Rating: 
Summary: a good place to start...
Review: ... but it's really annoying that a new edition (the 4th) appeared so quickly on its heels. There's a lot to like about Savitch's thorough presentation. I must admit I find his prose more suited to an oral hearing than a reading; he just gets a bit too cute at times. That, I admit, might show my generation gap-py away! I do find the graphics miles ahead of his Java book and the earlier C++ books. The programming examples are excellent, and the self-tests are great. What I would like, if the publishers are into popping out new editions, is solutions to a few of the more complicated programming challenges at the end of the chapters.
Rating: 
Summary: This is how I learned to program in C++
Review: Among the many wonderful things about this book, in addition to it being easy to understand, is that it doesn't confine your learning of C++ to one particular compiler or platform. All the concepts and examples in this book should run fine on any decent C++ compiler. I used Visual C++ myself, but several others in my class used Code Warrior or Mac compilers. Yes, this was my textbook for a beginners programming course and I definitely kept it on my shelf instead of selling it on textbook buyback day at the college bookstore! Do youself a favor if you want to learn C++ and buy this book. It's easy enough to follow that I'm CERTAIN I didn't need to be enrolled in a college course to understand it. It will give you the foundation you will need for UNIX or Windows programming as you become more experienced. And besides all that, it is fun to read and not horribly dull and dry!
Rating:
Summary: Savitch's C++: Clear Plus Concise Plus Comprehensive
Review: Geared towards beginner with no prior programming knowledge, this book teaches the fundamentals of the C++ language in a way that is extremely easy to read yet is very comprehensive. Savitch's down-to-earth style doesn't attempt to impress the reader with overly complex examples or ambiguously stated text. The book was designed to give the reader a solid understanding of the basic programming skills involved with C++ and does just that in a clear, concise manner. The book includes questions and answers along with suggested programming projects designed to sharpen skills.
Rating:
Summary: The BEST book I have seen on C++
Review: I have looked at no fewer than 30 books on learning C++. This one is far and away the best I have seen. It's the only one that had the common sense to show you how the program will actually look on the computer screen. (very helpful!) And the program examples are logical and easy to follow. Other books I have ready discouraged me: Jesse Liberty's among them, because they started out with complex poorly explained programs and theory. This book is the opposite. Instead of discouraging you from programming, it will make you think you'll have it mastered in no time. Without a doubt, do not hesitate. If you want to learn programming, BUY THIS BOOK!!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent undergraduate text
Review: I have looked over a good number of C++ books for several of the undergraduate courses I teach. The wrong introduction can turn students off a language for life. Finding an introductory book with just the right pitch and level of difficulty is difficult. Savitch's book seems to fit my needs in this respect. It is accessible, readable and the examples are clear enough for students to work through without having to look over their shoulders continuously. yes, it is a litle on the wordy side, but it is a small defect overall. If you will continue to use C++, Savitch is a firm foundation for moving on to other more advanced texts. The bottom line is that you have to start somewhere in learning programming and this is as good as I have seen in C++.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent undergraduate text
Review: I have looked over a good number of C++ books for several of the undergraduate courses I teach. The wrong introduction can turn students off a language for life. Finding an introductory book with just the right pitch and level of difficulty is difficult. Savitch's book seems to fit my needs in this respect. It is accessible, readable and the examples are clear enough for students to work through without having to look over their shoulders continuously. yes, it is a litle on the wordy side, but it is a small defect overall. If you will continue to use C++, Savitch is a firm foundation for moving on to other more advanced texts. The bottom line is that you have to start somewhere in learning programming and this is as good as I have seen in C++.
Rating:
Summary: Great book for starters
Review: I have used this book for 2 months and it is absolutely great! The organization of the book eases the learning of C++, it has useful outlines, programming recommendations and examples that truly extract the essense of what must be mastered.
Even if you do not have background in programming, the book helps you very well to get acquanted with programing terms since it explains it in a neat yet brief manner.
A feature that I loved about the book is that all the terminology is bolded and an outline of the term is provided in the side of the paragraph. Hence, when you are looking for a certain term or an algorithm, you can search it pretty easily. Something like the "for dummies" book.
The suggested exercises are pretty neat as well, and although not complex they are very good to put into test what you are supposed to know.
In despite of all the goodies of the book. I think that if you are a professional programmer of C++ you will find this book elemental since it is an introduction of C++.
Rating:
Summary: Very well-explained; Incomplete
Review: I'm a CS/Math double major at Cameron University and this is, quite fortunately, the book we ended up using for my C.S. I class. Except for Dietel' excellent book (which I recommend even more than this one), there is no other book out there that explains the basics of C++ so clearly, at least that I have read. Topics difficult to the CS I student, such as classes, pointers, and virtual functions are explained eloquently with well-written examples. The sample code is a lot more simple and straight-forward than in many books but still illustrates the topics in detail.
The ordering of the book is one thing that may throw some people off, however. Arrays are introduced surprisingly late, and classes are introduced earlier than I have ever seen in a c++ textbook. This may be untraditional, but being introduced to classes early gives you a good jump-start into serious c++ programming. Although our class followed the chapters sequencially, the material is flexible and the order can be changed up to something more traditional (some suggested orderings are given in the introduction). Our class happenened to follow the material sequentially, so it was something I took note of.
The only real beef I had with this book is that it covers most, but not all of the basics. Macros and pragmas are not included and inline functions are only mentioned very briefly in the appendix without full explanation. Macro guards (#ifndef,#endif, etc.) are presented in chapter 9 but the concept of macros really isn't covered. The basic cin/cout streams are used and many stream functions are explained but a full explanation on handling streams and buffers is not included. Additionally, the STL libraries are barely touched on except for <vector> and <string>, but I guess, like us, that can be saved for a later course. Overall, I highly recommend this book for learning purposes, but eventually get a second reference.
Rating:
Summary: best for beginners
Review: If you don't know anything about C++ and have little experience with programming languages, this book is must to be bought. The technique that Savitch teaches is very different from other books' as I also know it from his Java book. This is the best for learners and you then have to pass through Deitel&Deitel's book after getting knowledge with this treasure.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of hand-holding and fluff - little insight
Review: It's a mediocre book and I'll tell you why:
1. an alternative title could be: C++ for Idiots.
2. VERY intro level text - get ready to learn (yet again) how to use a "for" loop.
3. Very wordy and obtuse writing style: I found myself trying to scan/skim for some actual information - most of the text seems like fluff. The good news is that they do give you more concise colored boxes throughout; these give you syntax rules and a brief description of new commands/functions. But if this is all the book is giving you, you wasted your money - this book fails as a reference.
4. Chapters on things like namespaces completely lacked any real world context - this stems of course from the fact that you aren't going to be dealing with lots of files/libraries in an intro level course.
To conclude, stay away unless you are a complete newbie - if you are, this text won't hurt you if you want to have your hand held contantly, but there are far better books out there for teaching programming, though I don't know any about C++ specifically to recommend.
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