Navigating C++ and Object-Oriented Design (Bk/CD-ROM) [Paperback]

Paul Anderson (Author), Gail Anderson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0135327482 | ISBN-13: 978-0135327487 | Publication Date: November 1, 1997

This book helps programmers understand both C++ and object-oriented design methodologies, so they can write C++ code that truly meets its potential.This comprehensive, practical tutorial has been refined through years of teaching C++ to professional developers. It covers the latest ANSI C++ features, including bool, namespaces, member templates, RTTI; explicit, export, and nothrow versions of new and delete. Detailed appendices cover the ANSI C++ IOStream Library and Standard Template Library (STL). The book shows how C++ improves on C, and clearly explains how object-oriented development is different from previous methods. It includes chapter summaries, a detailed glossary, and extensive exercises. Any professional programmer who wants to learn C++, including applications programmers, software engineers, system architects, and product maintenance personnel. This is also a comprehensive guide to C++ for computer science students.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

If you're going to learn C++, learn it right! Navigating C++ and Object-Oriented Design teaches you ANSI C++ and object-oriented techniques together. This comprehensive tutorial reflects the authors' extensive experience teaching C++ to thousands of professional developers.

Through proven analogies and examples, the authors discuss such topics as containment, inheritance, overloading, templates, RTTI, exception handling, and the Standard Template Library. This book also covers the draft ANSI C++ standard -- including new features like bool, mutable, namespaces, member templates, explicit, export, auto_ptr, and nothrow versions of operator new and delete.

Along the way, try out the book's extensive exercises and take advantage of the exercise solutions and library of sample code on the accompanying CD-ROM.

From the Back Cover

53274-7

Learn ANSI C++ right from the start!

If you're going to learn C++, learn it right from the start! Navigating C++ and Object-Oriented Design is the first book that teaches ANSI C++ and the object-oriented techniques that make C++ a software development breakthrough.

This comprehensive tutorial reflects the authors' extensive experience teaching C++ to professional developers. Start with the clearest introduction to object modeling you'll ever read. Then learn all the essentials of C++ and more advanced topics such as exceptions, namespaces, and dynamic memory allocation.

Next, discover C++ classes, the basic building block of object-oriented design. Through proven analogies and examples, the authors introduce containment and inheritance, overloading, templates, RTTI, and exception handling. And, the authors' unique presentation on multiple inheritance will give you invaluable insights into this complex topic.

Learn to apply C++ and object-oriented techniques to real-world development. Discover how to design classes effectively using the authors' class design boilerplate. Understand how to design container classes. Walk through class designs using the powerful OMT methodology.

Navigating C++ and Object-Oriented Design is one of the first C++ tutorials that covers in detail powerhouse ANSI C++ features like:

• Namespaces, bool, member templates, and RTTI
• Explicit, export, and nothrow versions of new and delete
• The IOStream Library and Standard Template Library

Why learn C++ simply as a "better C" when you can write C++ code that really meets its potential? One book shows you how: Navigating C++ and Object-Oriented Design!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 800 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall (November 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0135327482
• ISBN-13: 978-0135327487
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,058,495 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An ADVANCED book, and Thank You Mr + Mrs Anderson, July 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Navigating C++ and Object-Oriented Design (Bk/CD-ROM) (Paperback)

It's interesting to see how the number of stars given to this book fluctuates wildly - either one star or five. Apparently people either love it or hate it, but to me this implies that people are either ready for it or they aren't.

I bought this book shortly after it was published (1998), and by that time I had already been using C++ professionally for five years. Since then, it has taught me more about C++ than I had learnt in the 5 years before I got it. It has more C++ information than Stroustrup's books (or any other book), and is definitely more readable (but readability never appears to have been one of Stroustrup's literary goals).

Basically, this book is a waste of time for beginners (get an easier book - not this one - and get some actual C++ experience under your belt). For intermediate programmers it is challenging and heavy going, but if you work with it you will get more benefit from it than from any other C++ book on the market. It will take you sailing all the way from intermediate to advanced and right through to guru.

When you get round to reading Scott Meyers books (which you should if you take C++ seriously), you'll find that his 50 and 35 "Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs" are essentially elaborations on points that had been raised, almost as asides, in this book. That'll probably make you want to re-read this book (which you should do a few times in order to get the most from it).

And here's the bottom line: if you read this book a couple of times and digest it, there isn't one C++ question which an interviewer or a colleague can ask you that you won't be able to answer.

So, I give this book 5 stars by way of thanks to the authors, AND to counter-balance the 1 star reviews from people who shouldn't be reading this book anyway.

(PS. for those who gave this book 1 star, I recommend them to read the book after a few years with C++, and then come and and rate this book again).

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent work.., July 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Navigating C++ and Object-Oriented Design (Bk/CD-ROM) (Paperback)

Although I don't like the initial layout of this book (putting code at the front of the book that is not understood until several chapters later) I will tell you that this book is one of the best kept secrets I've found. Actually, I had hoped that not many developers would find this book and thereby give me that extra edge above my fellow programmers! To those who had a bad time trying to learn C++ from this book, HANG ON TO THIS BOOK you will be glad you did later! The key to using this book is as a cross reference with some other simpler book. Going back and forth between the two books (or even more books) has the effect that what one book barely mentions, the other one will cover. Or what one author does not explain well, the other might explain very well.

This is how I used this book and with excellent results. This book has the best coverage of templates I have seen anywhere but it was a little weak on inheritance. My other book had excellent coverage of inheritance but was very weak on templates - so cross referencing gave me the full knowledge I needed. If you want to master C++, you might as well resign yourself to buying several books (I have about 20) no single book will give you the complete knowledge you want. Adding this book to your collection was a wise choice even if you don't see that now - you will!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best comprehensive coverage on C++, plus OOP, October 28, 2003

By 

alkmaar - See all my reviews

This review is from: Navigating C++ and Object-Oriented Design (Bk/CD-ROM) (Paperback)

This is the best book I've read so far in terms of systematically illustrating features of C++ at an intermediate (to advanced) level, combined with coverage on OOP. The fact that the book is not seen in the bookstores and out of stock as of now on amazon.com is a very sad affair. Its production and marketing failure by no means reflect the excellent quality (the content, not design/printing) of the book.

There are plenty of other C++ books out there, but with the exception of Stroustrup's and Lippman's "C++ Primer" they do not cover C++ as systematic, comprehensive, logically making sense, well layed out, and at the appropriate (professional) level as this book does. As such they serve us as more of a tutorial than reference. If you want both a tutorial and a reference, you want the language features described with examples, just like this book does. It is true that not every features are commonly used, but for completeness they need to be layed out and explained. As a previous review noted, if you read this book carefully, perhaps a couple times, you'll be in great shape to deal with most interview questions on C++. (I have personal proof of this in a recent pre-interview C++ coding exam that lasted several hours--solving not toy but professional level problems!)

Another criticism on this book is that it has many back and forth references to other pages. Come on now, the book is about a complex programming language, so the cross references are a logical and integral part of the book layout. It appeared to me the people who complained about this followed the references back and forth all the time when they were reading the book. If you go on the web, do you follow each and every link that's available on the page? You'll certainly get lost fast if you do.

This leads to another question: Is this book a good first C++ book? Probably not, if C/C++ is completely new to you. Nor is Lippman's "C++ Primer," even though it has the word "primer" in its title. However, they are the kind of books that last well beyond the first read (versus those, say, learn such and such in 21 days and many others above that level). If one expects to read through this book once to master C++ as well as the basic OOP for the first time, he is either a genius or bound to be disappointed.

In conclusion, this book is a keeper, just like those by Scott Meyers (e.g., Effective C++).