[nn2]

I read programming pearls about halfway until I discovered that a several of the samples were using gets() and could be trivially exploited for buffer overflows.

Calling programs like that "pearls" just seemed too wrong to me to go on.

[edwinnathaniel]

As to my understanding, Programming Pearls focused lies between the range of elegant code and algorithms/problem solving as opposed to secured coding practice in the C programming language.

[lwat]

Still, someone like Knuth will argue that correctness should not be sacrificed for elegance.

[edwinnathaniel]

Feel free to crucify John Bentley.

I know I'll learn more out of the book if I don't care of the small nitpicks like "gets()".

[sanxiyn]

IIRC the book actually has a section where the author explains why he uses gets(), short variable names, etc.