Customer Reviews

C++ For Java Programmers

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

 

 

This book was mistitled. It should have been "Differences Between Java And C++: A Crunch Translation Guide". Like an English-LanguageX translation guide (or a culture-to-culture translation guide, for that matter), this book is intended to identify the sorts of things that a Java developer jumping into C++ with no background in C++ would typically incorrectly presume or fail to correctly presume without having been told. To that end, this is an excellent, one-of-a-kind book that immediately immerses the reader into very significant and important differences between the languages regarding everything from syntax to compilation and execution. There is an interesting bit of detail about the philosophy, purpose, and objectives behind C++ which paints a significantly different picture in that realm than Java does, showing that in spite of the fact that Java and C++ look similar to the human eye, they are nothing alike (... but alike enough to be able to produce a "direct translation guide" like this book).

This book assumes a) significant familiarity with Java, b) is familiar with, and respects and appreciates, what too many people think "doesn't really matter," like how computers work, computing history, etc., and c) basic existing familiarity with C++, at least enough for "Hello World!" and then some.

I'd recommend this book to any Java programmer looking at C++ who has never done so but who has recognized that Java was born by C++ developers, and who has recognized that one can and should actively extend, and not indifferently coincide, new C++ skills on top of an existing fluency in Java. This book should be accompanied by other books--no book can do it all--but this is an excellent "Java/C++ translation guide".

Due to the mistitling/mismarketing, I would give this a 9/10 but given only five stars it rounds up to five.

I liked this book. It *is* a light, but helpful, introduction to most of the pifalls of C++ for a person who has worked with Java for some time. The problem is that the approach to memory allocation and the standard library tools are very different in Java and C++, while the syntax of both languages appear to be very similar; the author makes this point clear with examples. Compared with some standard references for C++, with lots of detail and almost thousand pages, this book is very readable and enjoyable. This is not a reference type of book, there are plenty of those out there. It is a book for those who reached OO programming via Java period.

This is a very good book. I read it in full. This book provides a very precise explanation of the concepts that one needs to know in C++. Also this book provides a clear comparison of the two languages C++ and Java. It explains the strengths of both the languages without any bias. Many of the C++ books tends to be tough to follow. This book is highly readable and explains even the difficult topics in a simple language with simple and easy to follow examples. The case studies are very good. I like the way Templates are introduced in this book and the container examples in the case study. Simple yet complete and precise.

The author delivers exactly what his book title promises. I started out as a C programmer and beyond that did use C++ for some time. But then I moved on to using Java for 2 years. In the meantime the language added a number of feature like templates, exception handling and RTTI etc. This book provided me a v.easy path to catch-up with C++. Java provides Garbage collection and tight language specifications. Where as C++ leaves a lot of things to be implementation dependent (eg. shift operators on signed ints). The author does an excellent job of pointing out these nuances that could be otherwise be gotchas for Java programmers. One really gets over-reliant on a language's features, idioms of usage, libraries and rules. This book helps to shed this reliance on Java features you may have built.

I am a java programmer trying to learn C++, and find this book VERY hard to follow.

Most of the syntax is not explained and too much time is spent explaining subtle details, rather than key concepts. Some of the real differences between c++ and java are clouded with confusing fragments of explanation, mixed with unexplained code.

It seems to be more of a comparison or overview for C++ programmers than an introductory book for java developers.

I am confused and left reading pages over and over again trying to make sense of this language. I think it would have been easier and quicker to just buy a c++ book, forgoing my java background.

... Then maybe YOU can make sense of this book. C++ has some different syntax, some of which is not explained in this book until after chapter 5 (& - the pass by refererence operator for example) -- meanwhile the author gives examples using this unique syntax for over one hundred pages. In addition, my fingers got sore from flipping through all the cross references (See my final comment) It seems to me a well written book would explain something and then build on that knowledge. Instead this book relies on cross referencing that can loose someone new to c++ in seconds flat. Do yourself a favor and find another book.

( this is a significantly less irritating example of the silly references riddling this poorly written book.)

The book is nice to read, and shows some important points, but has two main drawbacks: 1. It elaborates very much on unuseful and unimportant differences in syntax, while not focusing on principal differences. 2. It has too many cross references, making it sometimes hard to follow if you're not a C/C++ expert.

I examined this book for a university class I teach on C++ for Java programmers. I decided not to use it for some of the same reasons cited by other reviewers. The book tends to dive into minutiae, and fails to explain some important ideas clearly. There's a chapter, for instance, on operator overloading, which is an important C++ feature lacking in Java. But the chapter dives into a discussion of operator overloading in a tone that seems to expect that the reader already understands the concept. The chapter doesn't begin with a clear explanation, nor offer one later. Instead, it starts with an obscure example involving comma operators, which no one uses.

This is a good book highlighting the major differences between the two languages. The material is presented clearly.