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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great combination of teaching and reference, March 20, 2003
This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days (4th Edition) (Sams Teach Yourself...in 21 Days) (Paperback)
Coming from a primarily VB/VBA background into the world of C++, I needed something that would help be get up to speed on the syntax and concepts of C++. Because I had a programming background, I found myself using this book as more of a spot reference on how to do specific things in C++. However, there were many sorts of items that I was NOT used to using in programming at all that this book did an admirable job of helping me out with. Among those were the chapters on templates and specifically the STL. After moving through that chapter, I am now comfortable with actively using list, vector and queue containers. My wife, on the other hand, has had zero programming experience or training. She has worked more than half way through the book (often covering 2 "days" in a few hours) and now has a decent knowledge of the contents of those chapters. Certainly, no book will ever replace actually DOING stuff over and over... but you can't know what to do until you have seen it in action. This book provides that. The examples they use are simple when possible and complex when necessary. There is a nice format to this book in that there is a review section at the end of each chapter ("day") and then questions allowing you to actually create/debug code - with the answers in the back. Most of the time... if not close to all of the time... she was able to get those answers right on the first attempt. I believe that, between the two of us with our vastly different experience and knowledge levels, we have found a book that covered both of our needs very well. Will it cover everything? No book can. Will it solve every little quirk you could ever have as a programmer? If you expect a book to do that, you shouldn't be a programmer in the first place. Will this book give you many tools - ranging from basic to advanced - with which you can become a serious C++ programmer? I believe it will.
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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
From Wright brothers to rocket science!, June 11, 2000
My boss gave me the assignment to learn C++. He gave me a couple of books that he though were good. I banged my head against the keyboard many a night in pure frustration trying to absorb the material and searching the Web for additional help. I next tried an on line computer course by a noted and popular school. Everything was geared to people who already knew C. The material was dated. It was like trying to learn rocket science by studying the notes the Wright brothers wrote when they were trying to figure out which way a propeller should turn. I finally came across Jesse's 3rd edition of "Leaning C++ in 21 Days" and life if beautiful again. His examples and easily read text gave me the knowledge to read code, and more important to understand it. The book takes the time to explain terms, definitions and the why's and wherefores of the C++ language. Particularly interesting to me was memory management and why I should be concerned about it. I no longer bang out code that "just" works. I assimilate the books ideas into programs that one may call an art form. You will never know how grateful I am to have this book as a resource. I have scribbled in the margins, highlighted, dog-eared, paper clipped important pages, made a file of example programs and on long study nights used it as a pillow. I can't wait to get "C++ Unleashed" and abuse it in the same loving way! If you don't have prior programming experience this book is a must. If you are a C programmer you need this book to get with the new way of doing programming!
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great intro to OOP and pointers, but take your time, January 5, 2000
Any review is only useful to people with similar backgrounds, so here is where I came from: 1 semester of a beginning (non-comp sci major) university C++ course, a lot of (gasp) FORTRAN, a little PASCAL, and some BASIC. I used the 2nd edition of this book which had a lot of code errors, although I found that finding the errors was also an excellent (unintended) learning experience, even if it did take me longer to get through the book and cause some undo frustration. Pretty much every topic is backed up with code examples, which really helps me - a hands on type of person. I took extra time and went over some sections more than once to get a good hold on the info, especially pointers and the object oriented sections like inheritance and polymorphism. These topics can be confusing for people without experience in C++, so I wouldn't expect to get it the first time -- expect to spend extra time on some subjects, especially the traditional killer of C/C++: pointers! I know feel like I have a very good understanding of how they work. After reading this book, I went on to do a lot of WindowsAPI and XWindows programming and found the foundation I gained from this book invaluable.
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