Customer Reviews

Who's Afraid of C++: Programming Primer for the PC

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

From now on, whenever someone asks me how to learn C++, this is the first book I will give them. I've read several books on learning C++ and this is by far the best I've encountered. Definitely worth the price of admission!

The book is well written and contains lots of examples. The tone is very casual, which I found made it an easy read. The book includes questions and comments from a person named Susan, who acted as a "test reader" for the book. (Susan had no previous programming background.) Throughout the book there is an ongoing Q & A style dialogue between Mr. Heller and Susan. I found this to be a great way of reinforcing the material. Also, the dialogue is rather entertaining at times.

I might add that I've been programming on and off in various languages for the last 17 years. And although Heller's book is written for the novice, he covers things so thoroughly that even programming concepts that I've known for years became more clear to me. For example, the brief explanation on how programs are converted from a high level language to machine instructions is one of the clearest explanations I've ever read.

It seems that books written for 'newbies' in C++ fall into two categories. One, books written for those who already have a working knowledge of the C language, and two, those books who assume that after a few terse examples one attains a fluency of the subject mater. Mr. Heller's book on the other hand presumes nothing; that is to say no prior knowledge is assumed. This is a real advantage for people like me who often find it hard to grasp new or abstract ideas, without questioning the concepts behind them. He does this in a new and novel way by inserting in the text a real, living 'newbie' who questions everything that most C++ programmers and teachers take as givens. I found the book immensely informative as well as educational and use it quite a lot to help me through the rough edges in the learning process in the language of C++. But make no mistake about it; C++ is a whole new language that must be learnt from the ground up. I heartily endorse this book, and even though I'm only three quarters of the way through it, I have already ordered the 'more of' sequel to he first book.

You will not be sorry with the purchase of this book. I have spent considerable money on many 'Teach Yourself' titles, only to find myself giving up half-way through, or still feeling bewildered at the end. Most books really only teach you the constructs of a language, and really do not delve into the basics of programming. Here is one exception. Steve Heller makes no assumptions of the reader's experience, except that they have a willingness and desire to learn, and can at least issue commands at the DOS prompt. The journey takes you through the inners of your computer, looking at programming firstly at its lowest, then its highest level, using C++ as the language. What makes the book even more unique is the inclusion of an email tutorial between Steve and his now wife Susan, who was a complete novice. She often becomes bewildered with Steve's explanations (even though they are very clear), and he draws out the explanation until she understands. In this way, no reader should finish the book without a fundamental grasp in programming. The book does not make you a C++ programmer - it merely acts as a starting point, giving you enough to be able to go onto more advanced material. If you have any interest in programming yet have found it difficult to get started, do yourself a favour and buy this book - you won't be disappointed.

Heller makes the typical mistake that experienced practicioners in any field make when trying to teach the novice.

That mistake is teaching the theoretical underpinnings of the field before supplying any significant amount of practical information on how to excute the basic tasks involved in that field.

An understanding of theory is, of course, critical to the expert practitioner in any field. But a novice must learn what and how before why, or he is liable to become frustrated and lose interest. The whys and wherefores only make sense once they explain the reasoning behind practices that one is familiar with.

Couple this with the fact that the compiler supplied with the book is obscure and difficult for the novice to operate, and you've got a course in C++ theory rather than something a beginner can practice and learn off of.

In fact, Heller only provides instruction in using makefiles to compile his sample programs in the book...a novice user who wished to practice by writing his own would probably have no idea how to get them compiled and linked.

While this book is not badly written or obscure, I could not recommend it as a primary learning text. Mr. Heller has simply forgotten what it is like to be a beginner, and is teaching the things that he, from the standpoint of already knowing the material, considers most important, rather than what will move a beginner from confusion to basic competence and ability to persue further knowledge with relative ease.

Theory only makes sense when it explains something you have already been doing. Leave it for the intermediate student.

I would recommend this book as a supplemental text, but not as a primary one.

This book is best viewed as two halfs. The first half was actually not too bad giving the reader a quick course in computer rudements. Then something happened, I think the author did a word count and found he was half way through the amount of book he had agreed to write. The problem was that he was only about a tenth through the material he wanted to cover. The resulting chaos is a mix of too much detail, too little detail and great gobs of print devoted to his "reader" and her confusions. One is left wondering what the purpose of the book was. It was certainly NOT to teach anyone C++! The signal to noise ratio is incredably low. And at the rate the author uses you would need about 20 of these books to get the fundamentals of the language. The author himself admits that the book covers only about 5% of what one would need to program. Add all this to a writeing style that is at best, annoying, and this book is pretty much a waste of time and money. Ive read 5 books recently on the subject and this one is at the bottom. My recommendation to the determined student would be to learn the language elsewhere, from the ground up. To summarize: The first half is not too bad and should have been a seperate book on computer rudements. The second half is a chaotic mix of too quick, too slow and too much "reader". A waste of time and money.

As a novice programmer I was looking for an easy to understand, structural, yet comprehensive C++ book to learn the basics and maybe some more intermediate concepts from. Unfortuanately, I did not find such a book; that is until I picked up Steve Heller's "Who's Afraid of C++". Wow! is my initial reaction. The feedback and interaction with the novice student who implicitly assumes the role of the reader was not only innovative but very helpful in the comprehensive, easy-to-understand explanations of C++ concepts. The concepts are easy to follow, yet informative enough even for intermediate programmers. Unfortunately, there is a drawback to this book. This book is out of print. But don't worry there is a new title out encompassing "Who's Afraid of C++" and "Who's Afraid of More C++", entitled "Learning to Program in C++". This book also contains revisions to the origianl first two books. I look forward to reading this title as well. I highly recommend this book.

In my vocabulary there is only one word that perfectly describes this book: "wow". I am very impressed with this book. It is a excellent book on c++ for the beginner. I highly recommend it. It includes all the technical stuff but Steve explains it in such a way that it makes programming look easy to the newbie. I have a good collection of c++ books but this one takes the cake. A++++

As a College Instructor, it is very important to convey concepts to knowledge hungry students. Mr. Heller's approach to examining the C++ language is exceptional! Students are able to grasp concepts of the C++ language and the sytle of using a NON-PROGRAMMER for feed back is truly an authoring innovation. Thank YOU Mr. Heller!!!

I notice that everyone gives this book 5 stars. I can't believe it. It really isn't very good. I come from a background of simple languages like Qbasic and Turbo Pascal, and I have read several programming primers. Who's Afraid of C++ is definitely the worst I have ever seen. It spends way too much time blabbing on and on about stories, and is filled with long chunks of dialog with his test reader. I firmly believe that the best way to learn to program is to learn through experimentation and exercises, guided by a book. This book doesn't spend nearly enough time showing how different aspects of the language work. Instead, (when it isn't telling a useless story) it uses giant example programs. It does not encourage trying out your own programs at all. In fact, it doesn't even teach you how to compile programs. It merely allows you to compile the authors source using a batch file. So when a beginner attempts to write their own program, (that's what programming is for) they don't have a clue! This book is all filler and no meat.

"Who's Afraid of C++?" really helped me come on board to C++ -- FAST! I've been developing application software for a number of years. Several years ago I started using C. Recently I began coding with C++. I was having trouble with some of the concepts and usage of classes, inheritance, polymorphism, templates, etc., etc. I was spending a lot of time spinning my wheels -- and who has time to spin their wheels?!! Who's Afraid of C++? gave me the "info push" I needed to get going. It provided the basics in a straight forward manner. It also had good, solid code examples. The book did not bog me down with the details of all the techie nuances available in C++. It gave me the information I needed to start using C++. Once I got going with C++ I found concepts that were hazy started making sense. The "light buld" and "oh I get it..." happened more and more! Boy, did that feel good!! Who's Afraid gave me the C++ foundation that helped me move along to more advance C++ techniques; and it's let me wade into Steve Heller's, "Efficient C/C++ Programming, Smaller, Faster, Better."