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Both C and Pascal were around at the time. |
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[[Image:The_Elements_of_Programming_Style.jpg|200px|thumb|Cover of the second edition]]
'''''The Elements of Programming Style''''', by [[Brian W. Kernighan]] and [[P. J. Plauger]], is a seminal book in the study of [[programming style]], advocating the notion that computer programs should be written not only to satisfy the compiler, but also with human readers in mind.
It was named after [[The Elements of Style]], a discussion on writing plain English prose.
A particular strength of the book is that it is built on examples taken from actual, published programs. The book's advice is therefore delivered not in an academic or pedagogical vacuum, but rather in the context of examples which are believably realistic, sometimes uncomfortably so. The authors are diplomatic and generally sympathetic in their criticisms, and unabashedly honest as well, in that some of the examples which they find fault with and seek to improve in the second edition were taken from their own first edition.
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The book pays explicit homage, in title and tone, to ''[[The Elements of Style]]'', by [[William Strunk Jr.|Strunk]] & [[E. B. White|White]].
One shortcoming of the book for modern readers is that its examples use older programming languages—[[Fortran]] and [[PL/I]]—which are less than representative of
==References==
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