I've always recommended that programmers make it a point to read this classic by Kernighan and Plauger. I'm now in the process of reading it again. I had to request an interlibrary load to get it.

Upon re-reading it (I'm now up to chapter 3) I find it terribly dated. The examples are all in Fortran and PL/1 (PL/I?). One of the "rules" set forth is "avoid the Fortran arithmetic IF," a good piece of advise if you happen to be programming in Fortran but of little use if you are using C++ or Pascal.

The first chapters of the book seem to deal almost exclusively with when and when not to use GOTO and how to use it when you do. Again advise aimed at Fortran programmers who, lacking WHILE and IF..THEN..ELSE, had no choice but to use GOTO, and at PL/1 programs who could avoid the GOTO but often didn't, producing "Fortran with semicolons."

I think the book is still worth a read but I'm not so sure it is still a MUST READ. An updated version with examples in C++, Java and/or Pascal would be good but it's something I doubt the authors would be interested in doing. The very fact that the book seems dated is an indication that the authors accomplished their mission.