Customer Reviews

Absolute C++

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although I don't believe in the perfect C++ textbook that teaches everything and satisfy the absolute novices as well as the seasoned experts, 'Absolute C++' by Walter Savitch is the very first C++ textbook (the book that teaches you the syntax of C++ language) that really satisfies me with the completeness of its coverage of the C++ language without verbosity of the other countless textbooks available in the market. Its coverage of C++ topics is concise but thorough. Its organization is neat and its presentation is very pleasant to the eyes. Each topic is presented in the sensible order which facilitates the readers to learn C++ step by step without getting lost or tangled up with the bits of coverage all over the textbook. Each chapter contains the handful of review exercises with the complete answers. This textbook is lean and nutritious (100% fat-free). Anyone who really hates textbooks in the remote vicinity of 'C++ How to Program' by Deitel and Deitel should take a look at this.

Some helpful tips for those who just started learning C++.

1) Keep in mind that C++ is a very hard and tough programming language to master.

C++ is arguably the most complicated programming language available today. It is by no mean THE perfect programming language, and it requires the tremendous amount of responsibilities from the programmer. However, no other language is as powerful, versatile, and flexible as C++. It gives the programmers the assembly-language-like freedom with the data types and the memory management. It offers the programmers the characteristics of both the high-level language and low-level language. It also provides the programmers both the efficient structure-oriented features and the strong object-oriented features at the same time.

2) C++ is not C, although C++ is derived from C language.

Although C++ is derived from C and inherited many features from C, C++ is NOT C. They are totally two different and separate languages just as Java is not C++. C is a structure-oriented language while C++ is object-oriented language. C++ has many new features that C can't even begin to dream about. Give C++ all due respect.

3) The perfect C++ textbook does not exist, so stop trying to find one.

Just about everyone who ever tried to learn C++ have attempted one way or another to find or to write that elusive perfect textbook that teaches you everything and satisfy the absolute beginners as well as the seasoned experts. The fact of the matter is there isn't one. Learning C++ can be a very long and frustrating process given the complexity of the language. It will take your full attention, devotion, and time to master C++ no matter which textbook you choose to use. Many books claim to be the one. Many programmers claim that the book they recommend is the one. But the experienced programmers will find the beginners' textbooks such as 'Starting out with C++' by Tony Gaddis insulting and waste of time while the novice programmer will find advanced textbooks like 'The C++ Programming Language' by Bjarne Stroustrup very intimidating and frustrating. It really depends on each individual's level of the knowledge on C++. One person's best textbook can be another person's total waste, and everyone has a different and unique way of digesting information. Make sure that you thoroughly check the contents before you choose to buy any C++ textbook. Instead of taking others' recommendations and advices for granted, you should try to find the right combination on your own. You will probably need to use a few different textbooks together, because single textbook cannot possibly cover all the topics and the required depth necessary to master C++. This is especially true for the advanced topics such as 'Templates', 'Data Structure', 'STL', and 'File Processing', which are broad and complicated enough to deserve a single textbook. I recommend 'Absolute C++' by Walter Savitch for the absolute novice programmers. If you have few or no prior programming experience, this will be one of the easiest textbooks available. If you are the advanced programmers, you really should be able to understand anything written about C++. 'C++ Primer' by Stanley Lippman and Josee Lajoie or 'Core C++: A software Engineering Approach' by Victor Shtern could substitute as the alternative textbook for the advanced programmers. If you are the expert programmers, 'C++ FAQs' by Marshall Cline, Greg Lomow, and Mike Girou, 'Effective C++' series by Scott Meyers and 'The C++ In-Depth Series' from Addison-Wesley should be adequate enough to satisfy your ego and to teach you many advanced techniques not found in other textbooks.

Walter Savitch, the author of the Absolute C++, first edition, has done an amazing job putting together a book that can be used as a teaching aid for second year or first year advanced Computer Science students. Unlike professional books, the author has geared this book towards students with little programming experience in the real-world at least, and has created problems that can aid the student in learning the material more deeply and more concretely. If I were an instructor, this would the book that I would use, and if I had to take C++ all over again, this is the book I would love to learn from.

Color aids and categorized notes, such as "Pitfall" and "Tip", aid the student along the way with little details that go a long way when you are programming. "Example" and "Self-test exercises" further the learning process after each section by testing the student's knowledge of the topic. At the end of each chapter answers are given to the "self-test exercises" and various programming projects are given that mimic the topic covered and at the same time expect the student to think outside of the box to solve the problems. Some of the programming projects given are hard enough that they can used - alone or collectively with other problems in other chapters - as semester long projects or group projects.
Examples are depicted right on spot rather than line-by-line after the example. Colored notes, arrows to the section of code being explained and highlighting of the important code sections are used to depict each and every example. The examples are well-documented and various "screen shots" are used to display what the output would look like. Pictures are inserted when needed, explaining how pointers and references work for example, and they are worth a thousand words. The pictures are easily concise and clear, simple and yet to the point.

Being a text book on C++, one would wonder about the authors approach to the C++ language. It would help if the readers on this book have some background on programming, and especially in C++. The author spends one chapter on the basics of the language, but that's not enough for readers with no programming background. A good deal is then devoted to various aspects of programming such as arrays, functions and structures first before the author starts on the in-depth coverage of C++ itself. The Standard Template Library (STL) is used throughout the book to demonstrate and teach C++, starting with Vectors. Each of the classes of the STL are covered in detail throughout the book, but the authors breaks each of the major classes (lists, string, vector, etc...) and places them to teach a specific topic to the students. The author touches on STL first before going in to operator overloading, for example. This way, the students can learn the [semi] advanced features of the language in a context in which it can later be used - more concrete and more applied approach rather than an abstract overview of the features. With that pattern, the string class is covered first before the author starts on pointers, array of pointers, character pointers and pointer and reference manipulation in general.

More advanced topics in C++ such as virtual functions, inheritance, templates and exceptions are covered towards the last half of the book. Templates being a rather interesting and possibly complicated topic are covered before the STL container classes such as linked lists and trees are covered. Not too much detail is given on templates and only the basics, as one would expect. Templates are covered just enough to get the students to understand how linked lists work, or how function templates are used in the STL, for example. UML and Patterns? They are covered too. Not in detail, but enough for a lecture or two at the end of the semester. Model-View-Controller, the classic of all patterns is covered first, and examples from the book are used to convey the message and the power of templates.
In closing, I wanted to touch on the web site for the book, and instructions material that is available for this book. Obviously all of the source code from the book is available for download, along with the slides for the students. For instructors, the slides are simply great. What reinvent the wheel? Simply use Savitch's slides for teaching. Example tests are also available for the instructors. If that wasn't enough, the CD in the book comes with an introductory version of the Visual C++ 6.0 to be used by the students. The package (website, CD-Rom and the book) is simply complete!
I would highly recommend this book to any instructor of the C++ programming language.

I have been out of college for 7 years now, and have been a programmer all that time. When I graduated, although I knew enough C++ "to be dangerous", I was uncomfortable with the language. With many years experience under by belt, I now understand why I (and many of my graduating classmates) were so confused and uncomfortable with C++ -- Syntax!

C++ is very flexible and powerful. I've been tought that. Only no one every showed me exactly why. Probably because in order to do powerful things in C++ requires a mastery of all the syntax. There are slightly different ways to overload functions and operators (both binary and uniary), and friend classes of multi-class inheritence etc etc. My professors in college did a good job of explaining the theory of Classes, Inheretence, Overloading, Templates and so on. However, when it came down to actually writting some code, I had now idea how to implement all these grand abstract theoretical ideas. Therefore as a result, I wrote long confusing C code using the C++ compiler to get around my lack of knowledge how to actualy write the syntax.

"Absolute C++" is the first C++ book I've read which does an excellent job of teaching you about syntax on the Nuts-and-Bolts aspects of implementation. (Especially overloading of functions and operators; different ways to invoke different constructors; the different ways you can invoke an overloaded assignment operator; doing all the above as an abstract base class; doing all the above as a template; how namespaces work.)

Learning about high-level theory of object-oriented programming is a great thing! But, there comes a time when you have to know how to actually express your idea in a programming language (i.e. syntax.) That's the part my professors weren't good at. And unfortunately, no one seems to think the syntax matters anymore. Perhaps that's why software is so bug-riden and inefficient these days, because there's so many programmers who simply don't know how to write good software taking advantage of all the complex syntactic features of a language. In fact, if you read customer reviews for ANY computer programming book here on Amazon, there's always a lot of people complaining about "not enough examples." I think what they really are trying to say is, "Okay I understand the theory, how do I program all of that?"

I just wish someone would write a C++ book entitled "Become a human compiler for the C++ language in 21 days" that focused solely on the language, and not general OO theory. I suppose I could read the BNF description of the language, but that seems more difficult.

The reason I'm so Gung-Ho about learning the syntax is due in part to this book "Absolute C++". I was one of a sea of engineers working for IBM last year, and our department took a refresher C++ course which this book was offered. The professor tought the language, and didn't talk at all about OO theory. Suddenly everything made sense! All that high-level theory in college started to come together and I "got it". He taught us what the compiler was doing as it interpreted various syntax statements. That practical low-level understanding strengthend my high-level general OO knowledge so much that I became a much better software engineer.

I wish all programming books would spend more time on the practical syntatic details. Not only does it make you a stronger programmer, but a better software designer as well.

I have always hated and feared C++. But after I got this book I began to like programming with it. It is good for
- beginners
- intermediate levels
- advanced levels. Advanced students and professional programmers can use it as a reference also. It is a great book for reference. If you want to learn C++ then just get it. It is worth every penny spent on it.

I must completely disagree with the reviewer who says this book doesn't explain the concepts clearly enough for a beginner to understand. This is as boiled down and simple as C++ gets! If you're having trouble understanding it, I'd advise you to get personal tutoring - an option I had considered right up until finding this book. It is superb!

In no time, the reader is learning key fundamentals in such a way as to make them useful right away. Plenty of opportunities to write real C++ programs that actually perform some task or function are included in the post-chapter programming assignments. These assignments may not be as complicated or glamorous as 'create a computerized bridge opponent using the concepts you've been taught to this point', but they are often scaled-down versions of useful real-world applications.

It is then up to the student to see the connection to additional uses, which should ultimately be the goal of any beginning programming book. If students are not learning to create working C++ programs on their own from scratch - meaning that the student-written programs perform useful tasks other than those performed by the code included in the text - they are not really learning to program.

I have used Savitch's text for additional insight into the features of C++. Dr. Savitch gives both clear explanations and examples to illustrate his points. I would recommend the text to my students as an exceptional supplement to a course on scientific computing using C++.

I have been learning C++ for a few months now. I have bought and read 8 books including Dietel & Dietel's How To Program, Bjorne Stoustrup's C++ Programming Language, and Sames Teach Yourself C++. While Dietel does have a good chapter 5 on pointers, Sams explains classes in a clear manner and Bjorne explains how to use the language, I would have to say that This book combines all the positives of the other books without all the negatives the other books have. It was an 80.00 that I was more than happy to spend now that I have read 500 pages out of this book in 2 days.

An excellent book for anyone wanting to learn c++.
Has a lot of useful tips, exercises, etc...
Filled with examples.
It makes interesting reading too (with all the colorful annotations).
Savitch deserves 5 stars.

This is the best book i've come across about C++ easy to follow and easy to understand i recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn C++ there's nothing better than this one out there believe me.

I've been looking for an excellent C++ book more than two years and finally I've got it. I'd think it is a five stars plus book.