Customer Reviews

C++ Pocket Reference

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

 

 

The C++ Pocket Reference is designed for C or Java developers who occasionally program in C++ and need a syntax reminder. Not designed as a tutorial or provide lengthy instruction on the subject, this book is great for a one paragraph explanation on a particular topic.

I found this to be a very useful and easy to follow book. It starts out with the basics of writing a C++ program (processor directives, data types) and slowly moves into more complicated aspects of this language (like templates and memory management).

I would highly recommend this as a reference book if you find yourself occasionally doing some programming in C++.

For many years, I did most of my programming in C, but never learned C++. In recent years, I have been using Java mostly. Now I wish to get back to C++, and I have found this book to be an excellent introduction. In order to read this book one already needs to know how to work with the very low level aspects of C, and at the same time one must understand object oriented concepts. But for the reader who is at such a place, this book provides a very concise description of the C++ language. In just 125 small pages, the author manages to step through all of the aspects of the C++ language and concisely describe them.

If you are looking for a quick and dirty C++ pocket reference, this book should be on the top of your list. It covers all of the necessities, which is great for when you are switching between programming languages. If you have too many languages in your mind, a quick reference is a great little refresher, which this book certainly provides.

My only qualm, and the reason it loses a star, is that the organization is not completely intuitive. However, after a few uses, you get used to this and it becomes a non-issue. I suppose you would have this with any book.

I have about a dozen of these pocket guides. I don't do C++ anymore but did many, many moons ago. My daughter is taking a C++ class now and I got this to help me remember C++ enough to help her with that class. It's all I need. In general, these pocket guides are enough for me most of the time regardless of the language or technology they are covering. Between them and google search, you can solve any programming task...

This book provides a quick and concise reference to the C++ language, covering everything from the basic structure of C++ files (including #include guards) and programs to variables and operators to the Object-Oriented features of the language. However, if you are looking for a detailed description of the C++ language, get The C++ Programming Language: Special Edition (3rd Edition) along with this book and you will have that plus a quick reference to almost all of the non-STL topics the other book talks about.

On the down side, this book gives really superficial coverage of the STL, but then again this book isn't meant to be a pocket reference to the STL. For a good book on that, get a copy of The STL Pocket Reference.

That being said, I would recommend this book to those who have either gone through or are going through their first year of programming courses.

I used to know C++ very well but have done little C++ programming in the past decade. I was hoping this book would include all the niggling little details I had forgotten. Looking through the book jogged my memory to help me remember these details, but I was surprised to see how many were not explicitly stated in the book. Perhaps the best example of a detail not included is the difference between overloading the preincrement and postincrement operators. One of them takes an extra dummy parameter, but the book does not mention this difference. The book explains how to declare a multidimensional array when the dimensions are known at compile time, but does not give a code sample explaining how to do so when the dimensions are not known until run time. The section describing return codes from main does not explain that zero indicates success and a non-zero value indicates an error.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the book is how little is devoted to the standard library. No math functions are described. There is no discussion of how to format output. I was even hoping for discussion of the most basic uses of the STL. Instead, the book lists only the names of the header files and the four standard input and output streams with the most basic unformatted uses of these streams. The book covers the core C++ language fairly well, but almost none of the extensive standard library.

In all honesty I expected way too much out of this product. I was looking for a full reference book and tried to take the less pricey alternative and my plan failed miserably. Though the pocket reference has all the basics, it lacks anything of the in-depth nature. Most likely if learning C++ from a book, than there would be little need for this seeing as how the text would most likely define everything it uses as well as everything found in this book. This reference would be useful for anyone just starting who would like more (although few in number) examples of what you're learning. This makes a nice accompaniment text but is not a useful primary source. I would also recommend this as a book to carry around in order to study the language and review both concepts and syntax.

All in all not a bad secondary source of learning C++. This makes a great study-aid or review source for beginning levels but hat's just about it. If you've made it through two books already, than I would recommend investing in a real reference, though this is good for on the go.

This book was used for a college course as a reference book. Served it's purpose and came in handy. Good buy.

I am studying computer programming ... so this book is extremely helpful, handy and easy to carry around.

This is a great C++ reference. After some years of mostly C and Java programming, I was able to review the language main points in a single day.

It is a useful book for non-full-time C++ developers.