Trivia rarely affect efficiency. Are all the machinations worth it, when their primary effect is to make the code less readable?

An effective way to test code is to exercise it at its natural boundaries

90% of the functionality delivered now is better than 100% delivered never.

Believe the terrain, not the map

The most effective debugging tool is still careful thought, coupled with judiciously placed print statements.

Trying to outsmart a compiler defeats much of the purpose of using one.

As we said in the preface to the first edition, C "wears well as one's experience with it grows." With a decade more experience, we still feel that way.