C++ Program Design: An Introduction to Programming and Object-Oriented Design

Rating:
Summary: A well thought out Book
Review: I am a self taught programmer. When I first read some of the reviewes I was initially discouraged to buy it. Now that I have bought this book, I have no regrets. It is a well thought out book with plenty of examples to try out. As regards EzWindows, though I haven't yet laid my hands on it but by reading through the texts I do not find it that bad.Some reviewer have complained of declaring variables in the middle of the program! but by hind sight that is not only perfectly valid but I believe it is a good method in coding. Instead of going back thousand of lines to the begining of the prog to find a variable, it is far more easier to locate it where it is declared provided it is well commented there! I like the history bits in the book to be pretty smart. Not a bad book either for the beginner or for the experienced.

Rating:
Summary: A well thought out Book
Review: I am a self taught programmer. When I first read some of the reviews I was initially discouraged to buy it. Now that I have bought this book, I have no regrets. It is a well thought out book with plenty of examples to try out. As regards EzWindows, though I haven't yet laid my hands on it but by reading through the texts I do not find it that bad.Some reviewer have complained of declaring variables in the middle of the program! but by hind sight that is not only perfectly valid but I believe it is a good method in coding. Instead of going back thousands of lines of code to the begining of the prog to find a variable, it is far more easier to locate it where it is declared, provided it is well commented there! I like the history bits in the book to be pretty smart. Not a bad book either for the beginner or for the experienced.

Rating:
Summary: Complete rubbish
Review: I am a University of Virginia student. This "textbook" is the most ridiculous thing I've ever read. It is a last minute pitch for this EzWindows API, which no respectable programmer in the world would use....

Rating:
Summary: Run away, Run fast.
Review: I rate this book 1 out of five stars ONLY because i cannot rate it lower than 1 out of five.
I bought this book because it was the required text we were using for a c++ class in college. Honestly, this has got the be the worst computer-related book I've ever laid hands on. I don't know how this book can sell, let alone have any good reviews.
For the people who rated this book good, claiming it isnt for newbies, and teaches you how to design c++ program properly. Dont listen to them. I consider myself fairly computer literate. Ive had experience with several languages, and I am an active Linux user, in which i write perl and bash scripts often. This book is still confusing as ever. And I thought some of the Linux HOWTO's were written poorly. Not compared to this book. The author writes in an extremely technical, bland way. He uses functions in his source and doesnt explain them until 3 chapters later. He constantly uses poor coding techniques, by declaring variables in the middle of the program.

If you don't beleive what everyone else said, listen to this.

If you buy this book, you will be wishing you hadnt. Don't waste your time. There are many better books out there that not only claim to show you c++ program design, but actually do in a real manner. At this point im not sure if cohoon was actually serious about writing a book, or wanted to torture and scare people away from learning c++.
(hes probably a java developer)

I suggest buying "The C++ Programming Language" Its much better written, and is written by the creator of the C++ language himself.

Rating:
Summary: too bad many misunderstood the title
Review: Let's look at the title of a great beginners C++ book. "C++ How to Program (4th Edition)" by Paul and Harvey Deitel. Now let's look at the title of this book. C++ Program DESIGN: An Introduction to Programming and Object-Oriented DESIGN. What this means is, an introduction to Programming DESIGN and Object Oriented DESIGN.

The title may be misleading because of the title "An introduction to Programming....". This book was not written to teach you C++. If you want to learn C++, get the book I recommended in the beginning.

This book is designed to teach you how to make a user friendly DESIGN, and does a good job in doing so. The author expects its readers to already know the basics of C++ and programming.

I am a computer science major and used the C++ book above (C++ How to Program (4th Edition)), to learn C++, and this book (C++ Program Design: An Introduction to Programming and Object-Oriented Design), to learn programming design.

So please, don't let the reviewers that rated it a bad book because it does not teach C++ easily, prevent you from buying this book. This was simply a misunderstanding. If you're looking for a programming design book, this is it!

Rating:
Summary: Useful Examples including simple Games
Review: This book contains plenty of useful examples especially for final year computer science undergraduates who need tips and tricks in completing their final projects. Each example is explained rather clearly in the content. Programming simple games is also a strong point of this book. Many of the sample outputs are in Windows frames using SimpleWindow. Engineering students may find this books useful as there are a number of numerical examples such as data visualization and computer graphics. A relevant history of computer is a included in each chapter as value added feature which can be something for the readers to relax themselves after long hours of programming. However, this book does not have enough real world OOP explanations such as Use Case, Class diagrams, etc. Overall, this is a good book

Rating:
Summary: Answers are never in the right place, if they exist
Review: This book is complete nonsense. The structure of the book is ridiculous. It seems as if hey teach fundamental parts of the C++ language in the wrong order. The only reason why this book exists is so colleges can try to teach students how to implement object oriented windows that don't even move, resize, or refresh. The makeshift windows library is completely worthless. Anyone wanting to do meaningful programming should throw this book out the window. I would suggest the C++ Black Book by Steven Holzer. That's a great find. If you are so convinced that this is the book for you, I'd save yourself $... and by the 2nd edition.

Rating:
Summary: This Book is bad for you
Review: This book is full of bad, hard to read code. The book is terribly organized and frustrating. It keeps talking about classes long before it ever introduces the reader to what classes are. The authors declare variables right in the middle of code, and make it difficult to decipher just what the program does. I'd be ashamed if my code looked like the authors' and I could never recommend a book that teaches you bad habits like creating functions without function prototypes, incrementing loops by fractional amounts, and other things that beginners shouldn't even be aware that is possible, yet stupid, to do. To beat it all, these authors are Computer Science professors... If you want to learn good programming habits, read a book by Dave Mark...his books are easy to read, understand, and he teaches you great habits and conventions. Problem is you'll have to learn C and then advance to C++ with his books.

Rating:
Summary: More paper for the fire
Review: This book, quite frankly, is the worst C++ book I've ever seen, and as a sophomore in college pursuing a CS degree, I've seen quite a few. From my (brief) experience using this book, I learned absolutely nothing new and was confused about things I already understood. I also promptly bought a new book. So if you're new to C++, don't buy the book. If you're looking for something to act as a reference, don't buy the book. The examples are poorly written and seemingly structured in such a way as to make the code as difficult and confusing to read as possible. Absolutely no white space is used to set apart anything, new variables are declared haphazardly throughout the program with no thought to program structure, readability, maintainability, or anything else, and the examples are explained extremely poorly.

I have yet to actually throw away a C++ book, no matter how useless it might be. But today I'm going to throw this one away, and my programming will probably improve because of it. I sincerely hope you avoid this book at all costs, and if someone does force it upon you, be sure to pick up some useable/readable book on the side. I'd recommend C++ How to Program 3rd Edition by Deitel & Deitel.

Rating:
Summary: Good book for C++ design
Review: Would not suggest the book to a C++ novice, I found it very useful being a full time C++ programmer.