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@blu.org>
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 -- http://www.ibgames.net/alan Registered Linux user #6822 http://counter.li.org Winding Down - Weekly Tech Newsletter - subscribe at http://www.ibgames.net/alan/winding/mailing.html