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<html><head><title>Preface</title></head><body><hr><p align="center"><a href="kandr.html">Index</a> -- <a href="preface1.html">Preface to the first edition</a><p><hr><h1>Preface</h1>The computing world has undergone a revolution since the publication of<em>The C Programming Language</em> in 1978. Big computers are much bigger, andpersonal computers have capabilities that rival mainframes of a decade ago.During this time, C has changed too, although only modestly, and it hasspread far beyond its origins as the language of the UNIX operating system.<p>The growing popularity of C, the changes in the language over the years, andthe creation of compilers by groups not involved in its design, combined todemonstrate a need for a more precise and more contemporary definition of thelanguage than the first edition of this book provided. In 1983, the AmericanNational Standards Institute (ANSI) established a committee whose goal was toproduce ``an unambiguous and machine-independent definition of the languageC'', while still retaining its spirit. The result is the ANSI standard for C.<p>The standard formalizes constructions that were hinted but not described inthe first edition, particularly structure assignment and enumerations. Itprovides a new form of function declaration that permits cross-checking ofdefinition with use. It specifies a standard library, with an extensive setof functions for performing input and output, memory management, stringmanipulation, and similar tasks. It makes precise the behavior of featuresthat were not spelled out in the original definition, and at the same timestates explicitly which aspects of the language remain machine-dependent.<p>This Second Edition of <em>The C Programming Language</em> describes C asdefined by the ANSI standard. Although we have noted the places where thelanguage has evolved, we have chosen to write exclusively in the new form.For the most part, this makes no significant difference; the most visiblechange is the new form of function declaration and definition. Moderncompilers already support most features of the standard.<p>We have tried to retain the brevity of the first edition. C is not a biglanguage, and it is not well served by a big book. We have improved theexposition of critical features, such as pointers, that are central to Cprogramming. We have refined the original examples, and have added newexamples in several chapters. For instance, the treatment of complicateddeclarations is augmented by programs that convert declarations into wordsand vice versa. As before, all examples have been tested directly from thetext, which is in machine-readable form.<p>Appendix A, the reference manual, is not the standard, but our attempt toconvey the essentials of the standard in a smaller space. It is meant foreasy comprehension by programmers, but not as a definition for compilerwriters -- that role properly belongs to the standard itself. Appendix B is asummary of the facilities of the standard library. It too is meant forreference by programmers, not implementers. Appendix C is a concise summaryof the changes from the original version.<p>As we said in the preface to the first edition, C ``wears well as one'sexperience with it grows''. With a decade more experience, we still feel thatway. We hope that this book will help you learn C and use it well.<p>We are deeply indebted to friends who helped us to produce this secondedition. Jon Bently, Doug Gwyn, Doug McIlroy, Peter Nelson, and Rob Pike gaveus perceptive comments on almost every page of draft manuscripts. We aregrateful for careful reading by Al Aho, Dennis Allison, Joe Campbell,G.R. Emlin, Karen Fortgang, Allen Holub, Andrew Hume, Dave Kristol, JohnLinderman, Dave Prosser, Gene Spafford, and Chris van Wyk. We also receivedhelpful suggestions from Bill Cheswick, Mark Kernighan, Andy Koenig, RobinLake, Tom London, Jim Reeds, Clovis Tondo, and Peter Weinberger. Dave Prosseranswered many detailed questions about the ANSI standard. We used BjarneStroustrup's C++ translator extensively for local testing of our programs,and Dave Kristol provided us with an ANSI C compiler for final testing. RichDrechsler helped greatly with typesetting.<p>Our sincere thanks to all.<p>Brian W. Kernighan<br>Dennis M. Ritchie<p><hr><p align="center"><a href="kandr.html">Index</a> -- <a href="preface1.html">Preface to the first edition</a><p><hr></body></html>⌨️ 快捷键说明
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