Customer Reviews

Teach Yourself C++ (Teach Yourself (McGraw-Hill))

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I must say that I get a kick out of the number of people who trash Herb Schildt. Even in newsgroups, there are quite a few who say nothing but trash about him.

I own about 12 of his books, and I have NEVER seen an author cover as much as him. In the front of virtually off of his books, he includes his office phone number to call him if you have any questions, or to order the source, although you can download it from osbornes site.

I have never, ever seen another author do that. Most of the time you have to write to their agent or something. Personally, I do not care how many people might dislike Schildt. He is strictly the reason I now use C and C++. I have tried Tom Swan who is an excredibly poor teacher (only own one of his books), Microsoft books (do we need to go there?), Bjarne Stroupstup who makes no sense to me, Robert LaFore who's book Object Oriented Programming did NOT compile, and I have the exact same compiler he used, and many others.

Herb Schildt's Teach Yourself books do two things that I have never seen another author fully explore. After each chapter, and sub-chapter, he gives you exercises. If you can't figure it out, the full source code is included.

He gives excellent teaching and plenty of examples. I figure it this way: if everybody else wants to trash him, go right ahead. If he is such a horrible author, why have his books sold over 2 million copies? Forget what others have to say, try his books for yourself and make YOUR OWN decision.

I reference his books CONSTANTLY.

One thing to remember, his Teach Yourself books don't show you how to write large scale applications, but rather, teach you the language, so when you pick up another book to write a large program, you will know what the syntax is.

This book has it all. C++ I/O, to classes, private/public/protected members, operator and function overloading, inheritance, constructors and destructors, and much more! Very well done!

Try it for yourself. You've got nothing to lose.

Just remember that you need to have the desire to learn. The book will not teach itself to you.

This book is my favourite among all the books of C/C++ I ever got,the author is expert on what he is writing,I have read 6 chapters in one day,believe it or not,this was because it's so interesting,and even after I finished the course I kept reading it,now after 2 years of graduatuion it is there on my desk,I read from it very often,I advise everybody who wants to learn and enjoy C++ to go for this book (Excellent!!)

While Schildt's book is very readable and understandable, it's necessary to warn readers of his bad programming style. In one example class he uses a copy assignment without a copy constructor. He also uses exit() which no good C++ programmer uses.

Schildt did NOT help create the ANSI C++ standard and his code most definately proves it. This book assumes a knowledge of C since it goes right into classes in CH 2 so it wouldn't be very helpful for those with no experience in C.

This book is fine for those only wanting a superficial knowledge of C++, but I can't really recommend it for those wanting to know more of the language. Especially because of the glaring errors.

The author presents the subject matter clearly. However, while referencing some of the topics he discusses with other books I currently use, he does seem to recommend programming methods that can lead to difficult debugging. This book may do better with a revision to eliminate code style that can lead to sloppy program design. Okay as a support text used in a situation where the author's suggestions are balanced with those of other author/programmers.

I'll be brief :
1)This book assumes you know how to program in C.
2)It introduces new C++ concepts and then tests you on them at the end of each chapter - what I like is, THERE ARE ANSWERS so you can check how you did.
3)It is a sequiential book - start at Chapter 1 and proceed from there unless you can answer the questions presented at the start of the chapter
4)Once you get to chapter 10 or so, you know enough to be able to read from other intermediate/advanced C++ texts. This is good because it helps you to perfect the concepts you really want to master.
5)Do not think that once you're done, you know everything about C++. C++ is a very vast language - you take what you need and master it when you need it.
6)When you're done with this book, keep this as a reference (it comes in handy to brush up those concepts) and then get an advanced C++ book (either reference or tutorial type).
7)The code for the examples is available from a website so you don't need to type it in if you don't want to.
8)The only reason I gave it 4 stars is because it does leave a few advanced concepts at the basic level. But then, if it didn't the chapters may be overwhelming.
9)This book is indispensable. It's beautifully written and has a more tutorial rather than textbook feel to it. Get it.
10) You may want to also get a book on the Standard Template Library - it will start where this book stops.

The way this book is written, it'll have you up and running in no time. I used this book to great effect in a C++ course ( as a complement to Bjarne Stoustrup's book). Highly recommended for beginners!

This is my fourth C++ book. Having taken the C++ course from a worthless professor and gone through two tormenting and dry C++ books, I was just about to give it up. Just into 2 chapters of Schildt's book, I've learned more about C++ and OOP than I did in all previous three books and the college course combined.

Perhaps that's more reflective of how bad the previous three books were, but I am very happy with Schildt's approach. He allows you to learn by doing through tons of examples and exercises. The other three authors (who shall remain nameless at this point, but email me if you really want to know) stop at presenting mechanics of C++, which have yet to be standardized. Highly Recommended!

Ignore one or two stupid critics who have even gone so far as to claim Schildt's code is UNSAFE or UNSTRUCTURED, he presents the most amazingly structured code (conforming to the ANSI C++ standard that he helped create) in his endless and very useful examples while explaining C++ as no-one else can!

If you want to learn C++ especially if you know already the rudiments of C, BUY THIS BOOK!

I heartily recommend this book to all who already know the basic C++ syntax and want to know more about programming using classes. I teach at a Community College and wish I could use this book for students. It contains clear, concise explanations, and has questions at the beginning and end of every chapter. Great for self-study or for classroom use.

I have gone through 3 C++ books. They started at the beginning with C stuff, and then introduced elemental C++ stuff and very little exercises. Herberts book is different, he jumps right in, by page 2 you are already coding C++, by page 30 you have left classes behind, creating your own classes!!. Is he in a hurry? No!! He gives so many exercises. Plus he gives answers to all the exercises, so you can look at his logic and code in your own way or write his code and make ammendments. Herberts books have so much stuff!!!! He does not just give you basic stuff, but all the intricate and little bends and corners. He explains well. Do you need C before this? I know some C, at least the basics, I did get his book on C becos his exercise answers have some stiff C stuff. What I do is if I have some problem, I revise my C with his C book, which is excellent. But he doesn't teach you how to program or how to make algorithims so better have some elementary programming experience, programmers from other languages. If you know C, this book will be easy to follow. If you don't get one, spend some time knowing fundamental things like variables, functions, pointers, arrays, structures, unions, control statements. Just know the concepts and write some practice programs. DON'T get too into C as the thinking pattern is different. Get this book if you want to jump right into C++. You won't be bored. Get his book also on C.