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Summary: Get this book!!!!
Review: You will not be sorry with the purchase of this book. I have spent considerable money on many 'Teach Yourself' titles, only to find myself giving up half-way through, or still feeling bewildered at the end. Most books really only teach you the constructs of a language, and really do not delve into the basics of programming. Here is one exception. Steve Heller makes no assumptions of the reader's experience, except that they have a willingness and desire to learn, and can at least issue commands at the DOS prompt. The journey takes you through the inners of your computer, looking at programming firstly at its lowest, then its highest level, using C++ as the language. What makes the book even more unique is the inclusion of an email tutorial between Steve and his now wife Susan, who was a complete novice. She often becomes bewildered with Steve's explanations (even though they are very clear), and he draws out the explanation until she understands. In this way, no reader should finish the book without a fundamental grasp in programming. The book does not make you a C++ programmer - it merely acts as a starting point, giving you enough to be able to go onto more advanced material. If you have any interest in programming yet have found it difficult to get started, do yourself a favour and buy this book - you won't be disappointed.
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Summary: learn programming & OOP without any effort with this book
Review: The book is comprehensible even if you don't already know C, in fact this is the only C++ book FULLY understandable to anyone, that i know.If you are trying to learn a programming language or OOP for the first time you'll surely succeed starting with this. Heller's book give the bases and make other C++ material (even Stroustrup!) much easier to understand. I appreciated the clear explanation of data abstraction and of the object oriented benefits, the overloading concept, the memory allocation, the strings... in a nutshell every thing in this book is explained in a very clear way. This book is surely the best to begin studing C++.. the best for beginners and even an interesting reading for experienced programmers in languages other than C++. It is also a good reading for teachers 'cause i think Heller's teaching method is revolutionary. Antonio Bonifati
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Summary: "Who's Afraid of C++?" is a great book!
Review: I read "Who's Afraid of C++?", and I think it's a great book for learning C++. Steve Heller has done an excellent job of explaining it and applying it to programs that could actually be used, rather than "sample" programs. Susan's comments are very helpful in clarifying some harder parts. If you want to learn C++ programming and are willing to take the time to think about it, I highly recommend it, even if you don't know anything about programming.
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Summary: Suitable for novices with some caveats
Review: This is a very fresh approach to a technical text but it is lacking in many areas. I would only recommend this book if the student was using it along with another text. One major complaint is the use of the "conversational technique" with the novice user.
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Summary: I wish all technical books were written as clearly as this.
Review: From now on, whenever someone asks me how to learn C++, this is the first book I will give them. I've read several books on learning C++ and this is by far the best I've encountered. Definitely worth the price of admission! The book is well written and contains lots of examples. The tone is very casual, which I found made it an easy read. The book includes questions and comments from a person named Susan, who acted as a "test reader" for the book. (Susan had no previous programming background.) Throughout the book there is an ongoing Q & A style dialogue between Mr. Heller and Susan. I found this to be a great way of reinforcing the material. Also, the dialogue is rather entertaining at times. I might add that I've been programming on and off in various languages for the last 17 years. And although Heller's book is written for the novice, he covers things so thoroughly that even programming concepts that I've known for years became more clear to me. For example, the brief explanation on how programs are converted from a high level language to machine instructions is one of the clearest explanations I've ever read.
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Summary: I think it's very good
Review: I'm an italian friend, I think that this book is the best method to learn C++, Steve Heller use an easy language and too a beginner, like me, can to understand. Excuse me for language.
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Summary: Excellent for beginning C++
Review: As a College Instructor, it is very important to convey concepts to knowledge hungry students. Mr. Heller's approach to examining the C++ language is exceptional! Students are able to grasp concepts of the C++ language and the sytle of using a NON-PROGRAMMER for feed back is truly an authoring innovation. Thank YOU Mr. Heller!!!
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Summary: All good beginner's book
Review: Read this then you are ready to start programming. Of course, you are at ground zero. Now that you understand the rudiments of the computer programming and basics of C++ you can start learning the rest of the language and the rest of what it means to program in C++. Start with this one, or you may start off with skewed knowledge.
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Summary: GREAT BOOK ON PROGRAMMING
Review: If my 66 year old mom wanted to learn how to program, I'd give her this book. This is the only programming book I have read that truly assumes the reader knows nothing about computers or computer programming. Mr. Heller takes one from a know nothing computer wanna be to a novice programmer an a few hundred pages. He covers not only C++ programming but also how computers work and how they execute applications. I'd recommend this book for people like me who want to program for fun. I would think that it would make a great first porgramming text for those moving on to serious professional programming. As an added bonus, Mr Heller is available for questions via email. And he is really available. I sent him several emails asking questions and the longest I waited for a reply was 20 hours. I actually got one response in less than 5 minutes. GET THIS BOOK!!!
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Summary: simply wonderful
Review: April/04/99 Induno Olona(va).Italy Dear Steve. I want emphasize how much I had appreciate your book:"Who's Afraid of C++?"(italian version"Chi ha paura del C++?"by Mc.Graw Hill). In fact wos the only book that helped me to REALLY understand C++ language and its interaction witht CPU,RAM,and all hard PC components. Only after study on your book I realized all the potentialities of this particular programming language,and now I am able to make some useful and working programs. My annoyance is can have read only this book,fault my poor inglish,and I am anxiously waiting the italian version of your"Who's Still Some what Apprensive of C++ ?"for extend my knowledg about C++: with regard your pupill Umberto Ronchey
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