When comparing C Programming Absolute Beginner's Guide vs Learn C The Hard Way, the Slant community recommends Learn C The Hard Way for most people. In the question“What are the best resources for a beginner to learn C?” Learn C The Hard Way is ranked 1st while C Programming Absolute Beginner's Guide is ranked 7th. The most important reason people chose Learn C The Hard Way is:
The book covers very basics such as C syntax, idioms, compilations, make files, linkers and how to find and prevent bugs.
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Pros
Pro Short chapters
There are 32 chapters in the book, which is 352 pages long.
The short chapters make it extremely easy to use this book as a reference, and breaks everything down into small pieces that are easy to digest.
Pro Designed for people new to C
The book covers very basics such as C syntax, idioms, compilations, make files, linkers and how to find and prevent bugs.
Pro Very practical and hands on
Contains many exercises that will require getting hands dirty very early on.
Pro Can be combined with a video course
A complimentary course is available on Udemy. The course costs $29.
Pro Free
The book is available online for free.
Cons
Con Slow for someone with prior experience
This book, as the title suggests, is really aimed at people with no prior programming experience.
Fundamentals are gone through in detail (such as loops, variables etc.), which would be quite a slow review for someone with experience in another language.
Con Has errors
Includes technical errors throughout the book.