Customer Reviews

C++ Programming Today

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

 

 

Few titles have ever gotten me really excited, but I have to tell you, "C++ Programming Today" has. The text is organized with the new and intermediate C++ programmer in mind. Each chapter leads the reader into new and more challenging concepts that are built upon topics presented in previous chapters. Throughout the book the author uses lots of color and highlighting which to me, is a lot easier on the eyes and makes the book a more enjoyable read. Another useful feature is the use of 4 Stoplight icons to tell the reader when a C++ programming method is either a "Good Programming Practice" (Green Stoplight), "Be Cautious" (Yellow), "Stop! Do Not Do This" (Red) or a Stoplight with yellow flags to represent a "Troubleshooting Tip". The appendices (over 115 pages) contain lots of great reference information such as C++ keywords, operators, string class, file IO, hex notation and ASCII character codes. I was REALLY happy to find out that this book also came with two CD's - the first one contains the full working code of all the examples Johnston uses throughout her book. The second CD is a full-blown copy of Microsoft's Visual C++ 6 (Intro edition). The only thing I didn't like about the book was that the perforated quick reference card was printed on the same paper as the rest of the book, in my opinion it's not strong enough for a reference card you'll be referring to all the time. (I took mine to Kinko's and had it laminated) All in all I would still highly recommend this book.

I'm a student taking a C++ course at the institution where the author works; I'm astonished that all THREE ( C++1, 2 & 3 ) courses that this particular institution offers use this book as the primary text. The text is slow, boring, poorly edited (My classmates and I have found NUMEROUS grammatical errors in it), and most importantly: inconsistent.

The book itself is very random on code samples. Where most books make a definite attempt to say "Code looks like this: Bold text, mono-space font, offset like this!", there are portions of code which are gray and mono-spaced, grey and /proportionally/ spaced and others where the text is simply inline! Program listings sometimes have line numbers, are sometimes set off with header bars, and even worse, sometimes not even spaced right. Very little effort was put into place to at least bring a consistent layout.

The examples are often shoddy, and there are many which will not compile out of the box with gcc. Concepts are often given... Childish meanings (such as "Pointers can only contain hexadecimal addresses") and very little is explained about the process of how the c++ compiler works, or even why it does certain things. More often than not, I am left shaking my head and not able to get any form of understanding -- I'm often left with my 200 page IBM STL reference as a guide.

The book also never touches on why you would do things, such as accept 2 pointers and return a boolean (See: a fair chunk of the C library), and encourages function names like "void AskForLastAndFirstName(string* FirstName, string* LastName)".

I know the author and she is a sweet woman but I must agree with other reviewers: She can't write, and unfortunately she can't see that and accept patches. Bjarn Stroustroup's The C++ Programming Language: Special Edition is a better text on all accounts, and I would suggest it and Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming, Vol. 4, Fascicles 0-4 (5 Volume Set) [Paperback] to anyone who seriously wants to learn the language.

If I were an instructor, I would steer clear of this book. It is inconsistent, confusing and overall a painful, demeaning read.

Most everyone agrees that textbooks are overpriced. It is a terrible scam on the market. When you have a textbook that is a muddy and cheap as this book, you are slammed by the tragedy.
PROS
The picture on the cover is beautiful.
The text is often cheery. The text is not dry and completely robotic.
CONS
1) It is supposed to have a CD, but neither amazon nor the publisher can get it.
2) There are no supplemental files. Some people feel that books should not include code samples, but those people are either genius learners or oblivious to the learning process. Even the supreme O'Reilly books have source for most of their books at a web site.
3) The quality of the printing and the paper is weak for the price. I guess that the publisher and author hope to sell this to drop outs. It will look good on a shelf for years. If you use it and carry it for more than a couple of weeks, it shows WAY too much wear. The paper is too glossy and flimsy. With the thin sans serif font, one has to often move their head to see the words instead of the shine. The average student turning pages tears pages.
4) The Appendixes are too slim. Buy a copy of Stroustrup's book for its appendixes.
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5) The layout and indexing is weak. Key programming terms are not consistently introduced or displayed. Indexes were weak. Instructional illustrations are sometimes unclear or too far from the accompanying text. (Personal preference for educational texts: There are no summary sections for the chapters.)

(I'm not a child. I am a student where the author teaches and I don't want my real name on this. Not before I graduate, at least.)

I have taken two semesters of C++ at a school where the course owner is the author of this book. Barbara Johnston is a great teacher and a wonderful lady, but she can't write to save her life.

I found the narration in the book unbearably child-oriented and unnecessarily flowery and just... Unbelievably irritating to read. I don't know about everyone else, but when I'm reading a text book, I want it to read like a text-book, not a children's novel.

On a more technical note, this book did not delve into nearly enough depth on any topic, in my opinion, and the diagrams presented were to convoluted it hurt my head to look at them.

I absolutely hated this book and for the greater part of my two semesters, I didn't read it except to get the assignment programs from the end of the chapters. I recommend Deitel & Deitel's C++ How to Program 3rd Edition. This book is definitely for the birds.

Johnston's book should replace Deitel & Deitel. It covers the essentials of C++ and object-oriented programming more thoroughly, and it has realistic debugging/troubleshooting discussions. The appendices give the reader a refreshingly complete one-stop reference for all the little details that I tend to forget.

The book has lots and lots of sample code with careful discussion of what's being done and why. The troubleshooting and debugging advice alone is worth the price of the book.

Unfortunately I was requried to buy this book for a class. An absolute waste of money. Nothing is covered in any sort of detail at all, while the pages are dedicated to output from compilers. For an example, the information covering file Input and Output consists of a single paragraph. And it's wrong. C++ Primer Plus is a much better alternative. It's cheaper, bigger, more correct, and is actually a useful book. I want my money back Barbara! (And I suspect that you're the one who wrote the first review and that you also paid someone to write the second.)