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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
perfect for transition from C to C++, February 17, 2005
This review is from: Object-Oriented Programming in C++ (4th Edition) (Paperback)
I took several C++ Program In Computing courses while in college, and I must say, this book did a fantastic job of turning the what was then "clear as mud" concepts to something I could understand.
Since those courses, I've learned C and a few other languages, but this book does a fantastic job of introducing OO concepts to a programmer, or a beginner who was otherwise doing procedural programs, or was just starting fresh. Lafore goes over the benefits of OO, and slowly builds on top of concepts throughout the book until you get a good overall understanding of the theory and the practice.
Two things I didn't like about the book:
1. There was very little discussion about doing things the "right way". By this, I mean, Lafore didn't really mention how certain methods of writing programs were less efficient than others. It looks like he was using the best practices in the book, so maybe that would have been overkill, but going a bit more in depth about why to do certain things certain ways would have been nice. While this is a beginner book, it certainly doesn't hurt to have sidenotes of this nature for those interested.
2. While the majority of the code in this book was portable to most platforms, it's still assumed that you're going to be on a Windows plaform, and Lafore uses several Windows-only graphics libraries to illustrate some points. Being a UNIX guy, I would have preferred that he stick to a platform neutral explanation.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just the right approach to learning OOP and C++, January 30, 2004
This review is from: Object-Oriented Programming in C++ (4th Edition) (Paperback)
This book is used as a text in a number of college venues and it's not hard to see why. It's well-written, explains difficult concepts in reasonable language, it doesn't try to talk over the reader and it presents the concepts of C++ in a logical and sequential manner. I particularly liked that LaFore decided to get into structures relatively early in his book (in chapter 4) because, as he rightly points out, an understanding of structures is useful in the path of learning from the basic sequential and structured programming to the object-oriented concepts and programming that are illustrated later on. Of the many books that I have had a chance to review for use in an academic environment, it's hard to go wrong with this one; and it edges out my other favorite, Prata's "C++ Primer Plus," mostly because of his sequence of concepts and he doesn't spend a lot of time talking about what some of the older and, frankly, less used compilers are doing with respect to the inclusion of headers and library files. I also liked the exercises that appear in this book. Learning to program is like learning math and another language at the same time - the only way to learn it is to do lots of programs and apply the language. However, I find fault in that solutions are not provided for all of the exercises, which takes away from the usefulness of this book as a tool for self-teaching. Still, that and a couple of editing misses are the only flaws. Highly recommended!
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lafore could explain quantum physics to an infant, August 13, 2002
This review is from: Object-Oriented Programming in C++ (4th Edition) (Paperback)
Concerning OOP in C++ and Data Structures and Algorithms in Java I've been a software engineer for roughly two years now. I was fortunate to have learned C++ and Data Structures by books written by Lafore. In my time in the field, I've noticed that I have a much stronger understanding of C++ and Data Structures than many of my senior programmers. It appears that the books they learned from in college were so esoteric and academic (Introduction to Algorithms (MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science))that they actually fear opening the book, let alone creating binary trees, heaps and weighted graphs. Of course they are also C spaghetti programmers and they have no problem with global variables. When I was in college the required C++ text was Deitel and Deitel's C++ How to Program. The book was just plain boring to me, fell apart and looked like it was written in some sort of linux text editor. Although the other half of C++ programmers prefer this book over any other, I eventually used Lafore's Object Oriented Programming in C++ to learn the material. OOP in C++ is actually fun to read compared to the snoozers the old guys used to read. In my opinion, there is no other technical writer that compares. He makes the material so easy you are convinced that you are missing something. When I hear a senior programmer talk in fear about data structures and that scary "Object Oriented Programming" I always have to question if they know something about OOP and DSA that I don't know about? Is there? Cuz I'm still questioning it. I'm ok with the OPP but that spegetti code scares the daylights out of me. Drawbacks: Lafore only brushes the surface of Big O notation and pseudo code in his data structures book. He also worded the book so nicely that many of my senior programmers have made degrading comments about how the book was written for grade schoolers, yet they use my Lafore's Data Structure book 10 times more than they do their "MIT algorithms" book. That's got to say something. If your taking a college course, use Lafore's books as backup text books. You'll be thankful you did. I like this guys writing so much I wait for his next book as if it he was Stephen King. I feel like a groupie. Well anyway..
Thanks,
Dave
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