This reading assignment is intended to demystify pointers. For those of you who are shaky with them, this assignment (together with HW5) should help firm up your understanding. For those of you who feel comfortable with pointers and C idioms, this assignment will reinforce and add to your knowledge.

The reading assignment is in two parts; the second part is more important than the first, but the first will make the second go a bit faster. If you don't get to this assignment until after Thursday's class don't worry about it, but you should definitely do this reading soon:

Read (or reread, since this was referenced in a previous lab) this presentation, on C for Java programmers.
Read (not skim) chapters 5 through 5.11 (~30 pages) in The C Programming Language, by Kernighan and Ritchie (1988).

"K&R", as the book is known, is a classic; it remains, after all these years, one of the best (possibly the best) descriptions of C pointers and other constructs. Perhaps for this reason, the book is surprisingly expensive for a paperback. We have placed the book on two-hour reserve in the Courant library (1 copy) and the Bobst course reserves on floor LL2 (3 copies; these are our personal copies!). You may also have copies from prior classes. Or, if you're planning to use C in the future, it may make sense to buy a copy.

If availability of the book becomes a problem, please let us know. We can probably buy a few more copies and place them on reserve.

If you're desperate and cannot find a copy, this tutorial is a potential substitute.