Practical C++

jsight writes with his review of Rob McGregor's Practical C++, published by QUE. He writes "Some books attempt to do one thing really well, and others attempt a little of everything. This book is clearly an example of the latter, in full force. Weighing in at a hefty 900 pages, you would expect this book to be crammed with chapters and details on every aspect of the STL and basic C++. In the following review, I am going to cover where it succeeds in doing this, and where it fails." (This book has been out for a few years; what books would make more sense today for a C++ learner's library?) Practical C++ author Rob McGregor pages 900 publisher QUE rating 7/10 reviewer Jess Sightler ISBN 0789721449 summary Provides a practical guidebook to learning C++ Section I -- Programming 101 At first glance, the book appears to be written for people with experience programming, however reading through this section clearly dispels that myth. Here we have a section which goes over everything from for loops to if conditionals while simultaneously using verbose, duplicitous language at every step. Perhaps this was intended as a means of reinforcement, however, it seems most of the effort here would be wasted.

The technical depth is what you would expect for a novice, but without enough hand-holding and examples to make a novice feel comfortable. Making matters worse, there are numerous typos in this section, including quite a few in the examples (making them uncompilable without corrections). Some of these appear to be type-setting errors, however, there are enough to potentially confuse novice developers.

I believe that the combination of weak examples, and significant typographical errors are strong enough to give a novice much difficulty in learning the C++ language.

Having said that, the section should be provide no difficulty for any programmer with a good knowledge of any vaguely similar language (eg, Perl, Java, PHP, etc).

Section II -- Beyond the Basics

Ah, now we're getting down to Brass Tacks... this section goes over everything from Function overloading to Structure and Unions. The section on function members within structures also does an excellent job of preparing the reader for the upcoming introduction of Object Oriented concepts.

The sections on Memory management, both from an allocation standpoint, and from a bit manipulation standpoint are first-rate. Details are perhaps not as strong as they could have been, however the material is very accessible, and clearly described.

Probably my only complaint with this chapter is the overly general section on compiling and debugging programs. However, as this book does attempt to be somewhat compiler/debugger agnostic, this is forgivable. From here, we dive into the real power of C++, Object Orientation.

Section III

From the beginning, this book treats Objects as an extension of the structure syntax taught previously (with the default of Public switched to Private). This, along with the classic Plans vs. Product description of the difference between a Class and an Object are quite clear and robust.

Again, this is a solid chapter, describing the details of getting a system of classes up and running, as well as some sample data structure implementations.

And then finally, the last section is a slightly less than 200 page description of the STL. This section is probably the book's weakest part, as it is just strong enough to give you a taste of what is available, but often not strong enough to grasp the details. It's a good start, but much more attention should have been made to this subject (potentially even at the cost of some of the wasted words on how a 'for' loop works). It makes a decent introduction for someone with very limited STL background, however, there is not enough depth to reach a strong level of understanding here.

Summary Overall, this is a solid book for an existing programmer to pick up C++ concepts. A programmer with a strong knowledge of an existing procedural language (such as C) would have no trouble digesting the concepts of this book. Having said that, the poor typographical issues, and verbose wording often muddle an otherwise good book.

You can purchase Practical C++ from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

out of stock?

[fjordboy]

Contrary to what the article and link said, I don't think you can buy it (new) on bn.com. However, it is available here at amazon.com for 20.90 new or 9.00 used. Just fyi...

I concur

[gregarican]

This book has been in my reference shelf for awhile now. Some areas are emphasized more than others -- arrays more than vectors, structs more than classes -- but overall it's a good companion.

In terms of going over bit manipulation, memory addresses, pointers, etc. it really goes into detail that I wouldn't expect for an entry-level reference. Then again it's so thorough it really isn't just an entry-level reference!

Best learner's C++?

[FortKnox]

(This book has been out for a few years; what books would make more sense today for a C++ learner's library?)

Best learner's C++ book has to be "Thinking in C++" by Bruce Eckel. I always touted his "Thinking in Java" as the premier book for the learning java developer, but his success started with TiC++. Best of all? Its available free electronically on his website (but I always went out and spent the $30 for the paperback version to support him).

If you pick up the book, you'll understand the language just a little more. He writes the book just how you'd like to learn, not like some math book that blandly gives out information in a manner that puts you to sleep. You can thank me later after reading it ;-)

On the subject of language

[sczimme]

From the review:

Here we have a section which goes over everything from for loops to if conditionals while simultaneously using verbose, duplicitous language at every step.

Umm, you do know that duplicitous means "Given to or marked by deliberate deceptiveness in behavior or speech", right? Or did you mean redundant?

(The quoted definition was provided by http://www.dictionary.com.)

The one I used

[proverbialcow]

My C++ class used "Object-Oriented Programming Using C++" by Ira Pohl. The language was easy to understand, and it was aimed at people who'd done some coding, though it was necessarily a prerequisite. He somehow managed to make the subject accessible to newbies without condescending. A great book for beginners, and since I don't use C++ on a day-to-day basis, I find myself picking it up now and again.

My favourite book is...

[xiox]

An excellent book is Accelerated C++ - Practical programming by example (Koenig & Moo). It only weighs in at 340 pages, but really helps the beginner to use things like the STL. It doesn't start off teaching basic C, but leaves pointers out until much later, and concentrates on using the STL data types.

You can't be serious.

[stonecypher]

The Que book is littered with omissions and errors. If you want to learn C++, start with the free Bruce Eckel e-book Thinking in C++, then move on to the Meyers trio, the Sutter pair, Gang of Four, Dewhurst, Alexandrescu, then Agile Software Development, in that order.

See Accu's booklist, EfNet #c++'s book list, or Yechiel Kimchi's list of bad books for opposing opinions.