I bought this book last year on the assumption that it would be as good as all the other O'Reilly books I had bought in the past. Unfortunately, the book did not live up to my expectations. I definitely would _not_ recommend it to anyone who doesn't already have a reasonable amount of programming experience. Contrary to what its jacket says, it is _not_ an appropriate book for a beginner.

In general, I felt that the book was poorly written. The author simply did not express himself well. It's been some time since I actually looked at the book, so I'm not able to provide specific examples, but that was my impression when I did go through it.

Contrary to what some other readers have written, I would argue that for a beginner the Waite C primer book is a far better book. That said, even if you're an expert programmer, I think that the writing style exhibited in this book is poor enough that I would strongly recommend choosing something else, in order to avoid having to wade through the author's imprecise language.

Fortunately, this particular book has proven to be the exception among O'Reilly titles. I've been very happy with everything else I've bought.

JR