Free Programming Training

Since the publication of the first edition of this book, the definition of the C language has undergone changes. Almost all were extensions of the original language, and were carefully designed to remain compatible with existing practice; some repaired ambiguities in the original description; and some represent modifications that change existing practice. Many of the new facilities were announced in the documents accompanying compilers available from AT&T, and have subsequently been adopted by other suppliers of C compilers. More recently, the ANSI committee standardizing the language incorporated most of the changes, and also introduced other significant modifications. Their report was in part participated by some commercial compilers even before issuance of the formal C standard.
This Appendix summarizes the differences between the language defined by the first edition of this book, and that expected to be defined by the final standard. It treats only the language itself, not its environment and library; although these are an important part of the standard, there is little to compare with, because the first edition did not attempt to prescribe an environment or library. (more…)