Customer Reviews

Learning to Program in C++ (CD-ROM)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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

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.

As a good Visual Basic programmer I found this author to good at explaining at how to program in C++, but not good enough. I would not recommend this book for several reasons:

1. The examples do not use standard C++ Libraries like STL (for those that don't what what STL is, it stands for the (S)tandard (T)emplate (L)ibrary) and rather uses the authors own code in place of the STL, (like vectors and strings) which makes learning a quite a bit harder if you have another compiler like Borlands free C++ compiler, which is much more well known and uses the STL.

2. Because of reason 1, it is harder to compile your programs on another compiler if you can get them to compile at all. The author does not include little things like "using namespace std;" to get vectors to work or using "cstring.h" instead of the authors built in string header files to get strings to work in Borland both of which I looked up on the internet to get them to work and this is just for the first couple of basic things that you learn. If you already have your own compiler be prepared to do some internet searching to get some information on how to make a certain function to work for your compiler or even the right file for it.

and

3. The author wastes your time with topics that don't really concern C++ programmers like hardware registers and binary to hexadecimal conversions, which is a topic for more advanced programmers. He also over explains some topics like how to assign something to a variable.

The "discussions" he has with the novice programmer are very informative if you need additional help understanding something. The real learning to program in C++ does not even start until you get to page 65 in which you just begin to learn how to use a VARIABLE. If you are considering this book to begin learning C++ be prepared to be stuck with his generic compiler and code library, otherwise get a book that teaches you C++ for your compiler and uses the STL. I would rate this as an "avoid to get" book.

I think this book is by far the best beginning programming book I have ever seen. Although I had wanted to learn programming in the past, I was always daunted by the weighty tomes I picked up in bookstores or libraries.

In Learning to Program in C++, Steve Heller starts out explaining that programming is simply a basic, step-by-step process of problem solving. Each chapter presents problems and programming solutions in small, easy to chew morsels. Always building upon what you know and almost always giving you all of the information required to come to a solution, (aside from the occasional intentional mental exercise which are resolved within each chapter), this book makes the process easy and painless.

A very helpful and cute aspect of the book are the e-mails between Steven and Susan. Susan was a beta reader/student for the original edition of this book, "Who's Afraid of C++" and is now Steve's wife. The questions Susan asks are frequently questions that came up in my study, and the answers are presented right there in a venue which allows me to not feel too dumb when the answer is obvious. And, an e-mail to Steve concerning a question I had resulted in a timely and easily understood answer.

The CD contains a C++ compiler, programming environment, and all of the source code contained in the book. Everything you need to jump right in.

This book is well worth the price for anyone who has wanted to learn programming, but was afraid to start.

First, the disclaimer. I've known Steve, electronically, for about six years. I consider Steve a friend even though we have never met and I have no idea what he looks like. The relationship has been so useful that Steve and I are now negotiating a contract to work on a project together.

Second, I've been a C++ programmer for about 10 years. I read this book already knowing C++. I did, though, try to read the book as if I didn't know C++.

Steve asked me to review his book. I told him that he would get an honest review from me. This is that review.

Learning to Program C++ is a very ambitious book. It attempts -and mostly succeeds - in taking a person unfamiliar with computers (much less programming computers) and gets them to the point where they can actually program a more-or-less real-life application.

I have a bias. I want introductory texts to pre-digest material for me. I want the material to be easy. I want lots of motivation and lots of examples. I hate it when the first two chapters of a book are trivial to read and the third chapter is where the book really begins. I'm always looking for the point where the book switches gears and the author starts making ambiguous statements and it requires me to figure out what the hell the author is saying. There is simply too much material in this world to absorb and not enough time.

If it isn't clear, I want my introductory textbooks to be easy. This book is a delight. Steve uses the services of an active human reviewer, Sue, to make comments about confusing things. Sometimes the explanations he gives Sue are inadequate. The nice thing, though, is that you know that there is something confusing going on and that you need to sit back and think.

As I was reading Steve's book I looked for the places where he switched gears. I found three of them. Remarkably, the third one was a downshift. The book actually got easier after its most difficult part.

The first three hundred pages are trivial to read. The second three hundred are a bit harder. The next two hundred are harder still. The last two hundred are a comparative breeze.

The hardest 200 pages of that book deal with polymorphism and specifically the envelope/letter idiom that Coplien documents in about 30 pages in Coplien's *Advanced C++*. Steve calls this idiom the manager/worker idiom.

Steve does a remarkable job of explaining both the importance of this idiom and how to implement this idiom. Steve attacks this difficult concept from several viewpoints. He even spends a considerable amount of time explaining and implementing reference counting so as to improve both performance and conserve memory.

In the last two hundred pages of Learning to Program C++ Heller repeatedly uses the manager/worker idiom to implement a "home inventory" system in which different kinds of information about different kinds of things are stored.

In those last two hundred pages Steve demonstrates the real world of programming. He demonstrates how bugs are found, fixed, and introduced in the fixes. He shows just how hard writing even a small application can be.

Where does this book fall short? It falls short in very few places. I have some minor quibbles about how he explains and implements the manager/worker idiom. But, I am sure, if I had written such a section some people would quibble about how I explained and implemented it. It's a tough concept. The reader should be aware that I've been using this idiom for nearly five years in my own work and yet I have to review how this slippery concept works every time I need to use it. I found Steve's book was worth reading; it helped to cement the concept.

Another quibble might be that Steve decided not to use the Standard Template Library to do things like sorting. It's a minor quibble. If Steve were to introduce concepts from the STL he would likely have had to add another two hundred pages to the book.

My biggest quibble with this book is with Appendix A and the back cover: they conflict. The back cover states that you will truly master C++. Appendix A tells you that you will have mastered 10% of C++. Nonetheless, the 10% of C++ covered probably represents 80% of the C++ used on a day-to-day basis by working programmers.

Steve has done a superb job of delivering to the reader a working knowledge of the basics of C++ and a very credible job of presenting object oriented programming to novices. If you are a professional programmer and want to learn about run-time polymophism then this book is for you, too.

Well like i said in the title, its too wordy and it lacks alot of examples. However, his explainations are quite clear and how Susan (a novice with no programming knowledge) keeps asking the author questions we would ask him is alright. If only his book had a touch of colour, less talking and more examples, this book would be a must for newbies. I'm only 15 and i learnt a great deal from this book but i decided i would learn Visual Basic first

This book is one of the easiest C++ books to learn! It's not like those other books that sound like your talking to a computer itself. Yes it might be easy to learn but if you want to learn fast, this book is not for you. And if you don't like reading to much, this book is not for you either. When I first picked up this book I had only one thing in mind,"Hey wouldn't it be cool to program." I had no past experience at any type of programming, and I thought it was going to be like a flash that I would learn C++. Well it was easy to learn by the way Steve Heller wrote it, but I had to put some hard work into it. C++ isn't an easy programming language to learn but with this book you can master it!

Steve Heller's fantastic book on C++ has been a lifesaver for a frustrated ex-musician turned corporate drone who, for reasons of economy and practically, has had to undertake the study of C++ from ground zero (and I mean right from the beginning, with no prior programming knowledge)on his own. Heller's writing style is lucid, simple, and free of murky bombast. His student, Susan, contributes excellent questions and dialogue. Her input has the effect of placing us in an imaginary classroom where the students can bounce ideas off the teacher and the teacher has to stay on his toes. The book is a lot of fun, but doesn't sacrifice the content to the gibberish of the "idiot and dummy" books. I found myself putting in many hours of contemplation and problem solving and am looking forward to more masochistic pleasure as I plow through the rest of the book.

The bulk of my frustration came from having to deal with the compiler provided with the book, though I guess dealing with the compiler and learning to program go hand-in-hand.

Although I have not finished this book yet, I feel compeled to respond to the many negative comments that others have posted. I have taken two college classes in C++ and barely passed them and walked away thinking that programming was impossible. However, I have started reading this book and slowly programming is starting to make sense to me. People are complaining that it is too wordy and that it deals with issues that don't really pertain to programming, such as computer architecture. However, the concepts are well-explained and if you do understand a concept, you can simply skip over any further explanations of it, but if you don't understand the concept, you don't have to give up hope, because you can read a different explanation and see if that makes more sense. Also, understanding the architecture of your computer is very valuable to a programmer - it allows you to better understand what the computer is doing when it executes your program, thus making it easier for you to write better and more effective and efficient programs. I am currently taking a college class in assembly language programming and we have spent the first few weeks of class talking about the architecture of the computer and the explanations in this book have helped me to better understand what we're going over in class.
If you have a background in programming, maybe this isn't the best book for you, because it really is geared to those who have no real background in programming. However, if you are interested in learning how to harness the power that writing your own programs gives you and you have no real prior background in the area, this is a very useful book.
By the way, I am actually planning on recommending to my college that this be the textbook for our introduction to programming class, as it is light-years more useful and practical than the textbook they are using currently.