C doesn’t have a ++ for booleans. This leads to confusing parses like if (i = 3) vs if (i == 3). He famously notes that "C lets you shoot yourself in the foot; C++ lets you blow off the entire leg."
Officially? No. Pearson never released an official DRM-free PDF. If you want a legal digital version, you often have to buy a used physical copy and scan it yourself, or check the Internet Archive (archive.org) for borrowing options (lending periods apply). Safari Books Online (O’Reilly) used to host it, but that has largely moved to other aggregate learning platforms.
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Expert C Programming — Deep C Secrets is a focused collection of advanced C techniques, idioms, and practical patterns for experienced developers who want to write faster, safer, and more maintainable C code. The material covers low-level details, performance tuning, common pitfalls, and real-world examples, plus practical debugging and testing approaches used by systems programmers. expert c programming deep c secrets pdf github
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One of the most famous sections of the book involves the const keyword. Van der Linden breaks down confusing declarations in a way that sticks.
For example, the classic C puzzle:
const int * p; // pointer to constant int
int * const p; // constant pointer to int
The book uses the "Clockwise/Spiral Rule" to help you decipher these declarations instantly—a skill that saves hours of debugging. C doesn’t have a ++ for booleans