There has never been an introductory C++ book like this. It actually consists of a live dialogue and email correspondence between an expert C++ programmer and a complete novice: a dialogue that continues until the novice truly understands -- and so do you. First published as Who's Afraid of C++ and Who's Afraid of More C++, this book brings together carefully crafted material proven to teach novices every key concept involved in C++ programming. Informally written yet disciplined in approach, it doesn't just teach you syntax -- it teaches you how to think like a programmer. Along the way, you'll understand everything from the absolute basics (how programs are converted from a high-level language to machine instructions) to challenging topics like inheritance, polymorphism, and the effective use of pointers.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Author
No one book can be right for everyone. If you are an accomplished programmer, especially one with prior object-oriented programming experience, you may find this book too slow... although many experienced programmers have told me that they find it enjoyable to read.
Of course, no book is perfect. I welcome feedback from readers as to how my books, including this one, can be improved. Nonetheless, if you are a true novice, that is, someone with no previous programming knowledge or experience, I do not believe there is another book more appropriate for you. It is the only one that I know has been tested successfully on many occasions with such students/readers.
Therefore, if you are considering buying a C++ tutorial book, and you have no previous programming knowledge or experience, I believe this is the book for you.
If you do read this book, please let me know how you like it. I have received many positive comments on my books (and a few negative ones), and have responded to all of them.
Good luck with your study of C++.
From the Inside Flap
Preface
Is this book for you? If you're a programmer in a language other than C++ and you want to upgrade your skills, then you shouldn't have much difficulty figuring that out for yourself by reading a few pages. But what if you have no previous programming experience? In that case, here's a little quiz that may help you decide:
Do you want to know how the programs in your computer work inside and how to write some of your own?
Are you willing to exert yourself mentally to learn a complex technical subject?
Do you have a sense of humor?
If you've answered yes to these questions and follow through with the effort required, then you will get a lot out of this book.
The common wisdom states that programming is a difficult subject that should be reserved for a small number of specialists. One of the main reasons that I have written this book is that I believe this attitude is wrong; it is possible, and even desirable, for you to learn how programs work and how to write them. Those who don't understand how computers perform their seemingly magical feats are at an increasing disadvantage in a society ever more dependent on these extraordinary machines.
Regardless of the topic, I can see no valid reason for a book to be stuffy and dry, and I've done everything possible to make this one approachable. However, don't let the casual tone fool you into thinking that the subject is easy; there is no royal road to programming, any more than there is to geometry. Especially if you have no prior experience in programming, C++ will stretch your mind more than virtually any other area of study.
But why should you read this book rather than any of dozens of other introductory C++ books? The ingredient that makes this book unique is the participation of a real, live person who didn't already know the material before reading it: Susan Heller, my wife. Her main contribution has been to read every line of the first draft of the book and to ask questions via e-mail about anything she didn't understand. I answered her questions, also by e-mail, until both of us were satisfied that she understood the material in question and that the text was clear. After the text was otherwise complete, I extracted appropriate parts of the e-mail exchanges, edited them for spelling, punctuation, and so forth, and included them in the text where they will be most useful to the reader.
Of course, these exchanges do take up room in the book that might otherwise be filled with more information about C++ and programming. Therefore, if you want to get the absolute maximum of new information per page, you might want to select another book such as Bjarne Stroustrup's excellent book, The C++ Programming Language, 3rd Edition (ISBN 0-201-88954-4). However, the vast majority of messages I've received from readers of my other books for beginners have indicated that they found my approach very helpful, and I suspect that most readers of this book will feel the same.
Susan has written an account of her involvement in this project, which immediately follows this Preface. I recommend that you read that account before continuing with the technical material following it, as it explains how and why she contributed to making your task easier and more enjoyable.
Speaking of Susan, here is a bit of correspondence between us on the topic of how one should read this book, which occurred after her first reading of what is now Chapter 2, "Hardware Fundamentals," and Chapter 3, "Basics of Programming."
Susan: Let me say this: to feel like I would truly understand it, I would really need to study this about two more times. Now, I could do this, but I am not sure you would want me to do so. I think reading a chapter once is enough for most people.
Steve: As a matter of fact, I would expect the reader of my book to read and study this chapter several times if necessary; for someone completely new to programming, I imagine that it would be necessary. Programming is one of the most complex human disciplines, although it doesn't take the mathematical skills of a subject such as nuclear physics, for example. I've tried to make my explanations as simple as possible, but there's no way to learn programming (or any other complex subject) without investing a significant amount of work and thought.
After she had gone through the text a number of times and had learned a lot from the process, we continued this discussion as follows:
Susan: Well then, maybe this should be pointed out in a Preface or something. Of course, it would eventually be obvious to the reader as it was to me, but it took me a while to come to that conclusion. The advantage of knowing this in advance is that maybe I would not be so discouraged that I was not brilliant after one read of a chapter.
Steve: I will indeed mention in the preface that the reader shouldn't be fooled by the casual tone into thinking that this is going to be a walk in the park. In any event, please don't be discouraged. It seems to me that you have absorbed a fair amount of very technical material with no previous background; that's something to be proud of!
We'll be hearing from Susan many more times in the course of the book. She will be checking in frequently in the form of extracts from the e-mail discussion we engaged in during the testing and revising process. I hope you will find her comments and my replies add a personal touch to your study of this technical material.
While we're on the topic of your studying, this would be a good time to tell you how to get updates and help with any errors you might find in the book or with any other questions you might have. The best way is to visit my WWW site, steveheller. My email address is steve@steveheller.
In the event that you enjoy this book and would like to tell others about it, you might want to write an online review on Amazon, which you can do by visiting my home page and following the links to the "customer reviews" on Amazon.
I should also tell you how the various typefaces are used in the book. Helvetica is used for program listings, for terms used in programs, and for words defined by the C++ language. Italics are used primarily for technical terms that are found in the glossary, although they are also used for emphasis in some places. The first time that a particular technical term is used, it is in bold face; if it is a term defined in the C++ language, it will be in bold Helvetica.
Now that those preliminaries are out of the way, let's proceed. The next voice you will hear is that of Susan, my test reader. I hope you get as much out of her participation in this book as I have.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You get out what you put in,
By Dave B (Oregon) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Learning to Program in C++ (CD-ROM) (Paperback)
C++ is a very rich language, so there is no way to thoroughly cover all its features in an introductory text. There are two obvious ways to deal with this fact: an author can give very shallow coverage to almost all of the syntax, or he can give deeper coverage to a smaller subset of the language (and I'm ignoring the large number of books that really don't teach programming at all, but just have you connect the dots on a visual interface). For some reason, almost all authors take the first path. After finishing their books, the reader knows three ways to write a loop, five ways to write a branch, and very little about classes or object-oriented programming. In fact, most readers don't finish, because it's too boring to read endless chapters of syntax, without learning to write useful programs.Almost uniquely, Steve Heller takes the second approach. He gives you one way to write a loop, one way to do a branch, and then starts in on classes. I doubt you'll find many other C++ books that have the reader learning sophisticated virtual class techniques before encountering "while" loops. This could be risky, but Steve pulls it off, for two reasons. One is that he is a very good writer, and an expert in the subject. The other is that whenever a tricky concept is discussed, the questions you are likely to have are asked for you --- the narrative of the book contains a concurrent correspondence with an intelligent beginner, who got drafts of the chapters as they were being written, and asked for alternative explanations whenever something wasn't clear to her. The time Steve saves by not discussing redundant language features is used to go into more depth about what it really means to program. A sample project is built from the ground up, with successive chapters adding features and refinement to the basic concept. By the time you finish the book, you'll have an idea of how much work it takes to write a real application, and also the sense of accomplishment you get from doing it. This book isn't for everyone. If you just want to dabble in programming, and let the visual compiler wizards do most of the work, you won't like it. If you aren't willing to put some work and study into it, you won't get as much out of it as you could. But if you want an excellent introduction to programming, and an excellent foundation for intermediate books, you could hardly do better than to read this book.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ever had an author answer your e-mail Question? Well I did!,
By G. Tripp (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Learning to Program in C++ (CD-ROM) (Paperback)
This is one of the best programming books I have read. I was in the middle of my second semester of C++ programming in college when I bought this book. I learned more from "Learning to Program in C++" than I did reading the required textbook for the course. Mr. Heller writes and explains things so that anyone can follow the logic. While reading this book I had a couple of questions that my instructor was not even clear on, so I sent Mr. Heller an e-mail. He wrote back an explanation in less than an hour. Then he followed up on my question to make sure I truly understood the process that he had clarified for me. I found this to be most impressive. I have never learned from a book where I was able to actually question the author, and have him respond to my question. What a great experience. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to get started in computer programming or needs to expand on what they already know about C++. Sincerely, G. Tripp
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
To understand the basics start here. Fantastic book!!!,
By "silentobserver" (Boise, Idaho United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Learning to Program in C++ (CD-ROM) (Paperback)
This was an excellent book for C++ and programming fundamentals. I have been a software engineer for a large technology manufacturer for a few years. I have been programming for 4 years after leaving college. This book covers the foundations of computer science in such a way that you CANNOT NOT UNDERSTAND. These basics are absolutely critical to understand before you can really begin to hope to understand complex systems programming. I would recommend this book to anyone at any level looking to tighten up their skills. It is a great refresher for things I did in school and it is a great introduction for first time programmers. Sometimes the dialogue is heavy but only if you don't need it. If you need it, it is everywhere and it really helps you to understand the current topic better; Susan asks every question you can imagine. I would put this book in the hands of anybody. It is truly an idiot proof explanation to computers/software and the underlying architecture that supports both.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
