C++ Programming for the Absolute Beginner

Rating:
Summary: Great samples, but some crucial mistakes
Review: Dear Amazon.com-browsing knowledge seeker:

If you read this book, you will find some great and very inventive sample programs. The problem is that in their zeal to present these programs, the authors failed to be certain
that the examples are free of data types not introduced in the
text explanations. THis is particularly bothersome when code dealing with objects is concerned.

I hope this comment is helpful.

your fearless reviewer.

Rating:
Summary: Great samples, but some crucial mistakes
Review: I am a beginner to c++. I am currently inroled in a c++ class in college and I read this book along with the course book. It's a great help. When reading the book I can now understand what the teacher is talking about in lecture. It's also nice to be able to help others in lab. Most of the programs in the book are games. This is nice for someone who want to get into the game industry(like me). This is a nice book for a beginner.

Rating:
Summary: Great for beginners :)
Review: I am a beginner to c++. I am currently inroled in a c++ class in college and I read this book along with the course book. It's a great help. When reading the book I can now understand what the teacher is talking about in lecture. It's also nice to be able to help others in lab. Most of the programs in the book are games. This is nice for someone who want to get into the game industry(like me). This is a nice book for a beginner.

Rating:
Summary: Has some problems
Review: I would have to agree with one of the other reviews here. Although it is well written most of the time, there are some mistakes. As of this writing I'm only through Chapter 1, so I can't speak for the rest of the book. Read on for some problems with this first chapter.

In the examples given by the authors they use commands that have not yet been introduced. While you can guess what the commands purpose is the authors should have explained it before they used it. Another problem is with the challenges in the first chapter. While the first four challenges are possible, the fifth is not if all your understanding is garnered from the first chapter. They ask you to write a program that is impossible to write without having read deeper into the book, specifically you need to use the 'if' command to write it. I also noticed while looking at the answer to this challenge in the appendix that there was a bug large enough that it would not have compiled if I had copied it.

Overall, from my experience with the first chapter, it's good, but be prepared to bang your head when the authors don't explain something.

Rating:
Summary: Gets the job done...
Review: This book is a decent beginners book, but I feel that it isn't exactly for the absolute beginner. The challenges at the end of each chapter could be a lot better, they don't completely test comprehension of all concepts in the chapter. If you are already familiar with another programming language, this is a good book to get you started with C++.

Rating:
Summary: Good Book When Taking With Another Course
Review: This book is one of my favorite C++ books. Now this book will only confuse you if your not in a C++ programming class. When I was taking a C++ class I found out it really helped out when taken with the class. Some of the other reviewers are right in the part where they say some examples have concepts not yet introduced. However, I found out that if you read over the concept after your teacher has gone over it in class it helps give you a clearer understanding. I would give this book between 4 and 4 1/4 stars if possible, mainly because the text does contain a couple of errors. However, since this book helped me out so much I'll give it a 5. This book even has an introduction to windows programming. Although it just goes over message boxes in dept it does give you some motivation for learning the Windows 32 API.

Rating:
Summary: Great but outdated
Review: This book was the most useful, informative, easiest, greatest reference for learning C++ in the world until it got into the chapters on directX programming. The book used directX7 while the world has moved on to DirectX 9 (and in the very near future DirectX 10).

I wholeheartedly reccommend the book to the beginning c++ programmer as a tool to teach you all the basics up to basic WINAPI programming. After that though, you will need a different book.

Rating:
Summary: Not quite for the beginner.
Review: This is a book that I have learned immensely from, and which stays on my desk as a quick reference due to the great charts and example code. That said, despite its title, I wouldn't reccomend this book to an "absolute beginner."

The book has a tendency to make assumptions that the reader has a grasp on some elementary programming concepts that not all beginners will have going in. Used in conjunction with another book or by someone that already has at least a limited programming background, and this book is extremely useful. The descriptions of syntax and purpose are a definite step up for a language reference, but at the same time, don't attempt to water down the material too far. As such, you may have to reread paragraphs two or three times before you "get it," but if you have to really think to understand a concept, you're more likely to remember it.

One final note regarding the last chapter dealing with DirectX - while it's a nice addition to the text, don't expect to learn much from that particular section, as it's a HUGE field that can't be covered in a single ~30 page chapter. It's a decent primer if you're interested in DirectX all the same, but you'll need to look in to specialized books if you're interested in that topic.

In all, this is a book I would reccomend without hesitation to any beginning-to-intermediate programmer as an excellent reference and learning guide - it has served me well.