Software Books

The Art of Game Design is a book which provides an easy read, it has a simplistic elegance to it, yet the depth of the book is quite deep which will keep you thinking for hours upon end. For me one of the most impressive things about the book is that it pretty much covers everything that a game designer should be aware of and how their decisions will effect the real world (it even talks about the moral obligations which I have never seen covered in a book about game design!). If you really want to be a game designer this is the book for you.

It's rare to find an instructional book on any topic that takes such a broad, holistic view of it's subject matter. Not only is it loaded with useful info on game design, but many of it's methods can easily be applied to the creative process in general. It's depth and breadth of thought set it easily above any other game design book I've come across.

The Art of Game Design is simple in its language yet intriguing in its concepts. Jesse's well written book is equivalent to a four year undergrad degree in the same subject. The bulkiness of the book might seem overwhelming, but once you start reading, you delve right into it without you even knowing it.

The book draws inspiration from a myriad of topics and fields and definitely provides life lessons on a deeper level. The philosophy and its understanding helps in knowing yourself better, first as a person and then as a designer.

The Art of Game Design will inculcate a positive design perspective to the way you observe everyday things and events. Even if you are not a designer, it certainly is an excellent addition to collectibles that broaden your horizon. A must-buy for those aspiring to be a designer.

good things come to those who wait - and i have been waiting for this book for years. jesse schell has managed to compose not only a game design guide through an idealized design process, but also a handy catalogue of "lenses" that will help designers to inquire whether their game is enjoyable, or not, and how to improve the design. most importantly, 'the art of game design' provides intellectual as well as practical inspiration throughout - what more can you ask from a book in this field?

The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses Is an awesome addition to the library of anyone, not just in the game industry, but in the themed entertainment industry as a whole. Chapters are clearly laid out, full of useful and most importantly practical information. Jesse's many years in the industry are evident as most sections of the book reference examples from his own experience. The tone of the book is easy going and open-minded, Jesse never "preaches" game design theory but rather explores it with you, the reader, and allows you to reach your own conclusions.

Perhaps the best part of this book is the lenses (which are detailed in the book and can be purchased separately in a handy "deck of cards" format). Particularly after you've read the book, these cards become a wonderful distilled version of the book's main design lenses. These lenses allow you to view your design in 100 different ways, many of which I promise you've never would have thought of. This is a very valuable tool kit for any designer.

Noobs and veterans' alike will find plenty to discover with in his book. When I have some free time I often find myself cracking the spine and simply picking a chapter at random, I always learn something new when I do.

When I first started looking at Web Parts I couldn't quite grasp how they were different from other web technology. Darren was able to clearly describe how individual parts are created, and how to integrate them into a cohesive whole and helped me enormously in building modern websites.

When I began to work on a web portal using .NET 2.0 in mid-2006, I found out about this book and anxiously awaited it's publishing. I wasn't disappointed. The material covered in this book goes into such great detail and is so full of great ideas that I recommended the re-writing of our portal using Darren's book as a basis of our new design. This was money well spent.

This a very thorough and complete guide to ASP 2.0 Web Parts. After reading this book, I gained more knowledge than reading countless internet articles, numerous blogs and a few cumbersome books on subject. This book is a MUST Buy for anyone who needs to understand and/ or implement ASP 2.0 Web Parts. One added new value is the concepts outlined
in his book also work on ASP 3.5.

A must buy book if your working with webparts. Darren (The author) is also extremely helpful if you post web part related questions on his forum. The book is clear, concise and well organised. You will not be disapointed!

Ps. I have bought many many tech reference books from Amazon over the years. This is the first time I have ever posted a review. This book has been an invaluable reference for a large project I am currently working on.

Paul Hale (Domainscanners)

An all in one great introduction to web parts and even to some advanced techniques.

Web parts are a strong web UI element and this book has done a great job of talking about ALL the things that are necessary for proper web parts development.

I was impressed from the beginning with the content of this book. It has been a great help in my recent graduate projects. This is one I will keep on the shelf for reference.

This book is simply the best book on post-production audio out there. I have over a decade of experience mixing live sound and some formal training in post production, but Rose gets to the real nuts and bolts of the day-to-day sweetening of sound that I was able to apply his ideas the same day I read a chapter on EQ. I have read so many books on sound where authors get into all the details, but fail to give hands on practical advice. Rose has two unique things going for him in this book: the included CD that gives A/B comparisons of various audio sweetening and processing techniques and the cookbook format at the end of each chapter. Try any one of these "recipes" and you will instantly get results and be able to solve various problems and massively improve your soundtrack.
He gets technical in spots going into the physics of sound, studio design, and other minutia but the non-geeks you can usually skip these sections and side-bars. For those who just want to fix things they can jump to the end of each chapter and use the cookbook/troubleshooting sections. I can't recommend this book enough. If you are serious about filmmaking, you can't be without this book.

Audio Postproduction for Digital Video
By Jay Rose
Review by Pi Ware

Don't listen to the title. It's bigger than the title. The "Digital Video" part of Audio Postproduction for Digital Video restricts the scope of this classic Jay Rose text. Rose's book goes far beyond DV, in fact, it starts with an explanation of what sound is on the molecular level and then takes you not just through audio postproduction for TV, but to techniques specific to movie production, techniques that are entirely independent of the format you originate on. Audio Postproduction for Digital Video is top-notch. It's an excellent, text-book quality manual, a soup-to-nuts guide on how to deal with sound in postproduction.

Jay Rose never gives you solutions that are applicable only to specific Digital Audio Workstations, he arms you with knowledge you can use in any platform or program. The book is an education in sound and, together with the numerous photos and diagrams (and Rose's good sense of humor), it's a liberation from the dry prose of most manuals on postproduction.

Rose teaches you from the ground up what sound is, what good sound is, and how to make bad sound better. He doesn't just stop at good writing, however, he illustrates important points with an audio CD included in the back of the book. Together with the CD, the text guides you through importing audio into the computer, editing dialogue, Do It Yourself Foley and ADR, working with filters, noise reduction techniques, pitch and time changes, the sound mix, and even, if you're so inclined, designing, constructing and wiring your own postproduction audio facility.

Though postproduction changes with every new advance in technology, Audio Postproduction for Digital Video stays current by focusing on strategy, not software. Rose avoids giving specific keystroke instructions in specific programs, but instead explains common solutions to common problems using common tools. As he says in his introduction, "You should be able to use these pages for a long time."

Anyone considering directing a short or feature, anyone who wants to be even nominally involved in the sound design of their film, and, of course, anyone interested in working in audio postproduction, would do extremely well to pick up a copy of this classic Jay Rose text.

This book in fantastic. The author's voice and style make this not only easy to read but a joy to read as well. There are little tips and tidbits in each chapter that will make a good audio guy great and a great audio guy better. I recommend this book to anyone in the audio post world.

I decided to buy this book because I had used the forum on the DV.com website for information before, and Jay Rose's comments there had proven to be spot-on and well-informed.
This book contains a thorough examination of all the factors which contribute to the quality of post-production audio. The level of information includes the spectrum from basic to advanced, but through Mr. Rose's clear explanations the advanced information should not go over the heads of the reader.

I have hundreds of books and manuals on various techie subjects and Ellen's AutoCAD 2004 Bible ranks high on my list for books worth the purchase. I have used AutoCAD for years but after moving up to Acad 2005 from Acad 2000 I thought I could use some tutoring. The book didn't disappoint. For nearly every topic there is a step by step, hands-on, example that the reader can perform. There are around 160 drawing files on the accompanying CD; one for each example in the book. You can open that file in Acad and follow the steps in the book and experiment to your heart's content.

All in all, this book won't disappont you like some I could mention.

I have had R14, 2000 AutoCAD Bibles on my shelf for many years now. I picked the 2004 Bible to use as a textbook in an advanced AutoCAD class that I teach 6 or so times a year.

I was very pleased with how well it meshed with the way I have always taught this class (13 years last month.) Plus it is a nice "value added" item that the students can take back to work. My first class was very pleased about getting to use the 2004 Bible while in class and also about having a reference to study after the class.

It was funny because I started saying "take your Bibles and turn to page ..." it was like we were in church! I can not say enough good about Ellen's writing style, her use of graphics throughout the book and her expertise! It is all there in the Bible.

I bought this to get refreshed in Autocad for a new job and would recommend it to anyone. I can't do without it.

A marvellous and first class, well written and referenced, extremely clear and as if having an AutoCAD instructer sitting next to you. I was a new user to this product and I feel today very comfortable to do my tasks on AutoCAD and feel that this book will be a good guide even for advanced users. Thanks to Ellen Finklestien and I laud your efforts and higly recomment the book to all.

I have read various book of autocad, but they all seem very complicated and dificuolt to understand. I found this bible and let me tell you that is the best book I have ever seem. I recomended to a friend of mine who wants to learn autocad. This book will challenge you as a beguiner, intermedite or advance user. It has lots of examples and this author know what she is talking about. Believe me this one of the best if not the best autocad book I have seem in the market in my 10 years of autocard experience.

What sets this book apart from other software quality management books is its focus on real-world solutions. Many quality improvement strategies sound great on paper, but are impractical to implement because they end up slowing project progress and stirring resentment throughout the ranks. Rather than ignore the demands of modern day development, this book embraces them. The result is a refreshingly realistic approach to boosting software quality... while at the same time actually improving team productivity and developer satisfaction.

I've read this book from cover to cover. I've read many books on software development, software processes, best practices, qualitative approaches, and quantitative approaches, many from SEI. This book has to be one of the top two. For software professionals in leadership positions facing today's pressures of delivering quality software that meets customer expectations according to plan, this book is a must-read. You will be able to implement techniques directly into your organizational processes and deliverables with considerable ease. Kolawa and Huizinga have forged a grimoire that should be on every software leaders' desk, be they Project Managers, Software Architects, PMO Directors, of Vice Presidents of Development. Here are the key take-aways from this book:

1. Clarity: All concepts, practices, and examples were extraordinarily clear. There was never a question as to what was meant, or confusion in the information conveyed.

2. Readability: The text is very user-friendly. Coming from a very technical background, I tend to read challenging and complicated material. In this book, you were able to frame both technical and complex material in a readable way. In other words, I never had to re-read anything in the book. All of the material was very easy to understand. I feel the ability to effectively reduce complexity to simplicity is the hallmark of good authorship.

3. Implementable: I found the practice-side of the book to be what I call `out-of-the-box.' This means I was able to take material directly from the text and apply that into my process(es) or deliverables with very little work or trouble. (I actually did this multiple times.) This is a testament to the subtitle of the book, Best Practices in Software Management.

4. Usefulness: The book is actually aimed at being useful within for-profit businesses. Theoretical books are good for concepts, but it's up to the readers to find ways to translate the theory into executable practices (which often is beyond the role and responsibility of the readers). Your book actually bridges this gap, and provides mechanisms to help readers implement valuable techniques into their organizations, independent of their infrastructure.

These four points make a huge difference for readers looking to improve their software development processes to ensure profitability, cost savings, and customer satisfaction. Producing quality software while building defect prevention into your processes is key in today's competitive software marketplace. With these techniques, your organization will continue to become better, managing, reducing, and even eliminating the traditional sources of defects in software deliverables. You won't be disappointed in buying this book, as you'll refer to over and over again as you build process improvement into your organization.

This book offers a straight-forward, realistic approach to solving challenges of day-to-day projects that the software industry faces. Not only does it address the necessity of technology businesses to increase efficiency and productivity, but it also takes into account the psychological need for individual software professionals to be challenged and intellectually fulfilled on a daily basis. The powerful gains of software automation are amplified by the strategic best practices described in this software management book.

Automated Defect Prevention delivers a realistic approach to the nagging software quality problem. If you are responsible for developers who deliver business applications, you need to read this book. If you are an software architect or engineer, the book will offer a pragmatic road map to achieve incremental productivity gains within your software development lifecycle.

When I read this book I had a huge realization. Most of the quality initiatives that I had been involved with or observed had introduced (or layered on) additional tasks and responsibilities for either the architect, developer or QA engineer. Over time, these layered tasks ultimately resulted in dragging down productivity. Investing in the *correct* infrastructure to automate the monotonous/repetitive is the key to success. Quality should be the outcome of intelligent investment in productivity.

One issue I have with the software industry is that too many project managers, or stake holders managing software people, lack the understanding of just how important software quality is and how it can benefit the software teams and products. As the people most accountable for what happens with a software initiative, managers should have a solid understanding of what options are available to improve developer skills and the software they release. This book provides that needed information and helps explain who is responsible for what tasks, when they should be considering phasing in a particular practice and the benefits of a given item.

I like the way the information is presented in this book because I feel a project manager would be able to quickly evaluate a practice for phasing in without facing an all-or-nothing approach that some other books take. If, for example, a manager felt that they enjoyed the chapter on testing models, this book provides the information on what is needed, the benefits and the roles people need to take to phase that approach into their teams.

I enjoyed this book and I wish that more development teams used many of the practices in this book. While there were samples at the end of the chapters and a chapter on case studies, I would have liked to have seen a bit more information on difficulty and time constraints presented within some of the sections themselves. Overall this is a great book and definitely worth having on your desk.

This is a concise, easy to read book that seems to cover a large variety of publications and projects. I can open it up to any page and get new ideas and insights on projects I'm working on.

This book explains the basics (and some more advanced concepts) of good graphic design without overwhelming the reader with technical terms nor "dumbing down" the vocabulary for the novice. There are plenty of colourful examples and the book follows its own advice! This book lacks, however, the specific steps to accomplish the different design goals, but this is probably due the many publishing packages available. It assumes the reader will figure that out for himself (or herself.) The book is a compact 200 page document that is filled with useful information from cover to cover and is a great addition to any designer's reference library.

Yet another great book from the folks at Before & After. I have the Before & After Page Design book and subscribe to the PDF magazine. Even with all that, I still liked the addition of this book. It covers the usual business situations like newsletters, stationery, logos, forms and charts. The ideas illustrated and dissected here were found to be light bulb creating. I was able to apply a few of the tips right away to some projects I was working on at the time.

Some of the nuggets I enjoyed most were the comparison and discussion of what typefaces are best for what text that can be applied to all sorts of type, logo creation and thought process and the charts. The charts were not just your average pie charts, but great design elements.

Again, I'm impressed by another Before & After project. The illustrations and explanations help new and intermediate designers improve the craft. I'm sure seasoned professionals can pick up a few tips too.

I am a former graphic worker and I now teach this matter to students who have no ideas of the state of the art.
The book is professionnal and easy to use, and all examples are so helpfull to any people who need advices in business graphics.

Before & After is one of my favorite design magazines. The project examples, step-by-step guidelines and practical articles have always been excellent resources for designers of all education and experiences levels. With Graphics for Business, author, designer and teacher John McWade teaches the reader how to make their business look great. The book is not logo or corporate identity specific. In addition to logo design, McWade covers the creation of newsletters, stationery, sales pieces and forms, and charts, reports, calendars and maps. Still, the logo and identity section of the book (44 pages of the volume) explains logos very well and provides great examples of how to design lettermarks, wordmarks, monograms, ligatures and other forms of identities. Playing with type, words, shapes and illustrative elements are all presented in fun and well-illustrated manner. The book will be a great addition to the design library of anyone interested in producing a strong image for their business, or that of a client. - Jeff Fisher, writer of bLog-oMotives and the "Logo Notions" column at CreativeLatitude.com

I am new to programming.

This book starts at the beginning: building a graphical web page in Web Matrix. Following a entertaining blend of practical, funny and insightful steps, in a short period I was using Visual Basic.Net and databases to add dynamic features, controls and web services.

I was amazed at how easy it is to do. This book provides an enjoyable was to grasp a firm foundation in ASP.NET programming.

I am a college student having some programming knowledge but totally new in dynamic/ data-driven web creation. I found this book really helpful to get started from static to exciting data-driven stuff with ASP and MSDE. Although WebMatrix has a limitation(which was developed by a team of people from Microsoft at their spare time), it's a real great tool for beginner to get to know how to install database engine, create a data table, link to your web form with drag-n-drop and some hands-on coding (provided in the book). If you need to go on to industrial level, this book or WebMartix won't help.
Chap 1 starts with step by step instructions on how to install .NET framwork, MSDE (you need this if you don't have SQL running), then WebMartix (which has its own web server, you don't need IIS to run samples from the book). One of the great styles of this book is easy-to-follow-and-understand examples which has "Try It Out" & "How it Works" section which explains the code line by line in detail. I found Chap16 and 17 really helpful for general knowledge on "Web Services" and "Beyond WebMatrix," but make sure you finish this book first, then go on to more exciting Visual Studio .NET (which is a "bigbrother" of WebMatrix)
Oh..2 case studies at the back of the book, which explains step by step how to make a guestbook, reconizing customer and "log-on" stuff..and the CD includes some software WebMatrix, MSDE, etc..
Thanks to David Sussman and Wrox P2P

Great combination and perfect fit of beginning book and tool: ASP.Net Web Matrix. Excellent examples and basic ASP.Net concepts explanation.

You will be amazed when you read it. It is a step by step guide. I highly recommend this book for ASP .NET so far.

This book is a not bad introduction to ASP.NET. The reason I purchased it is I really needed to master Web Matrix ASAP and Mr. Sussman's book was quite helpful in accomplishing that goal. Of course, it is better to begin with Visual Studio since Web Matrix is somewhat limited resemblance of Visual Studuo but Web Matrix has something nobody could resist - it is free.
Make sure you learn as profoundly as possible chapters about datagrids and reusable content; these two are absolutely irreplaceble components of practically any online database application. Also pay attention to inclusion of namespaces at the very top of your code, it is forgetable. The only thing which was not working for me is Web Services. Other code samples work fine.
I would recommend to start with this book to anybody who needs to master ASP.NET.

I loved this book. Jane Bozarth is informative, without being too wordy. I loved that she included info for both PowerPoint 2003 & 2007 since many of us are just making the transition. I got a lot of good ideas from this book that will work well for just-in-time training, as well as for certain special presentation situations. Thanks, Jane!!!

This is a great book for the trainer who needs to create a quality rapid elearning product but doesn't have the time or budget for expensive tools. Ms. Bozarth really knows the program and she has some great tips on how to create compelling animations and engaging content. Team this up with the tools from Wondershare and you will be able to create some amazing elearning.

I pre-ordered Better Than Bullet Points because a preview of the contents seemed to fit my needs of creating engaging online courses. The book more than lived up to expectations; it is simply excellent in presenting its central thesis--"transform" your PowerPoint presentation, don't simply "transfer" it online and declare it a learning tool.

I have several well respected books on elearning, but their encyclopedic presentation is overwhelming. Jane's book is very well focused, flows topic to topic very naturally and logically, and most importantly, is substantive without dumbing down. And while she covers some PowerPoint techniques, the focus stays on pedagogy and field-tested design. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to get their first elearning program right the time. This is your user's manual.

This is a great book for people who have a knowledge of basic Powerpoint tools but want to take it to the next step in creating e-learning. It's easy-to-understand and follow and keeps driving home the point, "It's the design, not the software." People who may feel intimidated by e-learning design and development can use the tutorials and how-to's in the book to create quick, easy and effective e-learning modules. I received an advance copy and was able to use the principles in a graduate class I taught in the Fall. Students were amazed at what can be done with Powerpoint for e-learning purposes and were able to follow the step-by-step instructions. Their assignments reflected their ability to use the principles and guidance in the book, and I will be requiring the book for my upcoming graduate classes this Summer and Fall. The author is obviously knowledgeable, but more importantly, able to "speak" to readers less experienced. I recommend the book highly and also the resources on the author's website, [...].

I agree with everything the other reviewers have said to date. This well-written book (lots of active voice) is useful to anyone involved in training; chapter 2 takes Bloom's taxonomy to a very realtistc and pragmatic level that guides the reader to the most appropriate learning activities. I just finished a master program in distance education and I wish I had had this book in school. Bozarth's interpretations of Roger Mayer's principles of multimedia made more sense to me now than when I read Mayer's book in grad school. Not at all overly academic; very application-based on what most of us learned in school, but needed help in using the theories. Highly recommended.
Margaret Driscoll's "Web-Based Training: Designing e-Learning Experiences" with CD-ROM would make a great companion book to this one for anyone creating e-learning in a variety of delivery formats.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is an old technology by Internet standards, but still a very viable means of interpersonal communication; i.e., chat. Sure there are lots of nutcases out there, but you can also find people who can provide help on a wide variety of subjects (i.e., programming in specific languages), discussions on almost any subject (which is not to say they'll be intelligent or reasoned).

There's not much flash or glamour to be found in IRC or the tools to use with it. This book, however, is a great guide to IRC for those who need to know the nuts and bolts of whatever technology they deal with.

Though old, little in the technology or tools has changed since it was published in 2000.

It's an inexpensive and worthwhile addition to any techie's library or for anyone who is interested in enlarging their online social millieu.

Jerry

Very well written and illustrated guide that starts with the very basics and takes you all of the way through to advanced use. The IRC protocol and client side commands are explored in depth. Numerous clients for Window, OS X, and Unix are covered. This basic coverage, which is about two-thirds of the book ends with an excellent chapter on managing channels.

The advanced chapters cover installing an IRC server, using DCC, and some advanced security issues.

This book sets a comprehensive foundation of knowledge for IRC which is then supplemented by O'Reilly's IRC Hacks book. Beginners looking to get seriously into IRC will want to buy this book. More advanced users will want to look at the coverage of their areas of interest to make sure it's worth the investment.

An truly outstanding book. I have used IRC for many years now, and although I do not consider myself to be an expert-user I definitely know my way around. This book is really the only comprehensize "A - Z" source on IRC, and it is wonderfully-written as both an introductory text for IRC newbies as well as an in-depth compendium for power users. Even after using IRC for so long I could not believe how much I learned, particularly the last chapter which deals with server-side configurations.

Alex Charalabidis uses his expert knowledge of IRC to explain the network's subcultural quirks and expectations in all its many instances, and provides information about IRC on the whole in an amusing, almost rhythmical deliverance. In my opinion, a must read for all IRC users. Even Nick Burns, the company computer guy, suggests it! YOUR WELCOME!!!

I am an IRC junkie, so when I saw this book I just had to pick it up.

This book was written in 1999, and it shows. There are outdated server lists and statistics. The attacks described are mostly outdated (who "nukes" "jupes" and "floods" these days? This is only interesting from a historical perspective). The IRC clients described are now of outdated versions, and some of the now popular clients (xchat, irssi) aren't mentioned. The book claims to have a companion website with updates, which I was excited to see, but the site's domain (bookofirc.com) seems to have expired and been snatched up by an unrelated website.

All that aside, IRC is a pretty basic protocol, and most things about it haven't changed a whole lot, so this book is quite useful. It can walk someone new to IRC through the basics, describing what everything in the IRC world is, as well as providing experts with some interesting tidbits. The whole chapters on DCC and CTCP were especially informative to me. Appendix B "Terminology" was great for providing some of the "language" one might encounter in channels with tech/irc-saavy occupants.

The book even touches upon "IRC Netiquette" when it comes to what is acceptable or not behavior-wise in IRC (I think a whole chapter should have been devoted to this, this seems to be a major stumbling block to new IRCers). The fun way in which the author presents this book makes it very amusing to read, not at all like normal techical books (this is something I enjoy about all No Starch Press books).

In summary, this is a very informative book, even for someone like me who has been using IRC for over 6 years, and now run my own server. But it needs a second edition and/or the companion website revived.

This book is written by an experienced IRC user and operator and I can't think of anyone better qualified to write this book. Additionally, his sense of humor makes this book enjoyable to read as you find out about all the features of IRC. This book is useful for anyone who spends time on IRC, from the "newbies" to veteran IRC "addicts" like me. I wish there had been a book like this around six years ago, when I logged on to my first IRC channel.

Among the subjects the authors covers include a brief summary of IRC and its history, IRC clients for UNIX, Windows, and Macintosh machines, how to connect to an IRC server, finding various channels and people on IRC, and also a good description about the dreaded "net splits" and lag you will eventually run into on IRC. I just wish the author had gone into more detail about ways to deal with server splits and lag. Maybe the next edition will cover that.

More and more users are logging on to IRC all the time (which probably explains why it seems there's always those "splits" I mentioned) and this book is an excellent guide to what you can do on IRC and what to watch out for.

This is not a bad book, but not a great one either. The authors assume that the reader already knows almost everything about C and they are just filling in the holes. Constant references to topics that won't be covered formally until four or five chapters later are jarring. This would make more sense in a book structured strictly as a syntax reference. Don't consider this book if you are trying to learn C; if you already program it may be a useful reference.

This book is a model of brevity and thoroughness. I wish every programming reference could be written this way. Heck, I wish I could write this way.

A really good book that explains C clearly. I especially like the standard library reference that is included and also the sections on GCC and GDB.

every day there are fewer reasons to purchase computer books. so much documentation is online or included as "man" or "info" pages that reference manuals have almost become extinct. "c in a nutshell" proves there can be real value in a book, even on a topic as "settled" as c. the reference is exhaustive, and there are many examples. but there is more to this book than just a c reference...this book really addresses the entirety of developing with common c tools like gcc and make, as well as adding discussion for memory management, pointers, and other thornier topics. the nice thing is that because the world of c isn't likely to change radically from this point, you can likely get use out of this book for another decade.

I'll admit that I'm a fan first and foremost of K&R, but this is a good reference too. It takes a little more time to explain some concepts than K&R, and does it in a way that can increase your learning. So while I wouldn't call this a drop-in replacement for K&R, it is definitely a good additional resource, one that I turn to almost as often as I turn to K&R.