On Tuesday 01 April 2003 08:02 am, Jerry Feldman wrote:
On Tue, 1 Apr 2003 07:28:28 -0500
"Steven T. Hatton"
wrote: ... There has to be a better way of getting started than this. Are there any good books that teach C++ using these new standard libraries? I.e., a book that starts with the kind of hello world I ended up with after a few iterations? ... And then there's doing things correctly. That's where really knowing the language, and all the nuances comes in.
The Deitel books are very good. I have the C version.
Please don't mistake the following question as my ignoring your advice regarding Deitel. His books have been recommended by many people whom I hold in high regard. I may purchase his Book, and the Primer. With that said, please allow me to elaborate on what I am looking for in a C++ book. I am looking for a self-contained presentation of the language that introduces the components of the language in a mathematical spirit. That is, as Spinoza attempted with Ethics, I am looking for 'C++ presented in geometric order'. I want to see definitions of what constitutes an identifier, a key word, an expression, a function, a class, etc., _before_ the concepts are used. The exception might be the inclusion of a "Tutorial Introduction" similar to the one found in K&R. Did K&R ever write a C++ book? ;-)
We don't use that at Northeastern because the book was too difficult for the students. I will never understand how that works. I often find the books that the other students find 'easy' to be so full of fluff that I lose focus and interest. When I took Pascal, I read Cooper. When I took C I read K&R. When I took C++ I floundered around looking for that essential presentation, which I didn't find. Perhaps Deitel's is that book. I suspect the book I'm looking for is no more than 400 pages, and does not have many, if any, 'exercises'. IOW, I'm looking for an exposition, more than a classroom text.
I should observe that I think differently than most people. For example, I just finished chapter 4 of Ellis & Stroustrup. The one part that I believe I clearly understood was the part of 4.8 instroduced with the sentence "This may seem backwards at first." That part made perfect sense to me. You can't point at something that ain't there. I kind of understood the rest of the chapter, but chalked most of it up to a once over exposure to ideas I will need to review after (re)learning more of the language.
Another book I found useful several years ago was The C++ Primer. I was in a C++ shop with some very complex code and needed to upgrade my skills quickly.
I'm wondering if this would be a good choice: "C++ Programming Language, The: Special Edition , Third Edition" http://www.awprofessional.com/catalog/product.asp?product_id={DD9AAB03-6085-4008-A260-09D1F7592386} If it's similar to Ellis & Stroustrup's Book, it's not what I'm looking for.
Gerald Feldman
STH STH