Customer Reviews

C++ Program Design: An Introduction to Programming and Object-Oriented Design

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Six years ago I was one of Prof. Cohoon's students when he was in the process of writing the first edition of this book. Compared to all of the other C++ books I have seen, this one is a lifesaver. I recommend it to any of my friends who are just learning to program. This book, nor Cohoon's methodology are by any means a definitive C++ reference manual. This book was written for the person who is learning to program by learning C++. I have personally used the skills taught to me by Cohoon and this book to build a strong programming background, and to learn new languages quickly and easily. I tackled Java in a week, Perl in 2 weeks. If you are learning to be a programmer, buy this book now.

Would not suggest the book to a C++ novice, I found it very useful being a full time C++ programmer.

It is often forgotten that design is as least as important as the implementation of it. This book tries to convey very high design standards and may not be the easiest around, but it presents a thorough course in what its title announces: C++ program design. It is also very useful as a work of reference.

Avoid adding this book to your collection. I found it lacks a consistent logical structure, is dry and makes relatively easy concepts seem impossibly complex.

Explains the basics of OOP and programming in general. I enjoyed reading the book because it presented material in a different way, and there are these nice little stories within each chapter. After reading this book, I can say that I found it a whole lot easier to explain to someone who knows nothing about OO. <<What OOP is all about(Students).>>

I can't stand the EZ-windows thing, but I think if an instuctor showed the examples to the students, they would find it entertaining and understand the concept.

So I still think it's a great book to help you present material on OOP to students, or for reading by the poolside.

Covers some standard library functions and templates, but don't expect to find any deep C++ in it.

This book is full of bad, hard to read code. The book is terribly organized and frustrating. It keeps talking about classes long before it ever introduces the reader to what classes are. The authors declare variables right in the middle of code, and make it difficult to decipher just what the program does. I'd be ashamed if my code looked like the authors' and I could never recommend a book that teaches you bad habits like creating functions without function prototypes, incrementing loops by fractional amounts, and other things that beginners shouldn't even be aware that is possible, yet stupid, to do. To beat it all, these authors are Computer Science professors... If you want to learn good programming habits, read a book by Dave Mark...his books are easy to read, understand, and he teaches you great habits and conventions. Problem is you'll have to learn C and then advance to C++ with his books.

This text is one of the more confusing texts I've taught our introductory C++ courses from. While the Deitel/Deitel book is more encyclopedic, I've had students come back and say how much they enjoyed it and found it useful after the course was over. I've only had student complaints about this book. The approach is nice -- objects early and the EZWin graphics package -- but there aren't enough "small" examples or interesting examples to make the text worthwhile. Give me Deitel/Deitel any day.

I rate this book 1 out of five stars ONLY because i cannot rate it lower than 1 out of five.
I bought this book because it was the required text we were using for a c++ class in college. Honestly, this has got the be the worst computer-related book I've ever laid hands on. I don't know how this book can sell, let alone have any good reviews.
For the people who rated this book good, claiming it isnt for newbies, and teaches you how to design c++ program properly. Dont listen to them. I consider myself fairly computer literate. Ive had experience with several languages, and I am an active Linux user, in which i write perl and bash scripts often. This book is still confusing as ever. And I thought some of the Linux HOWTO's were written poorly. Not compared to this book. The author writes in an extremely technical, bland way. He uses functions in his source and doesnt explain them until 3 chapters later. He constantly uses poor coding techniques, by declaring variables in the middle of the program.

If you don't beleive what everyone else said, listen to this.

If you buy this book, you will be wishing you hadnt. Don't waste your time. There are many better books out there that not only claim to show you c++ program design, but actually do in a real manner. At this point im not sure if cohoon was actually serious about writing a book, or wanted to torture and scare people away from learning c++.
(hes probably a java developer)

I suggest buying "The C++ Programming Language" Its much better written, and is written by the creator of the C++ language himself.

This book is complete nonsense. The structure of the book is ridiculous. It seems as if hey teach fundamental parts of the C++ language in the wrong order. The only reason why this book exists is so colleges can try to teach students how to implement object oriented windows that don't even move, resize, or refresh. The makeshift windows library is completely worthless. Anyone wanting to do meaningful programming should throw this book out the window. I would suggest the C++ Black Book by Steven Holzer. That's a great find. If you are so convinced that this is the book for you, I'd save yourself $... and by the 2nd edition.

Studying this book is like going on a sightseeing tour of a fascinating city in dense fog.

By constantly glossing over key points and using obscure language, the authors make even the simplest concepts difficult to understand. It is ironic that a book such as this should suffer from the kinds of errors that make programming code unusable: referencing errors (i.e. use of undefined terms), syntax errors (e.g. "The process terminates either with the word being found or having exhausted all possible starting elements"), logical errors, and plain and simple typos.

There are much better introductions to C++ available. My personal favorite is "Beginning C++", by Ivor Horton (ISBN 1-861000-12-X).