This documentation does not attempt to teach the C or assembly language programming; rather, you should seek out one of the many introductory texts available. And similarly the documentation doesn’t cover the MSP430 architecture or microcontroller application development in any great depth.

We also assume that you’re fairly familiar with the operating system of the host computer being used. For Microsoft Windows development environment we recommend Windows 2000 or Windows XP, but you can use Windows NT 4, Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me if you wish.

##### C programming guides

Because the CrossWorks C compiler is a compiler for ANSI C, the following books are especially relevant:

- Kernighan, B.W. and Ritchie, D.M., The C Programming Language (2nd edition, 1988). Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA. ISBN 0-13-110362-8.
  The original C bible, updated to cover the essentials of ANCI C (1990 version).
- Harbison, S.P. and Steele, G.L., A C Reference Manual (second edition, 1987). Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA. ISBN 0-13-109802-0.
  A nice reference guide to C, including a useful amount of information on ANSI C. Written by Guy Steele, a noted language expert.

##### ANSI C reference

- ISO/IEC 9899:1990, C Standard and ISO/IEC 9899:1999, C Standard. The standard is available from your national standards body or directly from ISO at www.iso.ch.