Customer Reviews

The Java/C++ Cross Reference Handbook with CDROM (Hewlett-Packard Professional Books)

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

 

 

(1) NOT for those who know C++ or Java. The book assumes you know NOTHING. You will find four (4) pages devoted to "while", "break", "continue", just to learn that they are identical in Java and C++.

(2) Full of pagecount-boosting source code, which only makes it harder to get to the gist, whether you are beginner or experienced programmer.

(3) Many differences are not mentioned at all (e.g., in C++ multi-dimensional arrays supposedly can be built only manually with pointers -- int a[2][3] is ignored).

(4) Any non-trivial differences are only mentioned, but not elaborated -- i.e., you are on your own if you want to know how to rewrite in Java your C++ code, or how performance is affected by a given feature (take array bound checking, or the fact that built-in types in Java cannot be passed by reference, pointer-to-member operator being impossible in Java, etc.).

(5) Explanations are very confusing, partly because the book doesn't take one language as a basis. It tries to go both from C++ to Java and from Java to C++ in the same book, which proved to be impossible (at least for its author).

(6) Some facts are incorrect (e.g., pointer-to-member operators are called "redundant" in C++; I'm too lazy to look for more serious errors).

The title made me buy the book, but actually this trick is the smartest thing in the whole book.

This is not a cross-reference. It's a text book, but a poor one.

For an experienced C++ programmer there are too many pages of trivialities to wade through. The authour seems to have little background on languages and compilers.

For a beginner things are not explained well.

The book has low signal-to-noise ratio, lots of ommissions, and extremely poor and superficial explanations.

Maybe because it attempts to be everything to everyone: both textbook and reference; for both novices and experts; good for Java and C++ and even C developers. While this is an excellent marketing ploy, it is dishonest to the book readers. The author or the publisher should have seen the problem, and changed their target to something more modest.

Frankly, I bought the book with very high expectations: I thought with 450 pages devoted solely to the differences between C++ and Java, it must go to a lot of depth and subtleties. What a disappointment... I am still looking for a real "Java for Experienced C++ Developers" kind of book.

Most of the complaints have been that the book is inappropriate for a C++ programmer, because it deals very little with C++. The argument is amplified for an experience Java programmer wishing to learn C++. From my perspective, the book only told me things I already knew, i.e. how to program in Java. There is very little here which explains how to do analogous programming in C++. Case in point, whereas I'm used to dealing with Arrays and Strings solely as their classes, the book offers no help in using non-object oriented arrays and strings in C++. Poorly written and code heavy too.

I was disappointed with this book. The marketing hype says it is for C++ programmers wanting to learn Java but there is as much C++ as Java in it. Much of the text is devoted to long example programs, they have minimal expository material after them and often fail to bring out the points of difference. The book lacks a full description of Java syntax instead merely illustrating certain usages in its examples. Finally there are several inaccuracies for, example the list of Java keywords in the first chapter is wrong. The book reads like it was put together quickly and sloppily.

If you want to understand how to leverage your C++ knowledge for learning JAVA, or if you want to understand the similarities/differences between JAVA and C++, then you will find no better book. The examples are accurate and thorough.