Customer Reviews

C++ the Core Language (Nutshell Handbooks)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This wasn't the first book I picked up to learn C++. Initially, I thought it couldn't be as useful as "Practical C++" by Mark Terribile (McGraw Hill) which is three times its size. After reading through several grueling chapters, I picked up "C++: The Core Language" and what a difference (night and day)! Satir and Brown have done an excellent job of providing easy to follow examples when presenting structures vs. classes. They have totally demystified C++ for me. I highly recommend this book to anyone transitioning from C to C++.

I had 7+ years C++ programming experience and then spent 3+ years in Java, XML, and JScript so I needed a nice, brief book which covered the core aspects of C++. Since it is only a reference I give it 4 stars. However, that's as high as I go for references, so it is a top drawer book.

Why do I like this book? It is very readable and quickly covers the key features of C++. I like it because it has little sidebars for discussion of more advanced topics. Core C++ is a small book for programmers... no bloatation.

This book doesn't get into heavy generic programming or type programming (with tons of operator overloads, cast operators and so forth), it is actually a book meant to help C programmers come over to C++. So, if you are a language geek or a C++ monster... get a different book. This is for C programmers and slightly rusty C++ programmers.

I would also say this book would be useful to Java programmers coming over to C++, since Java In in a Nutshell claims Java is more like C than C++ (and this seems true by my experience).

First and foremost you need to already know C in order to use this book. You need to be familiar with the entire language because the authors derive most of their examples by saying: "This is the concept, this is how you would do it in C (to see the basic mechanisms), and now here's how you do it in C++." This book does not hold your hand through this teaching though, they assume you know what you are doing and are following what they are talking about, which is okay by me. I personally don't like books that are really wordy and have alot of information I already know and so I waste my time and money on needless words. There needs to be more books like this one, just tell me the core concepts like what they do and why and the burden for learning and understanding them falls on me not the authors. One complaint that was echoed in an earlier review was the lack of disk I/O commands which are different enough in C++ to necessitate in me having to go to another book to look them up. How about an appendix or website or something like that, sure would be helpful. All in all, a very good book if you don't like all the B.S., fluff, and general page filling that you see on the bookshelves (aka. every book except O'Reily's).

Coming from a C backround, I found this book an excellent treatment of the major concepts of the C++ language. While it is by no means an exhaustive tome, it does provide an excellent transition from C to C++ programming by introducing an overview of C++ fundamentals and concepts. This book is a fine stepping stone on the journey to more advanced C++ and OOP development.

This is an excellent book for both C programmers making the transition to C++ and for beginning C++ programmers who don't feel that they have had a proper introduction to some of the more complex features of the C++ language. If you are not familiar with OOP, this book provides an excellent introduction. Satir and Brown present in this book the features of C++ that are absolutely essential to know if one is to understand the language: classes, encapsulation, composition, inheritence, constructors/destructors, references, and polymorphism. The information in this book is organized very well. The code snippits are short, to-the-point, and easy to understand. Also, like all O'Reilly books, the typography is beautiful and clean. The only important areas of the core language left out of this book (which I feel should have been included in the core language) were in-depth discussions of the "static" and "const" keywords.

As an undergrad and passionate dbl major, having read many books in C and C++, this book quickly became my friend. It's a good read for those breaking out of C to C++. This book helped me cope with the shock experienced while I was trying to learn ADTs, BSTs, splay trees, skip lists, multiway tries and extendable hashing in the high level programming courses where if you asked questions you'd look dumb. The information in this book made me feel contiguously good while sitting in class. It also served as another perspective and filled in the gaps that the professor and school text left out. Also, pick up Robert Sedgewick's Algorithms in C++ 3rd Edition, which is also a splendid read.

Enjoy helping computers understand people!

late-

This is an excellent book for C programmers coming to C++ for the first time. I found the writing style and organisation of topics to be very good. The authors describe key object-based and object-oriented concepts first using familiar C constructions and then extend those ideas into the C++ domain. The ease of transitioning from C structs to C++ classes was very good, as was the discussion of subtle points like the copy constructor. Almost all major C++ concepts are described, including inheritence, virtual functions, and even templates.

My only negative criticism is that the authors leave out some important C++ functionality from their view of the C++ "core." They only mention in passing the use of const, considered by many to be vital to good C++ design. Also, since this book was published in 1995, it does not discuss the C++ standard library, which was finalised in 1997. It is therefore missing a discussion of the very useful 'string' class, among many others. Readers should defininitely follow up on these topics.

Regardless of this missing information, this book will give C programmers a solid foundation for using C++.

Short yes, but so what? You will LEARN twice as much from this book as in books 3 times its size! Short, sweet, and to the point. Enough said...

Great book, concepts clearly explained and some flashes of wit to keep u entertained. However, people should realize that the "core language" covered here does not make up even half of the story. It may not even be one third of the whole story. First, some important concepts of the core language itself like const are skipped. Second, the core language is not enough for competence in C++, you need to be conversant in the Standard Library - STL and non-STL - so u dont keep reinventing the wheel. Third, comes the intricate ways in which various features interact with each other. Fourth, and final, you have the operating system interaction: the APIs. But I thank the authors for giving me a good start.

I am a 10+ years C programmer. I red this book twice without coding a single C++ line. Then , this book helped me to start thinking in an object oriented way and provided me to jump on the advanced books on C++ in a time shorter than a month. As the book title states , it gives you the clear explanations of the "CORE" of the C++ language thus , don't expect to find everything on C++ language. If you have a C programming experience and want to learn C++ , this book helps alot.