The Waite Group's C How-To (How-to Series)

The Waite Group's C++ How-To (How-to Series)

By Jan Walter, Michael J. Tobler, Paul Snaith, Andrei Kossoroukov, Scott Roberts,

Publisher: Sams
Number Of Pages: 582
Publication Date: 1999-01
Sales Rank: 1575681
ISBN / ASIN: 1571691596
EAN: 9781571691590
Binding: Paperback
Manufacturer: Sams
Studio: Sams
Average Rating: 4

C++ How-To presents a rich diversity of examples and techniques for pushing C++ to its limits and beyond. Readers locate information by task or function and then walk through a series of How-Tos to find the solution. No current C++ refere -The all-new definitive C++ problem-solving resource! Programmers can quickly and efficiently find specific solutions to real-world problems in the C++ How-To -The quick, problem-answer design provides C++ programmers with all the tools they need to solve complex and everyday problems quickly -Because every concept and example is graded by complexity, readers can easily find practical information at their level, without having to wade through hundreds of pages of information they dont need

Review:

Easy Reading

The format of this book can best describe as "ask a question and give an answer". Every topics start off with a question, follow by a small piece of code, and then an explaination of what each line of code does. This direct approach makes the book quicker to read, and in some way, it kind of goes without saying, "cut the chase and get to the point!".

The contents touch base with many juicy topics. It has a brief introduction to the Standard Libraries such as String and Vector, enough to tease you in getting a full book on STD LIB (I did). It also does a decent job in covering inheritance and virtual class inheritance. Type casting and namespace usage is also covered. Polymorphism is covered but kind of weak.

Review:

It worths your money.

I bought this book at a half-price book store. Usually I don't like any books in the "How-To" series, because they are written in a fix format, I mean for every issue or problem -- no metter you like or not. It just seems to add some letters to assemble a book! I feel it likt that there is little bit meat in a big wok of water soup! But this book is good, after I read a couple of chapters. It worths what it costs me -- half price!

Review:

Very good book. Very good approach.

First, I like the approach of this book. The "How could I do ... ?" is good for refresh your memory. Since sometime you might forget, or become unsure about how something can be done.

Despite what it said in the back cover, I think that, this book is suitable for the someone who is about to become an intermediate C++ programmer (the advanced-beginner, or something like that). Why? Because when I was one, I always get confused about "How could I do ", or "How should I involve ", and this book provided almost all answer to those questions I used to have. And even now, it still worth my time reading it.

The code examples are very easy to understand. However, I found that each author's programming style are quite different. This is fine for someone who already has his/her own style. But for someone who doesn't, this might lead to confusion, and bad programming style (mixed style) later on.

Also, one thing... I found that in (almnost?) all code, main() return void, which is not correct. According to the Standard, main() should return int for some reason, like for checking the termination of the program. I don't know about Visual C++, but in many compiler, you will get the warning message if your main() does not return int.

Overall, this is a very good book, and it deserve 4 stars from me. However, it still can become a much better book.

To the authors : How about "More C++ How-To" or "Advanced C++ : How-To" ?

Review:

A useful resource, but weakened by some buggy examples

Overall, I'm very happy with this book. If you are looking for an introduction to C++, skip this book for now, it is not intended for beginners. The skill level is rated intermediate to expert.

However, if you have a rudimentary understanding of C and C++, such as operators, looping constructs, structures, classes, function and operator overloading, etc., but feel like you could use a bit more experience and reinforcement of how and when to apply the aforementioned concepts, then this book is for you.

I really like the way the material is organized. Each section begins with a summary of what will be covered, and each point (HOW-TO) is presented in a question and answer format, along with a skill rating of the content of that HOW-TO, such as beginning, intermediate, and complex. Some of the content covered in this book that I found useful is listed below:

What are namespaces and how are they used?

How can I use operator overloading with an object, X, such that an expression like 10.3 + X will yield a meaningful result?

How can I use C++'s powerful encapsulation features to safely implement a linked list?

When should I use structures and when should I use classes?

How can I use exception handling to catch runtime errors?

How can I use the Standard C Library to a) sort an array, b) find an element in an array, c) locate an element in non-sorted array, d) choose between _lfind and _lsearch, e) generate a sequence of random numbers?

What are the differences between using C's malloc() and free() functions and C++'s new and delete operators for memory management?

How do I make a simple class to automatically clean up dynamically allocated memory?

The aforementioned are just a few of the many great tips in this book. Be forwarned, I have found a significant number of bugs in the examples, but they are typically of a nature where they don't interfere with the concept being presented.

If you feel comfortable with statements such as: for(int i=1; i<100; ++i) cout << i; but you want to move on to the next level of programming expertise, then this book is for you.Password: gigapedia.org

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