Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-programming (91 mails)

[alan@xxxxxxxxxxx]

On 3 May 2003, Jerry Feldman wrote

> One needs to have a good foundation in a language before using things
> like the STL. But, it is important to understand the STL also. Vectors,
> trees, stacks and many other template classes you can build on. 
>
> One can say the same thing about arithmetic. You should learn to add,
> subtract, divide and multiply before you use a calculator. 
-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf@xxxxxxx>


On 3 May 2003 at 22:48, Christian Andersson wrote:

[snip...]

> 8. I'm not intending to shine with my implementation, but I do certainly
> think that the standard library should be studied from the beginning,
> together with the rest of the language. C++ is not simply 'C with classes'.
> It is a complete language of its own, with a very powerful standardized
> library.
> 
> 9. Besides Lippman-Lajoie, I'd like to push for the following titles:
> 
> - Stroustrup: The C++ Programming Language, 3rd Edition, Addison-Wesley -
> Josuttis: The C++ Standard Library, Addison-Wesley
> 
> -- 
> Ch

I know there is a lot of disagreement over this issue! I personally feel 
that the STL should be taught as soon as possible. Most of the more recent 
books for new C++ programmers take this approach too - for example Koenig 
& Moo's 'Accelerated C++'. I think it's important to teach people not to 
re-invent the wheel at an early stage :)

The Stroustrup book is good - it has a slightly different slant to Lippman-
Lajoie. I actually use both of them. If I get stuck I look it up in one 
and if I'm still having difficulty I then look it up in the other one. The 
different styles of explanation usually mean that one of the two is easier 
to understand on that issue.

I don't think Nico Josuttis's book is a 'lerners' book. It is however a 
superb reference book for the STL - if you are going to get a book on the 
STL, it is the 'must have' one.

Btw, a good place to check out books is

	http://www.accu.org/bookreviews/public/index.htm

All the reviews are done by programmers.

Hmmm... I hope people don't think this is hijacking the thread :)

alan
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