Customer Reviews

An Introduction to Design Patterns in C++ with Qt 4

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

 

 

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

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.

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.

This is a decent book that gives a unique overview of C++ and Qt techniques, and I would definitely recommend it. I bought it when i started my job as a C++ /Qt software developer. However, in my opinion it is not a very good introducory book because it tries to accomplish too many things at once. C++, Qt and Design Patterns are all broad subjects that need at least one book each to be explained satisfactory, and for me it generated more questions than it answered. That's why I read 'C++ How to Program' (Deitel & Deitel), 'C++ GUI programming with Qt' (Blanchette and Summerfield), 'Head First Design Patterns' (Freeman & Freeman) and 'Design Patterns' (Gamma, Helm, Johnson & Vlissides). After reading these books An Introduction to Design Patterns in C++ with Qt 4' proved really valuable because it connects the subjects in a very useful way and gives lots of practical advice. Also, it serves as a handy summary of the other books, so i use it daily.

In short (after trying both), it was better to read the book as an overview AFTER reading more complete books, instead of reading it as an introduction BEFORE reading more complete books.

This is an outstanding introduction to modern software technology of MVC through Qt and C++. All codes are well tested and annotated. Good for both novices and experts.

The authors teach two things. The use of design patterns in C++. And how to integrate these with the Qt widget package, when you are writing applications that need a GUI. Several of the chapters show that even if you are not writing a GUI, you can still use the Qt framework. Within this, various patterns are taught.

But clearly the full power of the book is for those cases where you must have a nontrivial GUI. For these, some patterns might provide a vital structure in your code. Both at the level of design and then when coding.

You might want to compare this book with a recent one by Jasmin Blanchette on C++ and Qt 4, "C++ GUI Programming with Qt 4". Her text did not deal with patterns per se. It concentrated more on explaining the Qt routines. Whereas this book lacks that detailed exposition on Qt, but makes up for it with the patterns emphasis.

With the transition and host of changes from Qt3 to Qt4 I found this book essential in getting used to the new API and upgrading my applications and taking advantage of the new features.

The book is an easy read and has good examples, but unless you already know how to use Xcode or have KDE on your Mac this book is not for you, because you will find that the build instructions found in the book do not work in Mac OS X. Has anyone tested them on Unix or with KDE? I can only assume that they work there.

Qt4 is not compatible with Xcode. (It is not possible to display Qt4 Objects like QString in the Xcode debugger. This used to work with Qt3, but was lost in Qt4.) While this is not the book's fault, it makes it very difficult to step through the examples or debug your own coding efforts in the exercises.

I like the way the book introduces topics a chapter or two before going into detail. Also, the book makes an effort to reinforce what was learned in previous sections and chapters, making it a very good learning tool for anyone new to the topic.

I am extremely impressed by this book - not only does it provide excellent information on design patterns, and using Qt 4, but its written so that those new to C++ and Qt can understand and progress throughout. This book is heft, but extremely informative, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in C++ development!

Needed a QT reference to keep me from going nuts with incomplete online documentation. First blush looks good and on topic. The real problem with this is the Prentice Hall publishing "digital on demand" print quality of this book. It reminds me of a guy in college that printed pirated text books off campus for a steep discount. I could only wish that the quality of this was that good. I think this was done on the defective copier in the corner of Kinkos using well over spent refilled toner cartridges. The text font scheme is horribly distorted --aliasing from the scanned images playing havoc with the proportions of the text. Pages have dark and faint gray banding. I'm not sure if this is a new Prentice Hall thing; or just a slip in quality, or if some guy is sneaking in pirated books into amazon. Sad to see workmanship like this.

Avoid this one unless you can guarantee a fair copy.

Mine is going back.