10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellenet book for readers with some programming experience, June 4, 2002
This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 24 Hours, Complete Starter Kit (3rd Edition) (Sams Teach Yourself...in 24 Hours) (Paperback)
Before I start saying what I think, I should give you my background. Without letting you know that, I believe my opinions will be of little use. I have a Master's Degree in electrical engineering, a few courses about programming principles behind me, and a few years of real-life programming experience with Pascal, VB, and a number of scripting languages (ASP, PHP). So some experience, but not too much.
I found this book to be one of the best books about a programming language I have read so far. It is divided into clearly defined chapters, which progressively expand your knowledge. It is not overly written, meaning that different concepts are explained in a concise manner, and then demonstrated through examples. The examples are not too simple, but neither are they overly complicated. There is always a good analysis after every example, drawing attention to the important parts of the code. I appreciated that very much. Some books spend chapter after chapter explaining what an array or a class is. I do not need that, nor should there be any need for that. Jesse Liberty uses 20 pages to explain arrays in C++. I think that if you still need more pages, perhaps a slower paced and more detailed book is more appropriate (like "Beginning C++" by Ivor Horton).
Also, this is by no means a book to end all books. It gives you the core of C++, and I also have a more detailed book, a book about data modeling, etc.
If you have some programming experience, and want a relatively quick and concise introduction to the concepts of C++ this is the book for you. Jesse Liberty is good, and I will consider his books in the future, whatever programming language I may be looking into. On the other hand if you are new to programming, maybe you should go with something else.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Know OOP? Want to get into C++ quick? Get this book., July 10, 2002
This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 24 Hours, Complete Starter Kit (3rd Edition) (Sams Teach Yourself...in 24 Hours) (Paperback)
This book has *got* to be the easiest read for getting up to speed on C++ that I have found to date. The examples are totally straightforward. The book is well organized and pulls no surprises for the reader. However if you don't know Object Oriented Programming (OOP) you *might* have a hard time picking up some of the finer details of just how truly powerful C++ can be. In that case I'd recommend *also* getting Bruce Eckel's "Thinking in C++". The combination of the two of these books will have you writing solid code in no time.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not too bad at the start..., September 13, 2001
This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 24 Hours, Complete Starter Kit (3rd Edition) (Sams Teach Yourself...in 24 Hours) (Paperback)
My main complaint with this book was how quickly things got difficult. The first few lessons are very well done. Though I quickly grasped C++ concepts and eagerly progressed through the book, trying to make my own program at the end of each chapter was more important to me, after all, anyone can reproduce the lines of code that are printed in the book. The chapter on "Classes" (#6) was not covered in enough depth. The following chapters continued to build on the preceding ones until I got to the point where I felt that I was just copying code out of the book. I have since taken a break from C++ coding :) and use the book only when dissecting other people's code. The "Starter Kit" header on the book is a bit misleading. While everything you need to code in C is included with the book, there are simply not enough code examples to thoroughly teach the complex topics necessary to become a proficient C programmer.
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