An Introduction to Design Patterns in C++ with Qt 4 [Paperback]

Alan Ezust (Author), Paul Ezust (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0131879057 | ISBN-13: 978-0131879058 | Publication Date: September 10, 2006 | Edition: 1

Learn C++, Patterns, and Qt 4 Cross-Platform Development

Master C++ and design patterns together, using the world's leading open source framework for cross-platform development: Qt 4.

An Introduction to Design Patterns in C++ with Qt 4 is a complete tutorial and reference that assumes no previous knowledge of C, C++, objects, or patterns. You'll walk through every core concept, one step at a time, learning through an extensive collection of Qt 4.1-tested examples and exercises.

By the time you're done, you'll be creating multithreaded GUI applications that access databases and manipulate XML files--applications that run on platforms including Windows, Linux, Unix, and Mac OS X. Best of all, you'll be writing code that's efficient, reusable, and elegant.

• Learn objects fast: classes, inheritance, polymorphism, and more
• Master powerful design patterns
• Discover efficient high-level programming techniques using libraries, generics, and containers
• Build graphical applications using Qt widgets, models, and views
• Learn advanced techniques ranging from multithreading to reflective programming
• Use Qt's built-in classes for accessing MySQL data
• Includes a complete C++ language reference

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

 

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

<>Alan Ezust received his M.Sc in Computer Science from McGill, and has delivered courses on object oriented programming and APIs for over 15 years. He is an instructor and courseware developer at ics.com, leading provider of Trolltech-certified Qt training and services throughout North America.

Paul Ezust chairs Suffolk University's Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, and has taught computer science for nearly thirty years. He has done extensive consulting and contract programming.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 edition (September 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131879057
• ISBN-13: 978-0131879058
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #899,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Marvellous Book for Programming in the QT Way, June 23, 2007

By 

Yuchao Sun (Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: An Introduction to Design Patterns in C++ with Qt 4 (Paperback)

I don't major in CS but I have to use C++ and QT for my PhD research. Although I had pretty good general understanding of IT and some experience in web programming, I struggled to teach myself C++ from scratch. I tried a few popular books, but none of them worked very well. As someone said, "the trouble with C++ is there's an awful lot to remember". Those big thick books are often quite easy to follow from page to page, but very quickly all the details become overwhelming. C++ is a powerful and flexible language that incorporates different paradigms so there're always many different ways of doing things but quite often (particularly for beginners) we only need to know the best practices. As Bjarne suggests: "A focus on details can be very distracting and lead to poor use of the language. You wouldn't try to learn a foreign language from a dictionary and grammar, would you?" (http://www.research.att.com/~bs/learn.html). Ironically, most of the big books I read did exactly the same for me. They all tend to provide too many details upfront. You could end up reading 500 pages but still don't have a clue what's the correct way of programming in C++. Plus you'll probably forget what read before...



I felt a great relief when I came across this book. I would say the authors have done a marvellous job. From the very beginning they teach you how to program in the C++ way, more precisely in the Qt way. The book suggests Qt coding style is not "pure" C++ but that's a different story. By throwing away all the irrelevant bits, they give you a good idea of the whole picture so that you'll be on the right track very quickly. Then you can let you knowledge grow by accumulating more technical details - it's just a matter of time and practice. Of course, a big thick book is still needed as reference. If you don't know anything about programming, I would suggest you read the first few chapters of one of the primers, then switched to this book. I feel it still requires some basic programming background.



I would definitely give it a five star and recommend to anyone learning Qt

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not just a book of Qt API, September 22, 2006

By 

B. Cain (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: An Introduction to Design Patterns in C++ with Qt 4 (Paperback)

The layout and design make for easy reading. The book makes heavy usage of examples ... downloadable from the Internet; this is especially beneficial since it's easier to learn abstract concepts through examples.

Some sections go into detail that's not covered in the book 'C++ GUI Programming with Qt 4'. I especially appreciated chapter 15 ... as I've recently been dealing with meta-objects and properties and would have found it very useful. Also of special import, chapter 17 presents a complete MVC example.

There are many chapters that should have been covered more lightly ... especially chapters 1-8 and chapters 19-24. Those topics are covered in sufficient detail in other texts. Admittedly, the authors make their intent clear in the overview and in the posted TOC. So, at least for some, it's a one-stop resource.

I didn't care for the book referring to auto_ptr as a "smart pointer" ... misleading IMHO since it violates normal language semantics ... modifying the RHS in an expression. But, that's just a pet peeve of mine. I'd recommend QPointer or boost::smart_ptr instead.

The biggest negative is that the examples in the book are not structured by chapter/topic. It's a bit cumbersome to cherry-pick a topic and to have it easily reinforced by example. Also, the examples don't readily build with Visual C++. It appears the build environment has only been tested with Linux, UNIX, etc.

Considering all things, I'm still very glad that I purchased the book because it focuses on more than just the API ... incorporating the usage of some of today's best practices.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, June 17, 2007

By 

Pau Garcia Quiles (Elx, Alacant (Spain)) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: An Introduction to Design Patterns in C++ with Qt 4 (Paperback)

This is a very good good which teaches you C++, Qt and design patterns.

I am surprised by the commentaries saying this is not an introductory book. Quite the opposite: this is the perfect book if you do not know any one of Qt, C++ or design patterns but you want to use them together.

Some may say the book worries too much about syntax. Wrong. The authors want to make sure you understand C++ perfectly well because subtle differences (such as the 'static in declaration' vs 'static in definition', introduced in chapter 2) may have devastating effects in your software. The same goes for Qt macros: the book explains them because when you know and understand them, you will write better code; the book by Blanchette and Summerfield barely names them.

As the title says, this book is only an introduction. There are three natural companions you should get if you want to delve deeper in the wonderful world of Qt and design patterns:
* A Complete Guide to Programming in C++ by Prinz and Prinz
* C++ GUI programming with Qt by Blanchette and Summerfield
* Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software by Gamma et al.