Customer Reviews

Sams Teach Yourself Visual C++ 6 in 24 Hours

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(28)

 

 

First of all, you have to forget the "24 hours" tale. Do you really expect to learn Visual C++ in 24 hours? No one can. To be honest, this is not a bad book, but it does require at least begin-intermediate C++ level.

The first several chapters are just to help frersh your memory quickly, so you may want to skip it if you are really confident with C++. In the rest of the book, the author chooses a App-wizard approach, which can really help readers pick up Visual C++ within a relatively short period. The thing is you may also want to have another book for reference, like "Programming windows with MFC" by Jeff Prosise.

This book is intended for beginners, or so it seems - but it doesn't explain things with sufficient clarity. Examples are given sparingly. When they are offered, they are not explained thoroughly. So this book fails miserably as a beginners' text. By chapter 3 or 4, you'd be screaming for help.

If this book is intended for more advanced users, it covers too much of beginners' stuff. It won't appeal to this group of users either.

So for whom is this book written? I don't know. Don't waste your money on this one.

You'll see mixed reviews like these on every programming book you see. People expect to read a book and come out on top. That's not how programming works. You have to learn by experience. Experimenting with the code that he gives you and adding in your own things is a great way to learn. If you want something that will hold your hand the whole way through, you're going to get a very large very expensive book, and end up being very dependent on it. Some things you must learn on your own, and this book lets you do that. C++ knowledge, however, is definitely a must for this book. Important C++ subjects are skimmed over and will need to be further explained and explored by the beginner.

It is impossible to learn Visual C++ in 24 hourse. Nobody can teach it in that time span (not even Bill Gates). If you are like me, you were attracted to this book after a first glance at the title. I am telling you, if you buy this you'll suffer chagrin. For instance, the author tries to teach you classes, structures and functions in the same chapter, in one hour, whereas there are entire books written on those subjects!!
If you are serious about learning Visual C++ and if you got time, I would recommend you of taking the long path. First learn C (you can try C Programming Language By Kernighan-Ritchie), then sail to C++ (with C++ Programming Language by Stroustrup) and finally open the windows (with Programming Windows with MFC by Prosise). This sure will take a while but you are guaranteed to be a VC++ pro..

As someone who is reasonably familiar with C++, but not with MFC and Visual Studio, I figured I could use this book to get me going with VC++ development. What a waste of time and money. The author decides against explaining what things do, and why things work the way they do. Instead, the examples consist of "type these cryptic symbols into this place in the code and voila--it works! Now--on to the next chapter." It is frustrating to find yourself wandering through chapter after chapter hoping that he'll explain what he's been doing. No such luck.

Buy a different book.

I am wondering that how can a book less than 500 pages and still cover with lots of topics in the vC++ 6.0. It would be a great start book for some one (like me) who has experience in windows and C++ programming(like BC++ Builder or OWL) and want to migrate from Borland's side to Microsoft's side in the shortest time. Your boss will love you, if you use such a good tool to cut the learning curve down.

I got this just so I wouldn't have to sit through a 600 page book before I could make a windows app. The book exclusively uses the MFC AppWizard (basically point and click where you want stuff to go). The detail wasn't that great but the programs worked and if you have a time budjet, it'll probably be sufficient. Just don't expect to pop out Microsoft Word. If your a beginner to programming in general, learn regular C++ first. VC++ is about 10 times harder and it is vital that you understand Classes and how inheritance works before you attempt programming in Windows.

I picked this book up to learn the Visual C++ IDE and this book does a fairly good job at that, while also giving an introduction to the MFC framework. The book attempts to teach the language, but it is more of a refresher for the very experienced, but rusty, C++ developer.

Each chapter takes about an hour to read, if you are an experienced C++ developer and if you do not try any of the examples, but make sure you read the Q&A sections at the end of each chapter because they contain some very valuable tips.

As for the examples, they mostly work, but there are a few errors and unclear explanations, which can make things very frustrating. Chapters 9 and 10 have the biggest problems.

Overall I liked this book and do recommend it if all you want to learn is the IDE and a little about the MFC. You will need an MFC companion. DO NOT EXPECT TO LEARN C++ FROM THIS BOOK.

I found this book a great help. Although I am an experienced C and C++ programmer I have previously found it difficult to get to grips with Microsoft Visual C++. Other books claiming an easy way have been superficial and omitted much detail. If other reviews have been critical of this book, perhaps it is because the subject is difficult.

The book gives a good balance between practical guidance on writing a Windows application with MSVC++, and explanation of the theory behind it. It briefly covers the C++ language itself, but is better suited to C++ programmers wishing to write for Windows. It uses the MFC method throughout and doesn't waste time on old-fashioned API methods. Of course the 24 hours are not consecutive, but I found that each of the 24 chapters takes about an hour as claimed, and this structure helps the reader to plan a manageable programme of learning the subject. It also serves as a useful reference book after completing the course.

There are almost no pictures, and no screen results of the sample programs it uses in examples. This book is poorly written, and isn't very useful, especialy if you are trying to learn Visual C++. I found "Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days", the old non-visual C++ 5.0, to be a good book (by a different author)...so there's proof that this format works for learning a C++ style language, but this author failed to teach anything. If you can make a program after reading this book, it won't be easy.