Re: Good C++ programming book.
From: David Mair (mairdanot_at_nothotmail.com)
Date: 07/05/04
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Date: Mon, 05 Jul 2004 09:18:39 -0600
Deborggraeve Randy wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm looking for a good book to learn C++.
> After few years programming vb and vb.net i changed to C++
>
> At this moment i know a little c++. The book im looking
> for should contain info about general c++ programming (no
> mfc, atl or .net, just win32)
>
> my previous books (vb.net, sql and .net server) are
> mspress books, so i want mspress again :)
>
> If anyone know a good book let me know
All of the following is my opinion only.
I just looked at the complete in-print book list from Microsoft Press
and whether or not it has what you need depends on what you want from a
book. In my experience books named "Using some compiler version" are
500 page books that list all the menu options in the IDE and that has
never taught me anything of significance about programming. Do you want
to learn C++ as a language or do you want to learn how to write Windows
programs with things like ATL, MFC, .NET framework, etc or are you just
interested in learning how to use the IDE? For the latter pretty much
any "Using..." book will probably suffice.
If you really want to learn the language then I suggest you look
somewhere other than Microsoft Press since they don't have anything that
looks like a book that teaches C++ as a language. Three of the best C++
programming references I have used are versious versions of "The C++
Programming Language" by Bjarne Stroustrup (haven't seen or bought an
edition in a long time so don't know if there is a current version), the
standard definition itself (can't remember which body publishes it) and
an O'Reilly book called "C++ in a nutshell" by Ray Lischner (dense and
terse but a fabulous reference if I have a rough idea of what I am
looking for but it isn't a how-to book).
For ATL I like "Active Template Library A Developer's Guide" by Tom
Armstrong (M&T Press), for MFC I have two preferences "Visual C++ 4
How-to" by Scott Stanfield (Waite Group Press - very old but an
excellent cook-book even for MFC 7.1) and "Programming Windows with MFC"
by Jeff Prosise (MS Press). For general Windows programming (in C but
very useful for C++ windows programming) the classic "Programming
Windows" by Charles Petzold (MS Press) is my preference. For .NET
Charles Petzold has a book but it's for C# and though I haven't seen it
I would buy it based on the author's reputation if I was doing much .NET
code.
To be honest, if I were buying a "library" for C++ Windows programming
for a coleague I'd do the following:
1. Forget about a "Using..." book, the documenation would suffice for me
2. Buy Jeff Prosie's book mentioned above and the Scott Stanfield one
(but I doubt you'd find it now)
3. Buy a pair of C++ programming books, the Ray Lischner one and a
how-to program in C++ by example style book (I don't have one or know of
a good one)
4. Buy Petzold's book
I find I use the MSDN Library more than my books these days. This is
probably because I'm almost always interested in searching for an answer
and the library doesn't get bored reading through an index. I almost
never look up much about how the IDE works (almost always never have) so
that's why I'd stick with the supplied documentation for it. The type
of C++ example book I'd buy is one that doesn't invest massive numbers
of pages in teaching you what classes and objects are. I'd look for one
that used patterns (not necessarilly the formal meaning) to teach
specific techniques. I found templates to be the hardest thing to learn
and I still find them obscure at times. I never did find a good book to
teach templates and the best guide I ever found for understanding them
better was the STL and ATL smart pointer classes. Everything else I'd
ever seen was a trivial templatised arithmetic class for intrinsics or a
trivial templatised linked list.
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