The first chapter of K&R is a tutorial introduction, it explains the entire workings of the C language for someone familiar to programming in a small number of pages(It misses pointers, but it covers a lot).
Every book on a language needs this. The best I have seen was in a python book where the author stopped and told the reader enough had been learnt to write any program. The closet to the K&R model I have seen is with the Big Nerd Ranch books.
<quote>The best I have seen was in a python book where the author stopped and told the reader enough had been learnt to write any program.</quote>
You must be referring to Think Python: http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/thinkpython.html
Think Python is a fantastic intro-programming text. After mucking about with bits of code for a couple of years, I picked up Downey's previous version of the book, and that's when I became a programmer.
I highly recommend it to the handful of HN readers who are in need of an intro text.
It's a model that I followed when I wrote Hello Python. The theory being that the way that most of the good programmers that I know learned was by extending their knowledge, not by inhaling massive chunks of information.
I'm now reading K&R, and I'm surprised at the similarities, although I introduced new libraries just as much as new language features.
Every book on a language needs this. The best I have seen was in a python book where the author stopped and told the reader enough had been learnt to write any program. The closet to the K&R model I have seen is with the Big Nerd Ranch books.