Dedicated to baba Who couldn’t be here to see this day...
About the Author
Destiny drew Yashavant Kanetkar towards computers when the IT industry was just making a beginning in India. Having completed his education from VJTI Mumbai and IIT Kanpur in Mechanical Engineering he started his training company in Nagpur. Yashavant has a passion for writing and is an author of several books in C, C++, VC++, C#, .NET, DirectX and COM programming. He is a much sought after speaker on various technology subjects and is a regular columnist for Express Computers and Developer 2.0. His current affiliations include being a Director of KICIT, a training company and DCube Software Technologies, a software development company. In recognition to his contribution Microsoft awarded him the prestigious “Best .NET Technical Contributor” award recently. He can be reached at kanetkar@kicit.com.
Preface to the Fifth Edition
It is mid 2004. World has left behind the DOTCOM bust, 9/11 tragedy, the economic downturn, etc. and moved on. Countless Indians have relentlessly worked for close to two decades to successfully establish “India” as a software brand. At times I take secret pleasure in seeing that a book that I have been part of, has contributed in its own little way in shaping so many budding careers that have made the “India” brand acceptable. Computing and the way people use C for doing it keeps changing as years go by. So overwhelming has been the response to all the previous editions of “Let Us C” that I have now decided that each year I would come up with a new edition of it so that I can keep the readers abreast with the way C is being used at that point in time. There are two phases in every C programmer’s life. In the first phase he is a learner trying to understand the language elements and their nuances. At this stage
