In article <3vp765$1rl@nnrp2.primenet.com> jesmith@primenet.com (J Smith) writes:
>From: jesmith@primenet.com (J Smith)
>Subject: Re: Q: Books on C++
>Date: Wed, 02 Aug 1995 23:59:41 GMT

>rkwan@unixg.ubc.ca (Raymond Wan) wrote:

>>       And while we're on the subject of computer books...has anyone
>>seen the yellow "Dummy" books?  I took a look at one and I felt it was
>>confusing and not as good as this one, yet those yellow books are all
>>over the place!  Anyone read one, yet?

>C++ for Dummies is the book that really got me over the hump, in
>learning C++.  This book states the obvious, which is what
>I really needed.

>I've used the "Learn *** in 21 days"  and do think that they are
>pretty good.  However, I type in  all the code, so that I have to
>debug all my typing mistakes...(learn a lot that way).


I've use Borland C++ for dummies and found it confusing as well
A book i like though is Teach Yourself C the second edition it is well
organized and easy to follow... I found the DUMMIES books spend way to
much time trying to make a joke then they do teaching you.

rkwan@unixg.ubc.ca (Raymond Wan) wrote:

> And while we're on the subject of computer books...has anyone
>seen the yellow "Dummy" books?  I took a look at one and I felt it was
>confusing and not as good as this one, yet those yellow books are all
>over the place!  Anyone read one, yet?

C++ for Dummies is the book that really got me over the hump, in
learning C++.  This book states the obvious, which is what
I really needed.

I've used the "Learn *** in 21 days"  and do think that they are
pretty good.  However, I type in  all the code, so that I have to
debug all my typing mistakes...(learn a lot that way).

Good reading for me was:
 C++ Primer Plus
from The Waite Group's by Stephen Prata.  I remember was able to just read and
understand this book without many returns or reference jumps.

ISBN 1-878739-02-6

_._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._
Leshek Fiedorowicz       AIC / Lexmark - Printer Desktop Management Interface
leshek@lexmark.com              Senior Computer Systems Engineer / Consultant
74170.2007@compuserve.com                                in Lexington KY, USA

: >I am looking for recommendations on C++ books for someone who is going
: >to teach themselves?  Please send titles/authors with reasons why to:

 I would recommend Teach Yourself C++ Programming in 21 Days
(someone earlier recommended the Borland one, but I haven't seen it).
Which book you want doesn't matter...what I like is the teaching style.
It breaks down the work into 21 days (each day, probably half an hour or
less of work, I guess) and it gets to the point, instead of giving some
stupid examples that some text give for structured programming or
something (we've all heard the assembly line example, haven't we???  :)
).  I would recommend any book in this series, by Sams Publishing.  This
book is by Jesse Liberty.

 And while we're on the subject of computer books...has anyone
seen the yellow "Dummy" books?  I took a look at one and I felt it was
confusing and not as good as this one, yet those yellow books are all
over the place!  Anyone read one, yet?


Raymond Wan

rkwan@unixg.ubc.ca (Raymond Wan) wrote:
>: >I am looking for recommendations on C++ books for someone who is going
>: >to teach themselves?  Please send titles/authors with reasons why to:
>
> I would recommend Teach Yourself C++ Programming in 21 Days
>(someone earlier recommended the Borland one, but I haven't seen it).
>Which book you want doesn't matter...what I like is the teaching style.
>It breaks down the work into 21 days (each day, probably half an hour or
>less of work, I guess) and it gets to the point, instead of giving some
>stupid examples that some text give for structured programming or
>something (we've all heard the assembly line example, haven't we???  :)
>).  I would recommend any book in this series, by Sams Publishing.  This
>book is by Jesse Liberty.
>
> ...
>
>Raymond Wan
>

I would have to strongly recommend _against_ "Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days".
The girlfriend of someone in our lab was using it to learn C++.  In my opinion,
that book is a disaster of errors.  We spent a couple of hours laughing over
the gross errors.  I don't have a copy of the book around now, so I can't quote
anything directly, nor can I give the exact edition we were looking at.
I can say that the book was purchased within the last 3-4 months.

Often the book would feature questions such as "Find the bug in the code...."
The analysis of the question would point out non-existent errors, and miss
the ones that really were there.  These were not isolated incidents.
Every chapter we looked through was riddled with errors that, in my opinion,
would make it very difficult for a beginner to make progress.  At the very
least, any progress made would be in spite of the book.

For a review of C++ texts, I suggest looking at the web site:
   http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/C-faq/learn-c-cpp-today/faq.html

It's maintained by Vinit Carpenter (carpenter@vms.csd.mu.edu), so maybe
you can email him if you don't have web access.  I emailed him with my
comments on the Sams "Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days" and he replied that
he has heard similar horror stories, and said that the publishers were
planning a new edition or something like that.

I found the book by Ira Pohl (I forget the name, it had a picture of some
chess pieces on the cover) good to learn with, fairly complete and clear.
"The C++ Programming Language" by Bjarne Stroustrup proves itself very useful
in the long-run, but I wouldn't say it's the best for learning.  "Programming
in C++" by Dewhurst & Stark is OK, but not too great.  It never seems to go
into enough detail.  I would have to recommend the one by Ira Pohl, although
I think most people will need a book like Stroustrups eventually (and with
programming, eventually usually comes quite quickly.)

For what it's worth,

Paul LeMahieu

<lemahieu> wrote:
>rkwan@unixg.ubc.ca (Raymond Wan) wrote:
>>: >I am looking for recommendations on C++ books for someone who is going
>>: >to teach themselves?  Please send titles/authors with reasons why to:
>>
>> I would recommend Teach Yourself C++ Programming in 21 Days
>>(someone earlier recommended the Borland one, but I haven't seen it).

>I would have to strongly recommend _against_ "Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days".
>The girlfriend of someone in our lab was using it to learn C++.  In my opinion,
>that book is a disaster of errors.  We spent a couple of hours laughing over

Not to be confused with "Teach Yourself Borland C++ 4.5 in 21 Days" by Shammas,
Arnush, and Mulroy, ISBN 0-672-30598-4.

All of the examples I have tried worked OK.  It really took longer than 21 days and
I did not proceed linearly through the book, but it was helpful to have around for
examples of particular topics.  I'll secon someone else who suggested that you need
more than one book, especially after you get past the beginning stages.

I can recommend Patrick Henry Winston's book "On to C++".  It well done and covers a
lot of territory by developing an OO example in 300 pages.  It is not compiler
specific.  ISBN 0-201-58043-8

Jim

--
===================================================================

James M. Potter, President      Internet: jpawi@roadrunner.com
JP Accelerator Works, Inc.      AOL: jpawi@aol.com
2245 47th Street                Voice: 505-662-5804
Los Alamos, NM 87544-1604       FAX: 505-662-5210

You might take a look at Patrick Henry Winston's book, "On to C++" ISBN
0-201-58043-8.  It's only 0.5" thick.  It is not compiler specific.  It leads you
from a rather elementary beginning level through object oriented programming by
using an easily understood example that is built up gradually.  The text is very
well organized and clearly written.  I found it useful for getting started.  (My
background was Fortran with a bit of Pascal over the years and no C or OOP
experience whatsoever.  Now I'm using OWL and trying to track down memory leaks.  I
didn't know when I was well off.)

Jim

--
===================================================================

James M. Potter, President      Internet: jpawi@roadrunner.com
JP Accelerator Works, Inc.      AOL: jpawi@aol.com
2245 47th Street                Voice: 505-662-5804
Los Alamos, NM 87544-1604       FAX: 505-662-5210

In article <3uoau8$a9s@bcrkh13.bnr.ca> robertk@bnr.ca (Robert Kaczynski P765) writes:


>I am looking for recommendations on C++ books for someone who is going
>to teach themselves?  Please send titles/authors with reasons why to:

>robertk@bnr.ca
>or
>2029071@bob.com
>or you can just followup this message.
>Thanks in advance.

As someone in the same boat as yourself, I've tried 3 different texts:

1): Teach yourself Borland C++ 4.5, by Shammas, Arnush & Mulroy (Sams
     publishing)
         This book of course assumes you're using Borland's compiler, and it
         also assumes you're familiar with programming syntax... it's a bit
         over my head in some respects, as I'm new to programming

2): C++ How to Program, by Deitel/Deitel (Prentice Hall Publishing)
         Lots of useful stuff here, but it throws a lot at you really fast...
         a bit cluttered for my liking

3): Problem Solving, Abstraction, and Design Using C++, by Friedman/Koffman
     (Addison Wesley Publishing)
          This is a very clear, easy-to-follow introductory text... my
          favorite by far. It presents each new topic thoroughly  and in
          a logical order. The book was created with help from a National
          Science Foundation course development grant.

I am looking for recommendations on C++ books for someone who is going
to teach themselves?  Please send titles/authors with reasons why to:

robertk@bnr.ca

or

2029071@bob.com

or you can just followup this message.

Thanks in advance.