Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book for VB-><-C++ programmer
Review: An excellent book for those high-end VB developers who sometime feel as a language VB is not 99% perfect for power user. This book doesn't teach nitty-gritty details about VB or C++ but teach how to build a bridge between the most user friendly programming language (VB) and most powerful language (C++) to date and use the both language in your advantage. Good Job!
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Start
Review: As another review mentioned this book should actually be called "Visual C++ for VB Programmers (Or better yet 'How To Write VC++ Components For Your VB Programers')" but that dosen't make it any less of a good book. The first half of the book takes you through C++ giving you the foundation you'll need to handle the last half of the book which is orientated entirely towards making DLL/COM Components. The two major 'projects' you will complete in this book (a file spliter, and a system tray icon handler) are both real world examples which help you understand how you can use C++ to implement your own components.So if you're looking for a book that will teach you indepth C++ then this probably isn't for you, but if you like me are a Visual Basic programmer who wants to be able to write things in C++ for that extra boost of speed then make sure you add this book to your library.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, Excellent, Excellent!!
Review: Clear explanations, fascinating examples, good humor. Thanks Jonathan.
Rating:
Summary: Oh for shame!
Review: Don't let your co-workers catch you reading this one. Imagine how embarassing it will be when they learn you are not a *real* programmer. So read it at home with the lights out and a flashlight.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: Don't think you will come out of this book knowing C++, but, if you are a VB programmer, and have the patience to work through this book end to end, you will have put a good solid first foot into learning C++. If you have the constitution to dive right into one of the Bibles (Lippman, Stroustrup, etc) and work your way all the way up to COM+/.Net Managed Code, hey, go nuts. For everybody else, pick this up as a useful, practical, pre-lesson. Sorry about all the commas.
Rating: 
Summary: NOT ENOUGH SUBSTANCE
Review: GOOD IDEA, BUT NOT ENOUGH substance to make it worthwhile. There is a strong need for a book that helps VB programmers become productive with C++, but this book doesn't adequately fill that need. ON THE POSITIVE SIDE, this book doesn't cover programming something in C++ that you can do easier and quicker using Visual Basic. However, what it does include isn't enough to be be useful. For example, it doesn't include how to create an NT service. The book has more VB code than C++ code and has detailed explanations about how VB works. Since this book is for VB programmers, I expected to see more C++ code and I find these examples to be useless. There just isn't enought useful information in this book to make it worthwhile. I am very disappointed in my purchase.
Rating: 
Summary: Definately not for new commers to C++
Review: I had great success with a simular book "SQL server for Access programers" and figured this book would get me programming in C++ very quickly. The author of this book spends too much time comparing VB and C++ and does not do a good job of thouroughly explaining the C++ code he heaps on you. He takes you from 0-60 in just a couple of chapters, and rather than giving concise clear explanations of how the code works, he expects you to infer how the syntax works through comparing and contrasting it to VB code. He covers too much ground in too short of a time for you too digest it. The only reason I got as far as I did in the book is because I took a course in "C" several years ago. That being the case, I got about halfway through the book, uncrossed my eyes and returned it in favor of "C++ Primer" by Addison and Wesley, which recieved decent reviews on this site. If you have experience with VB AND C or C++ this book will most likely be of very good use to you for learning how to interoperate between the two languages, but be warned you will not learn enough of the c language from this book to write standard C programs. RT,
MCSE, MCDBA, Master Instructor MS Office
Rating:
Summary: Definately not for new commers to C++
Review: I had great success with a simular book "SQL server for Access programers" and figured this book would get me programming in C++ very quickly. The author of this book spends too much time comparing VB and C++ and does not do a good job of thouroughly explaining the C++ code he heaps on you. He takes you from 0-60 in just a couple of chapters, and rather than giving concise clear explanations of how the code works, he expects you to infer how the syntax works through comparing and contrasting it to VB code. He covers too much ground in too short of a time for you too digest it. The only reason I got as far as I did in the book is because I took a course in "C" several years ago. That being the case, I got about halfway through the book, uncrossed my eyes and returned it in favor of "C++ Primer" by Addison and Wesley, which recieved decent reviews on this site. If you have experience with VB AND C or C++ this book will most likely be of very good use to you for learning how to interoperate between the two languages, but be warned you will not learn enough of the c language from this book to write standard C programs. RT,
MCSE, MCDBA, Master Instructor MS Office
Rating:
Summary: Definately not for new commers to C++
Review: I had great success with a simular book "SQL server for Access programers" and figured this book would get me programming in C++ very quickly. The author of this book spends too much time comparing VB and C++ and does not do a good job of thouroughly explaining the C++ code he heaps on you. He takes you from 0-60 in just a couple of chapters, and rather than giving concise clear explanations of how the code works, he expects you to infer how the syntax works through comparing and contrasting it to VB code. He covers too much ground in too short of a time for you too digest it. The only reason I got as far as I did in the book is because I took a course in "C" several years ago. That being the case, I got about halfway through the book, uncrossed my eyes and returned it in favor of "C++ Primer" by Addison and Wesley, which recieved decent reviews on this site. If you have experience with VB AND C or C++ this book will most likely be of very good use to you for learning how to interoperate between the two languages, but be warned you will not learn enough of the c language from this book to write standard C programs. RT,
MCSE, MCDBA, Master Instructor MS Office
Rating:
Summary: Should be titled "Supplementing VB Projects With VC++"
Review: I have been waiting for YEARS!! *FINALLY*, there is a C++ beginner's book for the VB crowd!! I was beginning to think that if I ever figure this stuff out myself I'd have to write a book of my own, the first of its kind. Now I know I don't have to. :) Unfortunately, the book is not intended to help you develop C++ projects. Rather, the book is intended to allow you to utilize Visual C++ to enhance your VB applications. The first half of the book relates to the basic C++ syntax, pointers, and OOP concepts, the latter half of the book focuses almost entirely on deploying COM objects with Visual C++. In other words, this book will NOT take a VB programmer and make him a C++ applications developer. It would certainly give him a boost in that direction, with some guidance from other resources; however, that is not the objective of this book. The objective is clearly to help VB programmers supplement their VB projects with C++ components. Morrison has an approachable writing style. He tends to take the approach, "Here's what you might do in VB, now here's how the same thing looks in C++". I like that approach, but unfortunately it sometimes comes with pages upon pages of mundane VB source code and its C++ counter-blob. C++ files are seperated by source code comments, or sometimes not at all, with poor consistency. I would rather have seen either a tree diagram of the final file structure or a digital copy of the source on the CD-ROM. I'm rather irritated with the publisher for including a CD-ROM that doesn't have a copy of the source code from the book! There should have been PLENTY of room left over to throw in the source. Fortunately, the source code can still be downloaded from the publisher's web site. One important thing that should be noted: This book is mistitled. It should be __VISUAL__ C++ for VB Programmers, not C++ for VB Programmers. The book clearly targets the Microsoft VC++ IDE. If you intend not to supplement your VB projects but to dive into real-world C++ applications, this book should be accompanied with a few other VC++ books, as there will likely be a need to retrieve alternative explanations of various concepts or language features in order to fully understand them. I've found these books to be the best: C++ Primer Plus (Steven Prata; MacMillan), Programming Windows (Charles Petzold; Microsoft), Visual C++ 6.0 Bible (Leinecker and Archer; IDG), and Programming Microsoft Visual C++ (Kruglinski, others; Microsoft).
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