When comparing The C Programming Language (AKA: K&R) vs PluralSight, the Slant community recommends The C Programming Language (AKA: K&R) for most people. In the question“What are the best resources for a beginner to learn C?” The C Programming Language (AKA: K&R) is ranked 2nd while PluralSight is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose The C Programming Language (AKA: K&R) is:
This book is so well known that it's affectionately called "K & R", after the authors. It's been cited in many other books and is familiar to most, if not all, CS students.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Well known classic
This book is so well known that it's affectionately called "K & R", after the authors.
It's been cited in many other books and is familiar to most, if not all, CS students.
Pro It's excerpted from the idea of its creators
This book is written by Dennis Ritchie, who was one of the main people behind the development and design of C and UNIX.
Pro Creative, challenging exercises
The challenges at the end of each chapter do a great job of requiring many of the skills learned up to that point. Completing the challenges is a great way of insuring you understand the material.
Pro This book set the template for programming language books
Pro Offers advanced content
PluralSight offers programming courses for intermediate and advanced students, providing more depth than many of it's competitors.
Pro Offers learning paths
PluralSite offers learning paths, which help you figure out which courses to take and in what order.
Pro Mobile apps available
Available iPhone and Android apps.
Pro Consistent quality
The course quality is high because Pluralsight has a full-time editing staff that carefully reviews every video produced. They enforce audio, video and content standards that help ensure a consistent and high quality result.
Pro You can check your skill in learned language
You get rating for each tested language. This rating is compared to the other users of pluralsight.
Pro Huge breadth of content (over 4000 courses)
Courses on software development, design, 3D modeling, and much more.
Pro Notes in courses
You can add notes to each course, which makes it easier to repeat what you learned in past.
Pro New material added frequently
PluralSight is constantly adding new courses to reflect the evolving industry. Currently they offer over 4000 courses.
Pro Assessments and certificates of achievement
Plural site offers both pre-course and post-course assessments. Passing post-assessments will allow you to view and print off a certificate of achievement.
Pro Public profile statistics page
You can share your learning progress and interests. Useful to attach to a links section in resume.
Cons
Con Out of Date
Some commands and practices are out of date, so errata and googling is needed while going through the book.
Con Teaches bad style
The K&R style works for old Unix mainframe command-line programs that exit after a simple task and leave the cleanup to the OS; where input is only from trusted experts; and most functions are only called internally to the program. The environment is very different today. This style will get your server owned by hackers, or crash it due to a memory leak, etc. You will have to unlearn what you've learned from this book to use C correctly in the real world today.
Con Not for beginners
Assumes familiarity not only with programming concepts but some C language specifics.
Con Some courses are outdated
Some of the courses are years old, so they are fairly outdated.
Con No coding exercices
There is no space where you can test your learned skills.
Con Paid
Not Free