Rating: 
Summary: Just getting Started
Review: I'm really just getting started with the Windows portion of this book. I found the coverage of C++ pretty good - well, maybe excellant would be better.A 1000 pages - man I don't know how those other guys got through the book this fast. One thing I know - the programs I tried worked the first time. Something that most books can't say about their code.
Rating: 
Summary: Totally disappointed!
Review: If you know C++ already and only need a book to tell you something about visual c++ .NET, DO NOT buy this book. It really starts to teach you about Visual C++ .NET from page 664. More than 50% of the book is on C++. P.S. it's also not a good book for learning pure C++.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good but did we forget something?
Review: Let me start with the negative first - The cover says "Create Web Services" but I didn't see that material in the book when I looked at it in the book store. What happened guys - did the book get a little too thick? I think they must have decided to cut this material before the book got too heavy to carry around. Guys - you need to take that info off the front cover! Okay, with that said and done, the authors have stayed true to earlier editions. I'm glad to see they took out all of their old C code programs. The book is exclusively C++ except for a couple of chapters that introduce C# (we'll forgive them). For people just getting started with C++ like high school and college students - you couldn't buy a better book. The core material on C++ is top notch. When I say core material I'm talking about Chapters 1 to 19. Now if you are a little advanced and want to get into Windows programming, read on. Chapters 20 to 23 do a great jon of bringing the material from the beginning chapters into the Windows programs. The remainder of the books deals with topics that are beyond my interest. However, they are topics that many will find interesting. It just seems to me that if you want that kind of high powered high level information you should be buying a book devoted just to those high level topics. Anyway, I like the book and even though I already own the earlier version, I bought this version JUST for the chapters on the Standard Template Libraries (STL).
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good but did we forget something?
Review: Let me start with the negative first - The cover says "Create Web Services" but I didn't see that material in the book when I looked at it in the book store. What happened guys - did the book get a little too thick? I think they must have decided to cut this material before the book got too heavy to carry around. Guys - you need to take that info off the front cover! Okay, with that said and done, the authors have stayed true to earlier editions. I'm glad to see they took out all of their old C code programs. The book is exclusively C++ except for a couple of chapters that introduce C# (we'll forgive them). For people just getting started with C++ like high school and college students - you couldn't buy a better book. The core material on C++ is top notch. When I say core material I'm talking about Chapters 1 to 19. Now if you are a little advanced and want to get into Windows programming, read on. Chapters 20 to 23 do a great jon of bringing the material from the beginning chapters into the Windows programs. The remainder of the books deals with topics that are beyond my interest. However, they are topics that many will find interesting. It just seems to me that if you want that kind of high powered high level information you should be buying a book devoted just to those high level topics. Anyway, I like the book and even though I already own the earlier version, I bought this version JUST for the chapters on the Standard Template Libraries (STL).
Rating:
Summary: A real complete reference
Review: My father gave me a book by Murray and Pappas about 10 years ago. It was on assembly language programming. He said it saved his job at General Electric. I used it in college and found it to be very helpful. I guess these are the same guys. Anyway, my company wants to convert some old program code to C++. I had a course in C, but didn't know that much about C++ classes and objects. Well, this book will get you up and running pretty fast. They do a really good job on classes, objects and all of the other object oriented stuff. The best part is how they integrate it with Windows code. I was interested to MFC but most of the books I read assume you know C++ when you want to do MFC. Not this book! They picked me up by my bootstrapes and got me into MFC quickly. Some of the topics, like COM+, are a little advanced for me at this time, but I guess that is what a complete reference is all about. Thanks guys! (and if my father were still alive I think he would thank you too).
Rating:
Summary: pointers
Review: My name is Hi and I live in southern California. I work for my uncle doing consulting work. I have programmed in C++ but always had trouble with pointers. This book by Murry and Pappas is a good book. I have now written three programs using pointers and gotten praise from others at the company. I would buy more of there books.
Rating:
Summary: 1,000 pages covering the diverse formatting and programming
Review: Reap the benefits of Visual C++ .NET with the help of Visual C++ .NET: The Complete Reference, an expertly written, all-encompassing resource. Readers will learn how they can utilize the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment to consolidate tools from various languages, such as C++ and C#, into a simplified, powerful set of shared tools. Increase application performance by learning to incorporate the ATL Server. Readers will learn the foundations of good class design, and then be able to follow logical steps to the creation of successful object-oriented program solutions. Visual C++ .NET: The Complete Reference, anyone can readily delve into more than 1,000 pages covering the diverse formatting and programming capabilities of this amazing and versatile computer language. 1073 pages.
Rating: 
Summary: C++ and a tiny bit of .Net
Review: The book spends the first 19 chapters on C++, which seems to me is not something I expect from a reference book (Herbert Schildt's C++: The Complete Reference suffices). When you get to Chapter 21, you realize that you're writing not using managed code, instead, you find yourself writing Win32 API's! The book should have focused on manage code, that's what Visual C++.NET is. If I wanted to read a book that focused on Win32 API's, I'd use another book. The book hardly focuses on managed code, which is the foundation of .NET (regardless of the language). I'm not at all surprised why I bought the book for $4.99 at my local bookstore.
Rating:
Summary: Not really .NET
Review: The book spends the first 19 chapters on C++, which seems to me is not something I expect from a reference book (Herbert Schildt's C++: The Complete Reference suffices). When you get to Chapter 21, you realize that you're writing not using managed code, instead, you find yourself writing Win32 API's! The book should have focused on manage code, that's what Visual C++.NET is. If I wanted to read a book that focused on Win32 API's, I'd use another book. The book hardly focuses on managed code, which is the foundation of .NET (regardless of the language). I'm not at all surprised why I bought the book for $4.99 at my local bookstore.
Rating:
Summary: Totally disappointing book
Review: The contents of this book is NOT what the title says
and if I want to guess the target readers the authors had in mind, it is for a reader who never saw Windows before and just joined a computer science course, it teaches what is a variable,
loops, arrays, and OOP, only until page 664 you will read window programming and that is almost 2/3 of the book and what you get at that point windows can run more than one program at the same time and you'll see a big picture (figure 20-4) windows running three applications as a proof!!!
You will NEVER see .NET in this book other than in the book title.
NOTHING complete in this "complete reference" no complete projects nor even how to compile them which is very essential for a beginner this defies classifying it for a beginner,
I my self won't recommend it for a beginner, there are far better books that teaches C++ and windows programming.
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