Book · 1978
The C Programming Language
by Brian W. Kernighan
Two authors write the book that becomes 'K&R,' and forty years later Reddit still uses it as shorthand for programmers who had to know everything themselves.
What does Reddit think of The C Programming Language?
'The K in K&R, referring to The C Programming Language' is the most-upvoted line in the sample (↑1094), and it sets the pattern: this book mostly functions as a name-check for an era, not a live suggestion. r/learnprogramming's top mention (↑683) is genuinely mixed, bought as a first programming book, found unreadable at the time, kept for thirty years anyway. r/ExperiencedDevs' framing (↑258) is nostalgic rather than instructional: back then you had K&R or nothing, no Stack Overflow to fall back on. The clearest current-use argument comes from r/programming (↑371), where a commenter cites the book's own territory, undefined behavior on uninitialized reads, to correct someone in an unrelated argument. Of 228 mentions, nobody in the sample calls it a bad book. Nobody calls it an easy one either.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · K&R as shorthand for an entire programming era
- · Bought as a first book, understood decades later
- · Cited to settle undefined-behavior arguments rather than to recommend reading it
- · Nostalgia for an era with no Stack Overflow
Common praise
- + r/Python's top comment (↑344) credits Kernighan's authorship alone as the recommendation: 'He wrote THE book on the C Programming Language.'
- + r/programming's top comment (↑371) reaches for the book's own explanation of undefined behavior to settle an unrelated argument.
- + r/learnprogramming's top comment (↑683) kept the book for thirty years even after admitting it didn't help at first.
Common criticism
- − Nobody in the sample recommends it as a first C book for someone starting today; r/ExperiencedDevs (↑258) only credits it for an era with 'no internet or stack overflow.'
- − Most of the highest-upvoted mentions cite the book's nickname or history rather than argue for reading its actual chapters.
Who it's for
You already know the nickname if you're the audience for this: K&R gets cited here as an identity marker as much as a text. Tried it as your very first programming book? Expect the ↑683 experience, confusion first, understanding decades later, not a smooth on-ramp. Programmers arguing about undefined behavior reach for it as a court of last appeal (↑371), useful shelf-reference even if you never read it cover to cover. Nothing in this sample argues against picking a gentler modern beginner book instead.
Mentions over time
Which Reddit comments matter for The C Programming Language?
The most relevant excerpts across the subreddits where this book is mentioned — opinionated, argued takes first, then top-upvoted mentions. Click through to read the full thread.
“And the K in K&R, referring to *The C Programming Language* book
“The first time I wanted to learn programming, I bought the first book on the c programming language I could find. I was completely lost and didn't understand anything. Not even why it was trying to teach the concepts it chose to teach. 30 years later I'm a professional. I still have that book, a…
“Primordial C is from 1972; you'll find examples in e.g. the Lions book. It won't compile on any post-standard compiler. The first "proper" C is K&R, from 1978.
“As a teen I had a job running statistics on some large data sets on the vax mainframe at a university. The data was on different drives and I had to call this weird 'load tape' script to switch from one to the other. I *cleverly* scripted the analysis programs to batch through the different data …
“I think the chapter in K&R where I originally learned the answer to this question is shorter than that blog post.
“> Any C programmer worth anything knows that this initializes i to an indeterminate value (for all intents and purposes, i is uninitialized). That's dangerous thinking. Reading a variable before it's initialized is Undefined Behaviour. The compiler isn't even obliged to allocate any stack space for…
“For those who are wondering “who?” He wrote *THE* book on the C Programming Language
“well theres nothing stopping you from learning more about that stuff if you want to, the big difference between now and then is back then they pretty much had to know everything, and if they didn't there was no internet or stack overflow, just probably the 1st or 2nd edition of the C programming la…
“Here's my list of the classics: **General Computing** * But How Do It Know? - The Basic Principles of Computers for Everyone * The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles * […
“I took a Python class at my community college, and I thought I was learning Python. Took a C++ class, thought I was learning C++. Java, learning Java. And it's after that class that I learned the following: *That programming is not the knowledge of a a programming language any more than writing a b…
“Yeah, but what's K&R's page rank? Talk about terrible SEO.
“It’s absolutely astounding how much the Bell Labs folks just ‘got right’. The Unix OS and philosophy, the Unix shell, and the C programming language have nailed the interface and abstractions so perfectly that they still dominate 50 years later. I wonder what software being created today we will loo…
“The embedded world will go insane when their K&R style code quits working. That world has been pretty happy to stay on C89 with c++ comments. I'm pretty happy to see the nudge. Go, GCC!
“before the internet and even before BBS. We would just call each other. I had a network of about 30 people that we would call and compare notes and troubleshoot. the only book i needed was the K&R C book. Honestly, I prefer pre internet programming to today.
“Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but I would prefer the K&R over this.
Convinced? Pick up The C Programming Language
Readers also mention
Books that share discussion threads with The C Programming Language — counted from the comments, not curated.
Guides featuring The C Programming Language
Ranked best-of lists and editorial guides where this book's tracked mentions place it.
The C Programming Language — frequently asked
Is The C Programming Language still a good first book to learn C?+
The sample doesn't really say yes. r/learnprogramming's top comment (↑683) describes buying it as a first book and being 'completely lost,' only understanding it decades later as a working professional. Nobody in the displayed excerpts recommends it as a beginner's on-ramp; the praise that does show up is about its authority, not its teachability.
Why is The C Programming Language called K&R on Reddit?+
Because that's the authors' shorthand, and it's the single most-upvoted reference in the sample (↑1094): 'the K in K&R, referring to The C Programming Language.' The nickname shows up again in r/ExperiencedDevs (↑258), functioning as a stand-in for the book's entire era of C.
Does Reddit still cite The C Programming Language in technical arguments?+
Yes, at least once directly. An r/programming comment (↑371) invokes the book's own explanation of undefined behavior to correct someone claiming an uninitialized variable just gets 'an indeterminate value.' That's the book's content being used as an argument, not just its reputation.