Learning C

I recently made a few C++ program for my course and it reignited my interest in programming (I had previously done a little C) and I'd like to learn properly in my spare time, I'm interested in making small programs that perform useful tasks or automate menial ones but ultimately I'd like to be able to make a nice looking tag based file database that will allow me to thoroughly categorize things as the current options are quite lacking in features. Obviously that's a while away yet and I'm sure to think of more things before then.

I think C is the right choice because it seems to be very multi-purpose and there is a lot of documentation on it, so much in fact I don't really know where to start. I know K&R is a popular book but the last edition was released 22 years ago and I'm sure that many things have changed since then, is there perhaps a more modern one that I should be looking at [after/instead of] K&R?

>>1
I think C is the right choice because it seems to be very multi-purpose and there is a lot of documentation on it
IHBT

ultimately I'd like to be able to make a nice looking tag based file database that will allow me to thoroughly categorize things as the current options are quite lacking in features.
Do it in Ruby on Rails, watch the screencasts!

>>3
They are pretty great, actually, those weekly ``railscasts'': because they all get transcribed to text by a ``fan''; it forces you to accept that your rails ``peers'' are the sort of people who prefer 10 minutes of hand-holding to skimming the short transcript that averages about 2000 words.

>>3
>>4

I have the feeling that you two aren't being serious..

>>1
K&R is is probably better as a reference if you know C than a book to learn it from.

The one I used is out of print though; maybe you could look at amazon reviews to see what's good?

>>6
Anyone who needs a reference for C beyond man pages shouldn't be programming. K&R is great for learning, though.

Get K&R 2nd edition.  Enjoy.

>>7
you shouldn't need man pages for anything in the standard library. memorize the ANSI standard (http://www.open-std.org/JTC1/SC22/wg14/www/docs/n1256.pdf) or GTFO.

>>7
>>9
I was writing a C parser and wanted to make sure I got the scope details right (I think it turned out that unions and structs share a namespace).  Another time I wanted to check what assumptions could be made about the alignment of bitfields in a struct.

But yeah, I don't use it much.

>>1
I just took a look at K&R and it seems pretty straightforward, so ignore what I said earlier.