Customer Reviews

Sams Teach Yourself C++ in 24 Hours, Complete Starter Kit (3rd Edition) (Sams Teach Yourself...in 24 Hours)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Like all of the other "teach yourself in 24 hours" books, this one can be used to learn the fundamentals of C++ in a short time. Quite naturally, in keeping with the format, all you can achieve using this book is a basic understanding of the language, and in C++ that is a problem. It is a very hard language to write well and the simple, demonstrative programs in this book will serve to only get you started. Therefore, no one should ever use it for more than just an introduction. If your goal is to code in the language, then you should follow it up with something containing a more thorough coverage.
I understand that errors will always creep into a book, so it does not surprise me when I find them. However, there are some errors/omissions in this one that are more serious than the simple typo. On page 72 there is the statement, "Tabs, spaces and new lines (known as whitespace) have no effect on the program, although whitespace can make the program easier to read." This is of course wrong, and on page 367 there are examples of bugs that whitespace in a macro can generate. Some of the most subtle bugs known to programmers are due to whitespace and such a blanket statement is one that can really confuse the beginner.
When the logical operators && and || are explained, there is no mention of their being conditionally evaluated. This is something that all beginners must be told, as it can also lead to some of the most difficult bugs to catch. It is such a problem that in Java pairs of the logical operators (& and &&) (| and ||) are defined, where the single symbol operator is not conditionally evaluated. I consider this a major flaw in the book.
Some other, less critical errors are:

page 29, "The function main always returns an int." Not true since you can define

void main()

page 115, "The general form of the switch statement is

switch(expression)
. . . .

(where) expression is any legal C++ expression . . . " In fact, the expression must return an integral type.
Page 358 "Static data is scoped to the class. It therefore is available only through an object of the class . . . " Static data can in fact be initialized before the program runs and accessed using the class name, an action demonstrated on page 332. No object is required.
On page 342, there is the statement, "You will often hear novice C++ programmers complain that friend declarations `undermine' the encapsulation so important to object-oriented programming. This is, frankly, nonsense." To date, I have never heard a novice programmer say such a thing. However, I have read many statements by object-oriented experts who argue that friend declarations in C++ are a breaking of the principles of encapsulation. This statement is disingenuous at best.
The most serious mistake that an educator can make is to fail to (or improperly) inform the early learner about problems that can occur due to non-obvious features of a programming language. While the authors do almost everything right, a few errors of that type can severely reduce the quality of a book. That has happened here, hence my lower rating of the book.

Very disappointed as the link for the compiler software key does not work on the disk supplied.
I then went to the inform IT website and they have a dead link to software keys under their update tab.

Listen, the book is not the golden fleece of literature but it is not completely repulsive either. To me there are a few issues with the examples given.

One, as the previous reviewer said sometime in the book it mentions something but does not provide an example for it. I see reasoning in that because the book clearly states beginner, so it does not cover all concepts. You cannot use this book as a full reference nor are you supposed too. This book is more like a pocket dictionary.

Two, 1 of the examples were hard to follow. The example in the linked list chapter was very hard, I think in the next edition they should write a simpler code so the point can be conveyed to the reader easily.

Overall, this is an ok book to start with if you are in a hurry to learn C++. The book will get you to a decent enough level to program simple programs. It is like a crash course, I repeat a crash course. That is the best way to describe this book. You will still need to further your education after it however so you can be taught about things such as how to use singletons, the standard template library and so on.

This book doesn't assume you have experience in programming at all. It explains things in good details with great examples, using a clear language. If you have the time and the will to learn C++, this book is the way to go.

I'm not a software type although I do have some background in programming. I wanted to learn C++ to build my own applications for my computer, but I wanted the learning curve to be reasonable so that I can do it on my spare time. I also wanted to learn programming C++ using my Visual C++ compiler. I purchased this book and Deitel's book "Introduction to MFC" which gets into using Microsoft Foundation Class. You can purchase both books from Amazon for under $45. The two books complemented each other perfectly, and in about 8 weeks spending about an hour each day, I can program applications using my compiler. These two books were perfect for a novice like myself. What was nice was that both books came with a working compiler and all the examples were available either as a download or was available on the CD-ROM. The book seems to give me all the command reference for ANSI and ISO C++ compiler which is a big plus if you also program for UNIX/LINUX systems. What these books doesn't do is that it won't teach you the more sophisticated operating system related things like how to access a disk or other I/Os. If you are trying to learn this level of programming, you need to move up to a higher level books such as the "Win32 System Programming: A Windows(R) 2000 Application Developer's Guide (2nd Edition)" by Johnson M. Hart. But to get started on C++ programming, after many false starts over the years, these two books did it for me.

Gets you off to a great start with C++.
[Includes in a compiler that was especially helpful]

"Teach Yourself C++ in 24 Hours" by Jessie Liberty is an excellent tool for use in learning this difficult subject.

The author's program examples are clear and easily related to real-world programming applications. Program application themes he uses are carried throughout the book.

Example program code is line-numbered for reference in the follow-up explanatory text. Each example is followed by a representation of the output which would be yielded by execution of the program.
This systematic approach is a tremendous aid to understanding.

Other books on this topic I have used contained an occasional typo in the sample code, which can be very confusing to a novice student.
I didn't encounter any such problems in Mr. Liberty's book.

This book has been a very valuable aid to me.
I look forward to other programming tutorials by this author.