Customer Reviews

Problem Solving with C++: The Object of Programming, Fifth Edition

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Among the many wonderful things about this book, in addition to it being easy to understand, is that it doesn't confine your learning of C++ to one particular compiler or platform. All the concepts and examples in this book should run fine on any decent C++ compiler. I used Visual C++ myself, but several others in my class used Code Warrior or Mac compilers.

Yes, this was my textbook for a beginners programming course and I definitely kept it on my shelf instead of selling it on textbook buyback day at the college bookstore!

Do youself a favor if you want to learn C++ and buy this book. It's easy enough to follow that I'm CERTAIN I didn't need to be enrolled in a college course to understand it. It will give you the foundation you will need for UNIX or Windows programming as you become more experienced.

And besides all that, it is fun to read and not horribly dull and dry!

Well, finally I found it! The one and only book I needed to learn how to program. And believe me, I've tried a few. The main reason I love this book, is because it's not only a C++ book. It's also a book that teaches you how to think to be able to write programs (in any language). It delivers what it is supposed to deliver; the knowledge on how to program, in C++. On top of all this, you also get to know some of the really cool obscurities of computers and programming, like the origin of the "bug". Buy it, read it and vote for it. It deserves every star it could possibly get!

I'm a CS/Math double major at Cameron University and this is, quite fortunately, the book we ended up using for my C.S. I class. Except for Dietel' excellent book (which I recommend even more than this one), there is no other book out there that explains the basics of C++ so clearly, at least that I have read. Topics difficult to the CS I student, such as classes, pointers, and virtual functions are explained eloquently with well-written examples. The sample code is a lot more simple and straight-forward than in many books but still illustrates the topics in detail.

The ordering of the book is one thing that may throw some people off, however. Arrays are introduced surprisingly late, and classes are introduced earlier than I have ever seen in a c++ textbook. This may be untraditional, but being introduced to classes early gives you a good jump-start into serious c++ programming. Although our class followed the chapters sequencially, the material is flexible and the order can be changed up to something more traditional (some suggested orderings are given in the introduction). Our class happenened to follow the material sequentially, so it was something I took note of.

The only real beef I had with this book is that it covers most, but not all of the basics. Macros and pragmas are not included and inline functions are only mentioned very briefly in the appendix without full explanation. Macro guards (#ifndef,#endif, etc.) are presented in chapter 9 but the concept of macros really isn't covered. The basic cin/cout streams are used and many stream functions are explained but a full explanation on handling streams and buffers is not included. Additionally, the STL libraries are barely touched on except for <vector> and <string>, but I guess, like us, that can be saved for a later course. Overall, I highly recommend this book for learning purposes, but eventually get a second reference.

I found this book extremely useful for the novice in programming. When I started reading this book, I had no prior experience with programming. By the time I finished the book, I felt I had a solid foundation in C++ and that I had acquired the necessary tools to muster a language like Java without great difficulty. I highly recommend this book if you are new to programming or if you are looking for the basics of C++.

... but it's really annoying that a new edition (the 4th) appeared so quickly on its heels.

There's a lot to like about Savitch's thorough presentation. I must admit I find his prose more suited to an oral hearing than a reading; he just gets a bit too cute at times. That, I admit, might show my generation gap-py away! I do find the graphics miles ahead of his Java book and the earlier C++ books. The programming examples are excellent, and the self-tests are great. What I would like, if the publishers are into popping out new editions, is solutions to a few of the more complicated programming challenges at the end of the chapters.

To put it simply, this is a good book. I'm not going to pretend to have read every C++ book out there but as a book that assumes no prior knowledge of C++ this does a good job of explaining the rules of the language. The book treats u as a novice which u should be if reading this book and explains the material thoroughly with examples highlighting relevent code. It also contains tips around common "pitfalls" in C++ programming.

The organization is a little off as other reviews have mentioned and subjects such as Inheritence are only introduced, not covered very well, but those are more advanced topics which shouldn't be covered well in beginners book. All in all, if u have no idea how to program in C++, or if you're new to programming itself, this would be a great book to get you started.

After introducing the most common and fundamental features of any procedural programming language in the first five chapters, the book dives into object oriented programming concepts in chapter 6. Savitch introduces classes to the reader gently and allows the reader to gradually build a sound foundation for studying the C++ language in more detail after he/she has finished reading the book. All the main features of C++ are discussed although some of the subtelties are omitted so as not to overwhelm the reader. This book is an excellent introduction to the C++ programming language and it will probably become a classic for a person taking a first course in the language.

I have looked over a good number of C++ books for several of the undergraduate courses I teach. The wrong introduction can turn students off a language for life. Finding an introductory book with just the right pitch and level of difficulty is difficult. Savitch's book seems to fit my needs in this respect. It is accessible, readable and the examples are clear enough for students to work through without having to look over their shoulders continuously. yes, it is a litle on the wordy side, but it is a small defect overall. If you will continue to use C++, Savitch is a firm foundation for moving on to other more advanced texts. The bottom line is that you have to start somewhere in learning programming and this is as good as I have seen in C++.

(Please note that reviews of all the editions appear regardless of what edition you've selected)

ABOUT THE THIRD EDITION (Green and Purple Book) Pros:

This is a really good book. The style of writing is geared towards a non-computer science major undergraduate student. There's a very short section in the first chapter that explains the history of C, the abstract parts of a computer and so on.

The has an example for nearly idea that it discusses. I think this is handy for students to see the parts of a program they are reading about, especially to get the syntax down.

I also really like the order of the chapters and the level of detail in each chapter. For example, C++ has many different types of numbers but the book only sticks to the most commonly used types (int and double -- although it does briefly mention the others) to prevent "information overload" on the reader.

The book has highlighted pitfalls and programming tips that are useful to the student. The "trick" to most test questions seem to revolve around these points, so it's really useful for studying.

Some of the examples are a little bit too heavyweight -- that is, there's too much code (usually no more than 2 pages though) so that you can't isolate a single idea. In the author's defense, I think this is so that all of the code examples do something useful, but I'm of the opinion it's better to see stripped-down code that doesn't do much so that you can take away how just that one piece works without getting confused.

I think the linked list and template chapters might be a bridge too far for the introductory text. I think templates are a pretty tough concept to through at new students, and I think linked lists are a subject better saved for a data-structures book. I think a better discussion of the vector and list STL classes would be more useful.

There is no free compiler or CD-ROM offered with this text. This wouldn't be such a big deal, except that there are many introductory texts that have these offerings.

OTHER COMMENTS This book is strictly on "portable" C++ -- there's nothing on graphics, using a printer or network, or even using a specific compiler. If you are just getting started with C++ and you want to do one of these tasks, you'll need to look for other books.

The book is also not a very good reference. It's meant to be a text book. This can be a little frustrating if you are trying to study for an exam or see how to do something specific. If you want a good reference, I would suggest buying a second book in addition to this one. "The C++ Programming Language", by Bjarne Stroustrup is a complete reference (but not for the faint of heart)

ABOUT THE SECOND EDITION (Orange and White Book) The second edition (as I think someone else mentions) doesn't conform to the newest C++ standard. Therefore, things like namespaces and exceptions are not included in the text. The second edition also uses the old-style headers as well. If you are a student trying to make the decision between buying a used second edition text, versus a new third edition text -- I "suppose" you could get by for most of the course on the older edition, but keep in mind there are whole chapters missing out of the second edition. There don't seem to be many exercises that are different between the two texts, though.

[A review of the 5TH EDITION.]

Savitch updates his successful C++ text into this 5th edition. Since I never used his earlier editions, I won't speak as to the differences between this edition and those.

He explains C++ in sufficient detail that a reader completely new to programming should be able to follow. It should be emphasised that the reader does not even need any procedural programming experience. Whereas in some customary teachings of C++ or other OO languages, it might be assumed that you have first cut your teeth on C or something similar.

There is a good discussion of namespaces. Which the new reader might not appreciate the importance of, initially. But for scaling your code, especially if several programmers are working on the same project, and to incorporate external code, namespaces are a crucial enabler.

When he discusses inheritance, the emphasis is on single inheritance. Which is probably all to the good, for a newcomer to C++. The fancy manipulations possible with multiple inheritance can also led to code that is very hard to maintain. Here, perhaps, there is an unspoken influence of Java. Prior to Java's existance, C++ texts often spoke of how powerful multiple inheritance is. But Java demonstrated that you can have a useful OO language with only single inheritance.