well as a supplement for undergraduates and practitioners who are interested in quickly mastering the syntax and philosophy of plain vanilla ANSI C.