I agree. I always recommend the O'Reilly book, "Practical C Programming," to anyone who asks. One of author Steve Oualline's main points is that a lot of the common problems associated with C programming can simply be avoided if one doesn't try to be clever.

For example, the common string copy function is usually implemented like this:

void strcpy(char *dest, char *src)
{
    while (*dest++ = *src++);
}

is common enough, but face it, it's one of those functions that's too damn clever for its own good. (Yes, I know, it's in the K+R book.)

In the section, "How not to use pointers," Oualline recommends being clear as a bell when coding:

void strcpy(char *dest, char *src)
{
    while (1)
    {
        *dest = *src;
        if (*dest == '')
            return;

        ++dest;
        ++src;
    }
}

Sure, it's more verbose, but it's easier to debug and maintain, and there's no run-time (speed) penalty for this verbosity, nor does it increase the size of the executable.

-a