I'm studying C now on my own and I have a long C# background. I have a few e-books about C but what I would really love is to find some authoritative material online such as manuals and reference content. When I need information about C# or the related standard libraries I go to MSDN because Microsoft maintains the language and so naturally that is the place to go. However, MSDN covers the C language and its standard library poorly and so I'm wondering who the most important source is. Does C have a single backer or a few main backers?
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for C there are the man-pages, which are suerly to find online (I use Unix, so "man" is the choice of weapons. – Peter Miehle Jul 02 '14 at 07:20
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There are a lot of resources, everything depends on what you need. You can see here the linux manual: http://linux.die.net/man/. And here some other resources: http://www.gnu.org/software/gnu-c-manual/gnu-c-manual.html and http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/webmonkeys/book/c_guide/ – Mickey Jul 02 '14 at 07:22
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The problem with many internet tutorials or references are that some are just plain wrong. Try and stick to official sites such as GNU or man pages for primary reference. You can use any of the tutorial sites, and many are good, but just validate the information you get against the man pages or an official site. The man pages may seem daunting at first, but many contain excellent examples. As a reasonable tutorial to look at try [**The Gnu C Programming Tutorial**](http://crasseux.com/books/ctutorial/). [**Gnu C Tutorial**](http://dahl.byu.edu/624/c-tutorial.pdf) Good luck. – David C. Rankin Jul 02 '14 at 07:44
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I may be wrong, but I don't think this question is off-topic, at least not for the reasons stated above. There is only one authorative reference for the C language and standard library, and that is the C standard. This is not recommending ones favourite tool, library or off-site resource. – Nisse Engström Jul 02 '14 at 22:18
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The ultimate reference for the C programming language and the standard library is the ISO 9899:2011 standard (aka C11) which can be purchased from the ISO organization. The final public draft, n1570, is available for free download. I'm told it differs very little from the actual standard.
Note however, that compiler/library/OS vendors tend to be slow to upgrade to the latest standard. I believe that many vendors still haven't ugraded fully to the previous standard, C99. Perhaps the C11 standard recognizes this, because some features that were mandatory in C99 have been made optional in C11.
Nisse Engström
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