Customer Reviews

C++: The Complete Reference

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

A little background: I've been programming professionally for 3 years now using VB, SQL, HTML, JavaScript, XML and occasional C. I would consider myself at intermediate/journyman level, striving to be Guru level (I'm perhaps there in VB, but not the other languages). Now my job is calling for more usage of C/C++ and thus I am striving to get at more than just a basic level with these languages. This background information is important because different books are appropriate for different experience/proficiency levels and thus someone can gage my review to their needs or to their experience level.

When I was converting to being a programmer, one of my courses was on C. The text was "A Book On C". This was probably the worst programming book I've ever used - it was poorly indexed, gave [poor] examples (for the beginner) and was difficult to read. I now own a copy of K & R's "The C Programming Language", which is much better and regarded by many to be the best C book of all. I like it, but it's not the best learning book, being terse and sometimes a bit confusing in it's explainations. K&R is an authoritative refernece. I've also thumbed through extensively Stroustrups' "The C++ Programming Language" at the bookstore. Again, this is a definetive reference, but not a good learning book. These books are written by and meant for experienced and/or advanced C/C++ programmers.

On the flip side of the coin are the "...For Dummies", "The Complete Idiots guide to..." and "Teach Yourself..." series books, which I've thumbed through the cooresponding C books at the bookstore. These books are good primers and are easy to understand. However, they are incomplete in their coverage of their subject and are of spotty quality.

So where's the happy medium? The answer is simple: "C++: The Complete Reference". This book has extremely thorough coverage of the subject (not as thorough as Stroustrups' book, but thorough nonetheless) and is extremely easy to understand. I love the presentation - it's simple, practical, to the point and quite enjoyable. When I read about a subject, say a function pointer or inheritance, and compile it's example, I have fun doing it and I feel I come away with a solid understanding without risidual confusion (risidual confusion sometimes occurs with K&R or Stroustrup). Also, when I want to look up something that I need to use, say a library function, I can find it immediately in the index, turn to the various pages that are referenced, and be able to use the function immediately and effectively.

I love the Osborne "Complete Reference" format for it's oganizational and presentation styles and I love Herb Schildts writing. He's a C/C++ guru (having been on the ANSI/ISO C++ standardization committee) and posesses excellent communications and teaching skills. He really understands the perspective of someone trying to learn C++ or improve on their C++ skills. There's a very good reason why he's the worlds highest selling C++ author.

This book is great for beginning and intermediate C++ programmers (and even good for C++ gurus as an easy and quick reference). It wouldn't be good for someone brand new to programming (these people should stick with beginning programming books).

Also consider what a tremendous value this book is. ... And the similarily priced "...For Dummies" and "Teach Yourself..." books don't contain nearly as much as this book. With this book you get an incredible amount of bang for your buck.

I can't rave enough about this book. It's thorough, well organized, easy to understand, enjoyable to read, extremely effective, and an absolute bargain. It's a must have for all levels of C++ programmers.

I have read many books by Schildt and they were all great, but his command of C++ and his programming expertise shine very brightly in this excellent work. This book covers the entire C++ language and its libraries. It is completely up-to-date with the C++ standard. One thing that I really like is its in-depth coverage of the STL. Also, Schildt's discussion of copy constructors and operator overloading are the best that I have seen anywhere. I strongly recommend this book.

This was a great book when I was starting out, but as I began work on maintaining code, many times I would need to look up a particular standard keyword or set of keywords, and they wouldn't be listed.

Also, I have been reading more technical books on C++, and they would mention some aspect of the language offhand that I wasn't aware of, that they considered fundemental. I would look back at this book to refresh myself, and it wouldn't be mentioned.

I purchased this book after taking a 2 year break from coding. I found that it was interesting to read and was very useful in terms of just remembering syntax and class concepts. I wouldn't recommend it to someone just learning to program, or to someone who has significant experience. But for the middle people it could really be good.

As an experienced programmer literate in many programming languages, I can tell you that in my experience, C++ is not an easy language to understand. However, once you have spent hours struggling to learn the C++ concept and syntax, you won't regret it.

I have read several C++ books in the past, in an attempt to learn the language - but this is the only one that worked for me. When I bought the book I had a basic knowledge of C, and about two weeks in which to learn C++, and I did. The book is by no means a C++ for dummies - more of a C++ for the not-so-quite-dummies. The first half of this book is dedicated to the C language, which leads very nicely in to the second half which concentrates on the C++ language. Hence, not only did I learn C++, but I also found that I could swot up on my C at the same time. For anyone wanting to learn both C and C++, or C++ from a C background this book is an excellent choice.

The descriptions are very understandable and to the point. The book is also littered with extremely useful examples which help to clear up the many confusing aspect of C++ (and C).

However, if it's a C or C++ reference book that you're looking for - then this book is not for you.

This book is very comprehensive and it has helped me in select topic areas, but I find it to be incomplete or inadequately explained in some topic areas.

This book takes a syntactically functional overview of C++ and not an object-oriented overview. Thus, it is very hard to find topics on major concepts within the book as they are presented in pieces throughout the book. I had a difficult time finding for example topics relating to "const". Some material was sparsely covered in the "C Subset of C++" part, but one couldn't see how this relates to classes, e.g. const member functions and data. I did eventually find the const member function, which by the way was not indexed, in the chapter "Namespaces, Conversion Functions, and Other Advanced Topics" (page 609). I could never find information about using const variables in classes and how to properly initialize them, which is done through a member initialization list. I had to get this information from another book.

This book is a decent reference, but it is hard to find out to accomplish major OOD concepts. For those never exposed to programming, this might be a good reference book. But for those that know OOD concepts, and need to know how to implement a particular concept, they'll need to sleuth through the book to piece together tokens of information, and even still might not see the whole picture.

This book is easy to read. It keeps the simple things simple, and has plenty of examples. Having some of the authors previous books, I find I like the format that he presents the material. This is a good book to have around for beginning to intermediate users, and could serve as your only book, if you are on a budget.

This book is an excellent reference to C++ and covers all parts of standard C++. It also has a complete section on C which I'm sure people will find useful.

If you are looking for a book to refresh your C++ skills or update them to the new standard, this is a good one to get.

After picking this up, it quickly became the most used book in my library. This book contains a wealth of C++ information. It's coverage of new ANSI standard C++ features is easy to understand and quite useful, and gives this book a definite edge over older books. As other reviews have pointed out, it's not perfect, but if you want to gain a more in-depth knowledge of C++, this book is an excellent choice.

This book is well written, good style. It's easy to understand and covers a lot! It should be an excellent book, but It is not. Even though this 3rd ed. is much better than the previous one, this book is still sometimes "dangerous". There are some explainations which are not correct and though seem to work and that makes them even more dangerous! 3 stars 'cause, as I told, it would otherwise be an excellent book.