Doc.....: C++ Books & Online Tutorials Author..: Harvey_Taylor@tvbbs.wimsey.bc.ca Keyword.: Concise Version.: 0.08 (Nov 13/94) Count...: 61 When....: Irregularly Contents: 0) Changes 1) Quick List 2) SubSections 3) Caveats 4) Updates 5) Suggested format (for new entries) 6) Unsolicited Advice 7) C++ Books 8) The Schildt Thang 9) C++ Magazines A) Bibliographies B) Online references C) FTPMail D) MailServers E) Request for reviews/info ===:0) Changes============================================================= Contrary to some online rumours, there is no 3rd edition of the C++ Primer in the works (according to Stan Lippman). The Draft Standard C++ Library by Plauger is on the bookshelves now. Added a few magazine review xrefs. Added a section to cross reference non electronic bibliographies. I cut Bjarne some slack in describing his own books. Continued the subdivision into SubSections. This bookList is FTP'able. (See :B) Online References) It had to happen. There is now a C++ for Dummies. Anyone care to do a review? ===:1) QuickList=========================================================== The ANSI-ISO C++ Standard The Committee The C++ Programming Language, Bjarne Stroustrup The Design and Evolution of C++ Bjarne Stroustrup The Annotated C++ Reference Manual [ARM] Bjarne Stroustrup Margaret Ellis A C++ Primer Stanley Lippman C++ IOStreams Handbook Steve Teale The Draft Standard C++ Library P.J. Plauger Effective C++ Scott Meyers C++, Inside and Out Bruce Eckel Object Oriented Programming Using C++ Ira Pohl The Tao of Objects Gary Entsminger Advanced C++ Programming Styles and Idioms James O. Coplien C++ Components & Algorithms Scott Ladd An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming Timothy Budd Master C++ Rex Woolard, Harry Henderson & Robert Lafore C++ Primer Plus Stephen Prata Object Oriented Programming from Square One Ed Mitchell Classic Data Structures with C++ Timothy Budd Newnes C++ Pocket Book Newnes Teach Yourself C++ Herbert Schildt Object Oriented Design with Applications Grady Booch Object-Oriented Development: Building CASE Tools With C++ David Brumbaugh C++ Database Development Al Stevens Object Data Management R.G.G. Cattell Teach yourself Visual C++ in 21 Days Namir Shammas Object Oriented Programming Peter Coad, Jill Nicola Object Oriented Programming in Turbo C++ Robert Lafore Lafore's Windows Programming Made Easy Robert Lafore C++ Communications Utilities Holmes & Flanders Serial Communications: A C++ Developer's Guide Mark Nelson Mastering Borland C++ Tom Swan Tom Swan's Code Secrets Tom Swan Turbo C++, Step by Step Bryan Flamig Windows Visualization Programming with C/C++ Lee Adams Programming for Graphic Files in C and C++ John Levine ObjectWindows How-To Gary Syck Turbo C++ for Windows, Programming for Beginners Paul Perry Moving from C to C++: the Ins and Outs of OOP Greg Perry Teach Yourself Object Oriented Programming with TC++ in 21 Days Greg Perry Turbo C++ Programming 101 Greg Perry Borland C++ Power Programming Clayton Walnum Scientific and Engineering C++ John J. Barton, Lee Nackman Algorithms in C++ Robert Sedgewick Borland C++ Windows Programming Third Edition Steven Holzner Windows Programming with Borland C++ Steve Oualine Visual C++ Object-Oriented Programming Mark Andrews Inside Visual C++ David J. Kruglinski Windows++: Writing re-useable Windows C++ Code Paul DiLasca Taligent's Guide to Designing Programs Taligent Inc. Graphics Programming in Turbo C++ Ben Ezzell C++ FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions Marhsall Cline, Greg Lomow Practical C++ Mark A. Terribile Developing C++ Software Russel Winder C + C++: Programming With Objects in C and C++ Allen I. Holub Class Construction in C and C++ Roger Sessions Object-Oriented Software Engineering Ivar Jacobson et al Object-Oriented Software Development John D. McGregor, David A. Sykes Programming in C++ Stephen C. Dewhurst, Kathy T. Stark User Interfaces in C and C++ Mark Goodwin The C++ Programmers Handbook Paul J. Lucas A C++ Toolkit Jonathan Shapiro ===:2) Subsections========================================================= {This is mutating as we speak...Suggestions?} The Language Analysis & Design Graphics Numerical Computation OODBs Visual C++ Turbo C++ C++ & Windows (MFC/OWL) C++ & Communications Misc ===:3) Caveats============================================================= In 1992, there were over 100 books published on C++. There are several hundred now, so this list can't pretend to be complete. These are books which I have found to be useful, or which have been discussed online. I regularly use comp.lang.c++ and the fidonet c++ newsgroup postings for leads &/ comments on books. If you see your name used herein & want it removed, just let me know. Note: Selling computer books is a business. Writing computer books is a business. There are several authors in the list who have more than one, more than five books which may be considered to be rewrites. Take a good look before you put out the cash. Consider alternatives such as borrowing from a library to see if you really find the book useful. I have added a SEE ALSO field to flag this possibility when relevant. Some publishers also try to establish a profile for a line of books by using parallel titles. Prime examples are Killer xxx, Mastering yyy, Object Oriented Programming on [Compiler zzz], Secrets of qqq, etc. (See Unsolicited Advice). Documenting these practices is enough to make you cynical! Note: Take the listed prices of books herein with a grain of salt. I have noticed discrepancies in the prices people mention online and the Publisher's Reference price (in the catalogs). Also some costs as listed in American Funds (US$) and some Canadian (CDN$). If you want the cost in other units (pounds or deutschmarks or whatever), the actual selling price in your country will likely vary depending upon cost of import and markup. Check with your bookseller. ===:4) Updates============================================================= Suggestions and/or comments are welcome. Fire them off to: Internet: Harvey_Taylor@tvbbs.wimsey.bc.ca Fido....: 1:153/(911 or 910 or 290) For new entries, Title, Author and ISBN are minimal requirements. The strength of a list such as this is the comments of people who have read/used the books, so send me your best shot. PS. Self reviews by online authors are discouraged. ;-) PPS. Well, yeah, actually I do live in a basement full of books... PPPS. Keep those cards & letters coming... ===:5) Suggested Format==================================================== Title....: Author...: Publisher: Edition..: Date.....: Pages....: ISBN.....: Disk/CD..: Cost.....: Mag.revus: (xref to magazine reviews) Online.code.address.....: General.Subject.Matter..: Level.addressed.........: [Beginner | Intermediate | Advanced] Topics.covered..........: Quality.of.Code.Examples: Your.opinion.of.the.book: ===:6) Advice Unsolicited================================================== The best bet is to avoid all books with a product name in the title. -Jon Strayer (1:201/20.2) ===:7) C++=Books=========================================================== Title....: The ANSI-ISO C++ Standard Author...: The Committee Publisher: ANSI Cost.....: Comments.: This document is not currently completed. The current schedule for the standardization process is: July 1994 (CDR) Committee Draft Registration. (Done) June 1995 (CD) Publication of a Committee Draft for public review. February 1996 (DIS) Draft International Standard November 1996 Final Publication. Note that the ANSI-ISO C++ Standard doc itself is not available online. Neither is the ANSI-ISO C Standard doc. Also note, there will be no rationale document for the ANSI/ISO C++ standard. Title....: The C++ Programming Language, Author...: Bjarne Stroustrup Publisher: Addison Wesley Edition..: Second Date.....: 1993 (1?) Pages....: 686 ISBN.....: 0-201-53992-6 Disk/CD..: No Cost.....: pb. US$35 Mag.revus: Comments.: One of the defining texts. Required reading. -het ....but not a good choice for a beginner's first text. -Richard Myers @ (1:104/90.2) Online.code.address.....: ftp://ftp.std.com/AW/stroustrup2e/errata9 ftp://ftp.std.com/AW/stroustrup2e/iso.ps The first is the errata sheet, (the last digit changes!), the second a postscript document of ANSI/ISO Resolutions. This is updated about twice a year. Note that ftp.std.com isn't always accessible. -rns@mobicom.demon.co.uk (Rick Stones) My 2nd edition is a complete C++ tutorial for experienced programmers, plus the C++ reference manual, plus three chapters on design issues, plus a chapter on ANSI/ISO resolutions. You can learn C++ programming from the 2nd edition, but not from the ARM (not easily, at least). You can find really obscure details and techniques for implementing C++ in the ARM, but not in my 2nd edition. My 2nd edition has a chapter on iostreams (from a user's point of view). Neither book describes any of the larger C++ libraries or any implementation specific details. -bs@alice.att.com (Bjarne Stroustrup) Title....: The Design and Evolution of C++ Author...: Bjarne Stroustrup Publisher: Addison Wesley Edition..: First Date.....: 1994 Pages....: 461 ISBN.....: 0-201-54330-3 Disk/CD..: No Cost.....: pb. US$35 Mag.revus: Dr. Dobbs Journal August 1994 Page 133 Comments.: A history of the development of C++, from chronological and features perspective. -het It's a wonderful book if you want to know why C++ is the way it is. It also gives you a look at features soon to be implemented by most compilers but for which there are not yet any reference books. (Of course details may change, so don't use this book for a reference!) -Steve Clamage, stephen.clamage@eng.sun.com Much easier read than Stroustrup's Second Edition, and while not as comprehensive, still informative. Understanding the _why_ of a particular feature sometimes helps to enlighten. -Richard Myers @ (1:104/90.2) The Design and Evolution of C++ is a discussion of why C++ is the way it is. It describes the design of C++. The emphasis is on the overall design goals, practical constraints, and people that shaped C++. It is not a book trying to document every little detail of the language or its use. The point of view in the discussion of C++ tend to be that of a user (programmer or designer) rather that of a language lawyer. Most books you find in a bookseller's ``programming languages'' section fall into one of two categories: The manuals (``this is what XXX is'') and the tutorials (``this is the way you do YYY''). D&E does not fall into either. It relies of my 2nd edition (or some other quality tutorial) for teaching C++ programming, and it is certainly not a manual (use the ARM or the reference manual in my 2nd edition). D&E should give you a much better appreciation of the way the features of C++ fit together. It is my hope (and experience) that understanding of such matters help people write better programs, but the book's primary aim is not on specific programming techniques. Naturally, D&E is completely up-to-date in its description of C++. The features described in the ANSI/ISO chapters of the ARM and my 2nd edition are described in some detail in their proper contexts in D&E. -bs@alice.att.com (Bjarne Stroustrup) Title....: The Annotated C++ Reference Manual Author...: Bjarne Stroustrup Author...: Margaret Ellis Publisher: Addison-Wesley Edition..: Date.....: 1990 ISBN.....: 0-201-51459-1 Disk/CD..: No Cost.....: hc. US$50 Mag.revus: Comments.: The ultimate reference until the ANSI C++ standard is drafted and ratified. -het The ARM is the C++ reference manual annotated with information supposedly of interest to language lawyers and implementers, plus a chapter on ANSI/ISO resolutions. Eventually, the ARM and every other C++ reference manual will be outdated by the work of the ANSI/ISO committee. For most users, I don't think this has happened yet. If you write C++ compilers, C++ test suites, and the like you need to have the committee's working paper (and preferably be represented on the committee); if not, the ARM provides a sufficient - and importantly, stable - reference. - bs@alice.att.com (Bjarne Stroustrup Title....: A C++ Primer Author...: Stanley Lippman Publisher: Addison Wesley Edition..: Second Date.....: 1992 Pages....: 614 ISBN.....: 0-201-54848-8 Disk/CD..: No Cost.....: pb. US$35 Mag.revus: Comments.: Very good introduction to the language. -het Online.code.address.....: FTP://ftp.std.com/AW/Primer/cpio.code.Z Title....: C++ IOStreams Handbook Author...: Steve Teale Publisher: Addison-Wesley Edition..: First Date.....: 1993 Pages....: 369 ISBN.....: 0-201-59641-5 Disk/CD..: No Cost.....: US$30 Mag.revus: Comments.: Invaluable reference on iostreams from one of the Symantec developers. -het Just a caution: in a recent article, P.J. Plauger said that this book discusses an older version of IOStreams. I can't vouch for what Plauger says, but he's usually pretty dependable. -shepherd@debussy.sbi.com (Marc Shepherd) Perhaps a more serious drawback is that the editorial quality is well below par, especially for an Addison-Wesley publication. If you already know the subject matter pretty well, and are just looking for a reference to consolidate your knowledge, you'll probably be able to spot most of the mistakes. If OTOH you are just getting into this stuff the frequency of the errors may cause the book to do you more harm than good. -bkline@smtp.csof.com Bob Kline Teale's book is the only one about iostreams. Most C++ texts have an appendix which gives an overview and enough to get your started. If you want to do more than very simple I/O, you probably need Teale. -Steve Clamage, stephen.clamage@eng.sun.com A friend of mine has the C++ IOStreams Handbook, the one with the fish on the cover. I wanted to borrow it to look up something on the topic of "ios" and format operators on page 111. His copy had pages 85 to 132 missing. After page 84, he had pages 133 to 180 followed by 133 to 180 again, then the rest of the book. I don't know how widespread this defect is; not all copies have this problem. Nevertheless, you may wish to check your present and/or future copies. -gmandel@megatest.com (Glenn Mandelkern) Title....: The Draft Standard C++ Library Author...: P.J. Plauger Publisher: Prentice Hall Edition..: 1st Date.....: 1995 Pages....: 612 ISBN.....: 0-13-117-0031 Disk/CD..: from Plum Hall Cost.....: US$40 Mag.revus: Dr. Dobbs Nov. 1994 page 110 Comments.: Does not cover STL. General.Subject.Matter..: presents code for Standard C++ library Level.addressed.........: Intermediate/Advanced Topics.covered..........: draft C++ Standard, library design Quality.of.Code.Examples: commercial Online.code.address.....: info@plumhall.com to order Your.opinion.of.the.book: I have been working my way through this book slowly. I am currently about a third of the way through it. The book is in the same style as the earlier Standard C Library, ie. a chapter on each file. In each chapter, you get an overview, quotes from the draft, changes which have happened since the draft and then an implementation. There is a problem in writing a book like this before the ANSI/ISO standard is finalized. Which version of the draft standard do you use? This book is based on a draft standard from Februrary 1994. However, even taking this into consideration it still makes sense to check out this book. So much has changed in the libraries that everyone is going to have a lot of catching up to do. It is just as well to begin now. This is a good book. It fills an important gap. There is only one other book on the C++ standard library [Teale] and it is two years out of date. A lot has changed. Indeed, enough has changed since February that this book itself is out of date. For example there is no mention of the Standard Template Library. Don't be surprised to see a second edition, soon. If you are a compiler writer, a test-suite writer or just interested in tracking the moving target of the evolving C++ language, you will love this book. If you are a C++ programmer, you owe it to yourself to keep informed about the latest additions to the language. This book will take you a large step in that direction. -het Title....: Effective C++ Title....: [50 Specific Ways to Improve your Programs and Designs] Author...: Scott Meyers Publisher: Addison-Wesley Edition..: First Date.....: 1992 Pages....: 193 ISBN.....: 0-201-56364-9 Disk/CD..: No Cost.....: US$30 Mag.revus: C Users Journal June 1994 Page 105 Comments.: When you think you're getting a handle on C++, take a look at this book. -het [...] Scott Meyers. His book is one that I wish I had written myself; for those who haven't read it, it is a listing of things which you must get right if your program is to be safe and reliable, and a clear description of what it means to get them `right.' The issues which are addressed in this book--and by C++--are issues that every program faces. C++ provides the structure and the means to talk about them in a concrete way and to program them explicitly. If there ought to be a place for everything, with everything in its place, C++ provides many more of those places than any other current programming language. -mat@mole-end.matawan.nj.us ( Mark Terribile ) Title....: C++, Inside and Out Author...: Bruce Eckel Publisher: Osborne/ McGraw-Hill Edition..: 1st Date.....: 1992 Pages....: 754 ISBN.....: 0-07-881809-5 Disk/CD..: Cost.....: US$30 Mag.revus: Comments.: For anyone with a programming background, I think this book is REALLY, REALLY good. It covers the ANSI standard in detail, with example code. The only shortcoming is that exception handling is relegated to an appendix, because at the time the book was written, the standard was unfinished. There is an excellent chapter on templates, which is why I originally bought the book. -C Rhodes @ (1:106/10000) Title....: Object Oriented Programming Using C++ Author...: Ira Pohl Publisher: Addison-Wesley Edition..: Date.....: Pages....: ISBN.....: 0-8053-5382-8 Disk/CD..: Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: BTW if you've never read any of Ira Pohl's books, I highly recommend them. Over and over again through the years concepts have finally gelled for me after reading them in one of Ira Pohl's books. He has a real knack for explication;) I only wish he had a beginning text on C++. There's a niche that neither of his C++ books fills. Something along the line of his ABC book. - Patrick J. Horgan ( pjh70@eng.amdahl.com ) Title....: The Tao of Objects Title....: A Beginner's Guide to Object-Oriented Programming Author...: Gary Entsminger Publisher: M&T Pubishing Inc. Edition..: Date.....: Pages....: ISBN.....: 0-13-882770-2 Disk/CD..: No Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: General.Subject.Matter..: Object-Oriented Programming Level.addressed.........: Beginner Quality.of.Code.Examples: na Title....: Advanced C++ Programming Styles and Idioms Author...: James O. Coplien Publisher: Addison-Wesley Edition..: Date.....: 1991 Pages....: 416 ISBN.....: 0-201-54855-0 Disk/CD..: Cost.....: US$40.00 Mag.revus: Comments.: Level.addressed.........: Advanced Here is a direct quote from the publisher, Addison-Wesley's catalog.... Examine the latest design features of C++ with an expert and learn to use this language more effectively. Assuming a background in the syntax of C++, Coplien shows how to become an expert C++ programmer by learning the idioms of the language. His approach is organized around the abstractions that C++ supports: abstract data types, combining types in inheritance structures, object-oriented programming, and multiple inheritance. Using small but rich examples, he shows how these abstractions can be combined to use the language effectively. Experienced C++ programmers will appreciate the comprehensive coverage of C++ Release 3.0. Title....: C++ Components & Algorithms Author...: Scott Ladd Publisher: M&T Edition..: Date.....: 1992 Pages....: 780 ISBN.....: Disk/CD..: disk Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: This book is part of my programming library. My opinion is that it's a nice book with a lot of useful stuff in it. There's a LOT of sourcecode in it, and comprehensive explanations. Some of the topics treated are: * A stringclass * Array-class * QuickSort arrays * Tree strucutres * Hash algorithms and tables * Hash table indexing * Persistent objects * BTree file indexing The book consists of 780 pages, where the last 280 pages contains pure sourcecode, plus the examples that is frequent through the rest of the book. I think this book is really worth buying. It's one of the books I look through now and then, to see if I can catch any ideas from it to use in a project. - acranium@skom.se - Jens Ortenholm (2:201/209) The book has extensive discussion on improving sorts and doing diferent type of sorts for changing situations. Well worth the price. - Steve Studley @ (1:377/41) I also like Scott Rober Ladd's latest book quite well. It has a couple advantages: first the code is in C++, and it comes with a disk so you don't have to type it in either. Second, since the code in in C++, he explains not only the algorithm itself, but how to implement it in C++, and the strengths and weaknesses of several different approaches. -Jerry Coffin @ (1:128/77.3) Title....: An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming Author...: Timothy Budd Publisher: Addison-Wesley Edition..: Date.....: 1991 Pages....: ISBN.....: Disk/CD..: Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: Level.addressed.........: Beginner Your.opinion.of.the.book: Great OOA-OOD-OOP on windowing as relates to playing card games. Windowing for the card games is not the only, or key focus of the book it. Mainly, it's OOA-OOD-OOP, touching on many of it's significant aspects. -coates@umuc.umd.edu ( Elliott Coates ) Title....: Master C++ Author...: Rex Woolard, Harry Henderson & Robert Lafore Publisher: Waite Group Edition..: 1st Date.....: Pages....: 390 ISBN.....: 1-878739-07-7 Disk/CD..: Disk available Cost.....: US$40 Mag.revus: Comments.: Online.code.address.....: General.Subject.Matter..: Level.addressed.........: Topics.covered..........: Quality.of.Code.Examples: Your.opinion.of.the.book: It includes a 3 disk tutorial..Alls you have to do is watch your screen as the tutorial explains basic object-oriented concepts. After explaining each chapter the program asks you questions and performs a review if you are having trouble with any concept. -Brent Groves @ (8:910/915) Just wanted to say that I am learning C++ using a tutorial program called "MASTER C++" copyright The Waite Group ...Book and tutorial are sold together for around $25. This is an EXCELLENT PROGRAM....I am learning C++ at a speed I never expected!...very easy to understand...the program interface itself is very nice..it tests you and if you get an answer wrong it takes you back and does a special review to help you back on track. All basics and many advanced programming aspects are a part of the tutorial. -Andrew Idsinga (1:3406/29) I can recommend a book coming from 'the Waite Group'. Actually it's a computer- based C++-Course - and in my opinion it's the best computer-course I've ever seen. [...] The book itself introduces into the disk-based computer-course and gives some exercises and includes also different reference chapters. The computer-course itself is perhaps not the latest multimedia-technology but surely one of the most effective computer-courses I ever did! (You can get through in perhaps two days, depending on your effort) I've bought the Indian edition :)) so I'm not sure about the American Publisher, but I think You'll get it from Addison Wesley. -(Lars Bindzus) bindlars@rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de Title....: C++ Primer Plus Author...: Stephen Prata Publisher: Waite Group Edition..: Date.....: Pages....: 720 ISBN.....: 1-878739-02-6 Disk/CD..: Disk available Cost.....: US$27 Mag.revus: Comments.: [...] a great book for just general C++, ie for no specific compiler is The Waite Group's "C++ Primer Plus" by Stephen Prata. It doesn't require you to know anything about C and it works through each aspect of the language logically. Starting out on functions and overloading before encorporating them into classes, etc. It doesn't tell you everything about the language and it doesn't cover the more complicated aspects or the latest improvements like Templates (at least in my copy of the book, they may have updated it). But for a beginner it goes at just the right speed and gives you a great basic understanding of the language. In fact I still use it as a reference even thought I have been programming proffessionally [sic] in C++ for about 2 years now. -Simon Cusack (3:54/54) Title....: Object Oriented Programming from Square One Author...: Ed Mitchell Publisher: Edition..: Date.....: 1993 Pages....: 600+ ISBN.....: Disk/CD..: Cost.....: US$30.00 Mag.revus: Comments.: I'm using this book now in a C++ class and it's one of the few READABLE books I've found. It has 15 chapters (600+ pages). The first 6 are a review of C with the additions that C++ offers. The remaining 9 chapters are a good read of C++, with an excellent 1/2 chapter dedicated to the understanding of Object orientation. The book is based around the use of Turbo C++ 3.1--it even has screen shots from 3.1, tells you how to install and use the compiler, etc... I'm using Borland C++ 4.0 and I'm still able to do the same things they do in the book. It's a good read--unlike many textbooks I've found--and covers all the breadth of C++ like most good textbooks do. -Chris Freyer (1:112/37) Title....: Classic Data Structures with C++ Author...: Timothy Budd Publisher: Edition..: Date.....: 1994 Pages....: ISBN.....: Disk/CD..: Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: I proof read this book. Its very good. Main problem is that it covers too much territory -- trying to teach both C++ and computer science to both beginners and experts in both. As such it goes a bit beyond what a beginner can cope with, but not far enough for an expert. However, I found the approach was excellent, combining design and coding with truly useful (rather than just illustrative) examples. -maxtal@physics.su.OZ.AU (John Max Skaller) Title....: Newnes C++ Pocket Book Author...: Publisher: Newnes, An imprint of Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd Publisher: Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP Edition..: Date.....: Pages....: 368 ISBN.....: 0 7506 0635 5 Disk/CD..: Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: I can very highly recommend the "Newnes C++ Pocket Book". Whilst it is "pocket-book" format, it is 368 pages long and meets both of your first two requirements. It does not address X and is not available in electronic form. The thing I like about this book and it's predecessor "Newnes C Pocket Book" is that they are NOT designed as academic texts, but are instead targeted to the programmer already familiar with compiler concepts and logic. To quote from the backcover: "Newnes C++ Pocket Book will be useful to programmers already having a working knowledge of C as a conversion aid to the C++ language and to software development using the object-oriented approach." -mahmha@crl.com (Mark A. Horton) Title....: Teach Yourself C++ Author...: Herbert Schildt Publisher: Osborne McGraw-Hill Edition..: Date.....: 1992 Pages....: ISBN.....: 0-07-881760-9 Disk/CD..: Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: See the Section The Schildt Thang Level.addressed.........: Beginner Your.opinion.of.the.book: Teach Yourself C++ is another great book from Herbert Schildt who is more popular for his great C books. This book is especially designed for programmers who already know how to program in C. Based on a 15-minute lesson format, this book includes a lot of exercise and skill checks to make sure your programming abilities grow by each chapter. This book is really the perfect introductory guide for anyone who already knows how to program in C. - Vinit S. Carpenter ( carpenterv@vms.csd.mu.edu ) I don't know if this book has been updated or not, but the last edition I looked at about a year ago was utterly missing any information on copy constructors, even though they were needed for the string class (with dynamically-allocated buffer) the author was using as an example. The version I saw even tried passing such a string object to a function by value. When it failed, the only advice was not to pass these objects by value. If you use this book for other reasons, please also use a book that covers constructors (including copy constructors), destructors, and dynamic memory issues well. - pauljo@microsoft.com (Paul Johns) Title....: Object Oriented Design with Applications Author...: Grady Booch Publisher: Benjamin/Cummings Edition..: Second Date.....: 1994 Pages....: 589 ISBN.....: 0-8053-5340-2 Disk/CD..: No Cost.....: CAN$60 Mag.revus: Comments.: Grady Booch's book _Object Oriented Analysis and Design_ (2nd edition) has an outstanding (IMHO) section on object oriented theory, and covers analysis and design. The entire second section of the book is devoted to case studies of various types of projects that follow their development from analysis through implementation in C++. Although they are not complete solutions, the case studies do follow the process through, and will provide insight as to how the OO analysis and design turns into the code. Booch's method is pretty popular and generally considered one of the top three or four. -Paulh@odetics.com Title....: Object-Oriented Development: Building CASE Tools With C++ Author...: David E. Brumbaugh Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Edition..: Date.....: 1994 Pages....: ISBN.....: 0-471-58371-5 Disk/CD..: Yes Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: It came with two disks containing three ready to run CASE tools: - a graphic system for object-oriented notation, - a class browser for C++, and - a class librarian Both the book and disks contain full source code. [author unknown] I own the book OO Development Case building tools with c++. It is an interesting book, but it had little buggy sources (Zinc objects). - tkassila@pcuf.fi (Tuomas Kassila) "full source code" is a bit misleading here. He used Zinc and the Pinnacle Relational Database Engine to write his apps. Neither is included, and without them, you can't rebuild the programs. He says a free demo version of Pinnacle is available, but I don't think one is of Zinc. Unless one is prepared to duplicate these ( to at least some extent ) the book may be a small part of the price of actually creating/using a modified version of any of the tools involved. As a caveat, I should note that my copy came with defective disks, so what's necessary MAY be on the disks, and I just don't know about it yet. -Jerry Coffin @ (1:128/77.3) Title....: C++ Database Development Author...: Al Stevens Publisher: MIS Press Edition..: Date.....: Pages....: ISBN.....: 1-55828-216-5 Disk/CD..: Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: That book was okay but the author is mostly explaining the use of the PARODY database that comes with the book. If you are looking for a database to use it looks pretty good but if you want to learn about database design strategies and such this probably isn't the book (at least not the only book) to use. - Jim Mcclure @ (6:731/5) Title....: Object Data Management Title....: Object Oriented and extended relational database systems Author...: R.G.G. Cattell Publisher: Addison-Wesley Edition..: Date.....: 1994 Pages....: 380 ISBN.....: 0-201-54748-1 Disk/CD..: Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: Very useful, easy reading. Good review of current OO databased on market. General.Subject.Matter..: OO databases Level.addressed.........: ALL levels Your.opinion.of.the.book: worth getting -(Craig Cockburn) craig@scot.demon.co.uk Title....: Teach yourself Visual C++ in 21 Days Author...: Namir Shammas Publisher: Sams Edition..: 3rd Date.....: 1993 Pages....: 1557 ISBN.....: 0-672-30534-8 Disk/CD..: none Cost.....: Mag.revus: SEE ALSO.: Teach yourself Visual C++ in 21 Days, Revised Edition Comments.: MSVC 1.0 I purchased a book that I can recommend *not* to buy. 'Teach Yourself Visual C++ in 21 days' from Sams publishing. While the book did explain message maping and how to use some of the classes, it did not spend any time on Application Studio and how to link code. After I finished the book, I still had to do a lot of learning and exploring on my own. However, it did offer some very good non-visual programs using the classes that come with VC++ and would be somewhat helpful for someone who is familiar with the VC++ system and would like to expand the functionality of their programs. -johnyc@aol.com I second this. I saw a copy and it takes 14 of the 21 days to teach C++ from scratch. The next 7 days are spent learning C++ and only the optional appendices go into any interesting stuff to do with Visual C++. I would like 21 days devoted to the Visual C++ tools! -craig@scot.demon.co.uk WH> No amount of searching the manuals, the online help WH> facilities or my "Teach Yourself Visual C++ in 21 days" WH> seems to shed any light upon the problem. IMNSHO, Shammas' book is a rip-off. His assertion that you "should" learn SDK API programming before using the Wizards is just a cheap excuse for his inability to explain how the Application Framework works. -Ron Bass @ (1:128/13.3) I was not very happy with it. The first part is quite good at definitions etc, but does not deal at all with the SDK and application framework. When he does move on to the framework area, I thought the explanations and examples to be a little sketchy, and not explicit enough. All in all, I was something less than satisfied with the book, especially at the price. -William Henderson @ (1:250/248) Title....: Object Oriented Programming Author...: Peter Coad, Jill Nicola Publisher: Prentice-Hall Edition..: Date.....: 1993 Pages....: ISBN.....: Disk/CD..: Yes Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: [...] _Object Oriented Programming_, cowritten with Jill Nicola, provides a series of case studies that follow the development process from analysis to coding (in both C++ and Smalltalk). These case studies are more complete than Booch's in the sense that they provide the full source code solutions, and point out more of the design trade offs that can be made along the way. Coad's method is a bit too touchy and feely for some people's tastes, but fairly popular never the less. All four books would be good additions to any OO library. If I had to choose only one *for your stated purpose*, I would recommend Coad's programming book as one that follows the process through, in detail, using C++, the best. -paulh@odetics.com The negative points first: the contents is a mess and the layout of the whole book is sometimes confusing. Apart from that it is clearly recommendable. By means of four examples (from a simple count object to a pretty complex traffic flow control system) the authors teach important principles of OOP. This is being done in a very easy-to-follow style. They always stress the (more or less fuzzy) borders to the prior phases (oo) analysis and design. After designing the examples (using Coad/Yourdon notation) they implement them in Smalltalk and C++ which has the sideeffect of getting to know some aspects of Smalltalk as well (if one is a C++ user of course; Smalltalk users get to know C++), like the MVC architecture or the concept of class variables. Design concepts are mapped to programming language constructs, like e.g. a part-of relationship, or containers. On the fly, as it is needed, the required constructs are introduced, making it easy even for beginners to follow the examples. -Mike Wendler mike@ikeux3.ike.uni-stuttgart.de Title....: Object Oriented Programming in Turbo C++ Author...: Robert Lafore Publisher: the Waite Group Edition..: Date.....: Pages....: ISBN.....: 1-878739-06-9 Disk/CD..: Cost.....: US$27.00 Mag.revus: Comments.: [...] the single best book to introduce one to this exciting language. -Will Sulzner @ (1:216/506.0) Title....: Lafore's Windows Programming Made Easy Author...: Robert Lafore Publisher: the Waite Group Edition..: Date.....: Pages....: ISBN.....: Disk/CD..: Cost.....: US$30.00 Mag.revus: Comments.: General.Subject.Matter..: Borland C++ This is a very good tutor and step by step book for getting started with windows programming. Also will show you how to use resource workshop with no problems. GREAT BOOK. - Richard Sirpilla @ (1:203/52) Title....: C++ Communications Utilities Author...: Holmes & Flanders Publisher: PC Magazine/ZD PRess Edition..: Date.....: 1993 Pages....: 523 ISBN.....: 1-56276-110-2 Disk/CD..: Yes Cost.....: US$30.00 Mag.revus: Comments.: My biggest problem with this book is that Holmes and Flanders have the code posted numerous times throughout the book each time they make changes. I'd say at least half of the book is code which you'll find on the disk anyway. For high speed async communications, this book is definitely not the best. I'd consider purchasing a shareware C++ communications library for not much more. It does, however, cover FAX transmissions, Xmodem, Ymodem, 8250 and 16450 UARTS (No 16550 UARTS, though). I'd look elsewhere, many people seem to be happy with Serial Communications: A C++ Developer's Guide) -ecrampto@csugrad.cs.vt.edu, (Eric S. Crampton) Title....: Serial Communications: A C++ Developer's Guide Author...: Mark Nelson Publisher: M & T Books Edition..: Date.....: Pages....: ISBN.....: Disk/CD..: Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: [...]This one does not go into FAX stuff but does have a Z-Modem 88 implementation, terminal emulator, Windows interfaces, and intelegent/multi port cards. I highly recommend it. I've been using it for a year. - brucei@char.vnet.net (Bruce Ingersoll) Title....: Mastering Borland C++ Author...: Tom Swan Publisher: Sams Edition..: Date.....: Pages....: 1600 ISBN.....: 0-672-30274-8 Disk/CD..: Disk Cost.....: US$40 Mag.revus: Comments.: I bought twelve Borland flavor books to teach myself C++ and Windows programing "from the ground up". The best all-around book for Borland flavor _by_ _far_ is Tom Swan's Mastering Borland C++ IMHO. While its a bit pricey at $39.95, it is 1500+ pages and the best value in my library (and if I'd bought it first, I could have saved the two hundred dollars I spent on other books). -Richard Myers (1:104/90.2) Try "Mastering Windows Programming" by Tom Swan. Really good book, only it does not cover Doc/View model, but oh, well, rien est parfait! -Harold Bien @ (1:272/38) I'm pretty new to Borland's C++ myself. I've looked at a fair amount of instruction manuals and the best I've found would be :- "Mastering Borland C++" by Tom Swan (SAMS Publishing - 210 W 103rd St, Indianapolis, IN 46290) $39-95. It has everything you need to know. Starts off teaching ANSI C and then on to C++, OOP using classes, windows programming etc. Comes with free disk containing all the examples in the book. For DOS only. -Stephen King @ (1:343/81) Title....: Tom Swan's Code Secrets Author...: Tom Swan Publisher: Sams Edition..: Date.....: 1993 Pages....: 601 ISBN.....: 0-672-30287-X Disk/CD..: Disk Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: Your.opinion.of.the.book: First, I want to recommend the book "C++ Code Secrets" by Tom Swan. Despite its title I like it pretty much, as it has helped me a lot learning C++. Main topics are I/O streams, data structures and memory management. The author explains all the material in a pretty colloquial style which helps making one understand things faster (and lets one laugh quite a lot, 'cos it's very funny). Although focusing on the mentioned topics, he teaches all the important techniques of the language, like e.g. writing templates, operator functions, I/O functions, ctor's/dtor's, providing a class' own memory management, etc. Anyway, I like it and found it worth it's prize of DM 100,-. (the book is accompanied by a disk with all code examples and some PD sources). -Mike Wendler mike@ikeux3.ike.uni-stuttgart.de Title....: Turbo C++, Step by Step Author...: Bryan Flamig Publisher: Coriolis Group / Wiley Edition..: 2nd Date.....: 1993 Pages....: ISBN.....: 0-471-58056-2 Disk/CD..: Cost.....: US$33 Mag.revus: Comments.: Level.addressed.........: Beginner This book assumes you know some C. I tried to get my department to look into this book and they turned up their noses since it didn't have the name Stroustrup or Lippman on it. There loss!!! I did talk a handful of folks into picking it up and they LOVED it! -poorman@cadcam.pms.ford.com ( Glenn M. Poorman ) Title....: Windows Visualization Programming with C/C++ Author...: Lee Adams Publisher: Edition..: Date.....: Pages....: ISBN.....: Disk/CD..: Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: The book is: Windows Visualization Programming with C/C++ by Lee Adams. The sample application I have trouble in compiling is maze.prj. (If you haven't bought the book, you are lucky; don't buy it. I felt kinda ripped off when I went over the book. -- a sidenote) [...] (yet another sidenote: where is C++ in the book? None, as far as I can see. All source code are in C.) - yang@twain.ucs.umass.edu (Huayong YANG) Title....: Programming for Graphic Files in C and C++ Author...: John Levine Publisher: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Edition..: Date.....: Pages....: ISBN.....: 0-471-59856-9 Disk/CD..: Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: Topics.covered..........: Graphics Title....: ObjectWindows How-To Author...: Gary Syck Publisher: the Waite Group Edition..: 1st Date.....: Pages....: 650 ISBN.....: 1-878739-24-7 Disk/CD..: none Cost.....: US$27 Mag.revus: Comments.: General.Subject.Matter..: OWL 1.0 Level.addressed.........: Beginner-Advanced Title....: Turbo C++ for Windows, Programming for Beginners Author...: Paul Perry Publisher: Sams Edition..: Date.....: 1993 Pages....: 744 ISBN.....: 0-672-30229-2 Disk/CD..: Disk Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: TC3.1 General.Subject.Matter..: Turbo C++ and Windows Level.addressed.........: Beginner Your.opinion.of.the.book: It assumes that you know C. However, jumping into C++ _and_ Windows programming together is a major undertaking. -Richard Myers @ (1:104/90.2) While this book is not the be all and end all of Windows progamming, and maybe not even a book you want to keep till you die, it is a very good book for beginners. It is the book that got me over the hump and into programming Windows. Before this book none of it made much sense. After this book I could program (well a little anyway). I highly recommend it as a starting book. -andrewlogan@deepcove.com -Andrew Logan (1:153/776) Title....: Moving from C to C++: the Ins and Outs of OOP Author...: Greg Perry Publisher: Edition..: Date.....: Pages....: ISBN.....: 0-672-30080-X Disk/CD..: Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: [...] a resonable starting ground for a C programmer wanting to get into C++. It is easy to read, has a lot of interesting material in it. -omen@bronze.lcs.mit.edu (OMEN) -omen@io.org (Damian R. Kanarek) Title....: Teach Yourself Object Oriented Programming with Turbo C++ in 21 Days Author...: Greg Perry Publisher: Sams Edition..: Date.....: 1993 Pages....: 776 ISBN.....: 0-672-30307-8 Disk/CD..: none Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: TC3.0 General.Subject.Matter..: Level.addressed.........: Beginner Topics.covered..........: Quality.of.Code.Examples: Your.opinion.of.the.book: I have looked through 3 or 4 books, and this is by far the best introductory book. - Mike Tancsa ( mdtancsa@watarts.uwaterloo.ca ) Title....: Turbo C++ Programming 101 Author...: Greg Perry Publisher: Sams Edition..: Date.....: 1993 Pages....: 608 ISBN.....: 0-672-30280-2 Disk/CD..: Disk Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: Level.addressed.........: Beginner Your.opinion.of.the.book: Why don't you give " C++ Programming 101 " by Greg Perry a try. It teaches you non-OOP C++. You get the advantage of learning the fundamentals of both C and C++ in a C++ setting. Besides there are numerous review questions and exercises at the end of every chapter to help you evaluate your progress. It even includes a disk which has source code for examples and some answers from the book. - edwin.sowa@atlwin.com (Edwin Sowa) Title....: Borland C++ Power Programming Author...: Clayton Walnum Publisher: Que Edition..: Date.....: 1993 Pages....: 608 ISBN.....: 1-56529-172-7 Disk/CD..: Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: Version 3.1 Level.addressed.........: Beginner Your.opinion.of.the.book: I think it's very good to start programming in windows, although the first part of the book is about programming in DOS. -Philip Van Bauwel @ (2:292/805.121) Title....: Scientific and Engineering C++: Title....: An Introduction with Advanced Techniques and Examples Author...: John J. Barton Author...: Lee Nackman Publisher: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. Edition..: 1st Date.....: 1994 Pages....: 672 ISBN.....: 0-201-53393-6 Disk/CD..: Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: Level.addressed.........: Advanced Your.opinion.of.the.book: For a preview, see their articles in the C++ Report magazine. -Kevin Copps ( kc@isc.tamu.edu ) I have long been waiting for the market to produce the next landmark "advanced" C++ work. While there is no lack of good introductory material, little has been written about the techniques that real projects must master to leverage the power of C++. In their new book, Barton and Nackman have risen to the challenge with some dynamite matierial. Good abstraction is the foundation of all good system design and programming, and this book takes us into new realms of abstraction using C++. Barton and Nackman take us beyond the pedestrian features of C++, and demonstrate an unparalleled mastery of the language and its principles. They harness these principles and language features, particularly the newer features such as templates, to capture important design information that classes and inheritance alone would miss. This book captures emerging experience with 3.0 vintage C++ at a level that is far beyond the state of the practice of the rest of the industry. This book is to the emerging X3J16 standard, what "Advanced C++" was to the then-emerging 3.0 version of the language. It captures what the industry has learned about Advanced C++ programming in the past three years, a period that has been a desert for new publications at the high end of the spectrum. [...] A standard caveat applies here: this is an advanced book. It ramps up very quickly. You'll be O.K. if you already have solid C++ experience under your belt, but--like "Advanced C++"--this book is not for beginners. (At least AW slipped "Advanced" into the subtitle.) As author of the first Advanced C++ book, my hat goes off to these authors. In my opinion, "Scientific and Engineering C++" is the reigning advanced C++ book. It's a must-read for all who consider themselves to be professional C++ programmers. -(cope@research.att.com) Jim Coplien Title....: Algorithms in C++ Author...: Robert Sedgewick Publisher: Addison-Weseley Edition..: 1st editon Date.....: 1992 Pages....: 658 ISBN.....: 0-201-51059-6 Disk/CD..: NONE Cost.....: DM 81,60 SEE.ALSO.: Algorithms in C, Algorithms in Pascal Mag.revus: Comments.: My favorite book on data structures and examples how to apply them: clear, nice to read and well sorted on this area. The beginner will have an invaluable course on data structures, the advanced programer will find good code snippets and ideas to tackle diverse problems. This is *not* a mathematical book: rings, ideals and group theoretical relations aren't mentioned in here. There are rather weak alibi chapters on integration, Fast Fourier Transformation, and curve fitting in order to have something said on numerical analysis. For analytical problems and algorithms (which characteristically do approximations) this book simply is unusable, since e.g. estimations are missing throughout. - Detlef Huettenbach, @CompuServe100327,216 Generally agree with this, I've read/skimmed about half the chapters. [...] Some concepts presented in the book are elementary, particularly in the beginning, but many chapters are very theoretical and will be difficult for beginners. [...] (caveat--I haven't read any other C++ algorithm-specific books for comparison. I would like any recommendations on a simpler and more practical text, if such exists.) -Richard Myers (1:104/90.2) I'd add a bit more negative. First of all, though some of the code snippets do use features unique to C++, they are a LOT more places it C++ unique features could be used to advantage but aren't. Second, I found some of the explanations obfuscated, particularly those related to string searching. I've written Boyer-Moore string search functions at least a couple different times, but after reading his explanation, I was somewhat confused. Other areas are somewhat similar - he seems ( at least to me ) to spend a great deal of time explaining the obvious in ways that often make little sense, then passes very lightly over complicated areas. My final problem with the book is that many things are gone over far too lightly to be of any real use. For instance B-trees are covered in roughly four pages with absolutely NO demonstration code. Simply put the explanation does little more than to say that B-trees exist and give some idea of their average performance. Given that B-trees ( and variations thereof, which basically aren't mentioned at all in the book ) are typically the data structure of choice in disk based storage, this seems rather a poorly chosen area to treat so lightly. -Jerry Coffin (1:128/77.3) Title....: Borland C++ Windows Programming Third Edition Author...: Steven Holzner Publisher: Brady Publishing Edition..: Date.....: 1994 Pages....: 576 ISBN.....: 1-56686-119-5 Disk/CD..: Disk Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: TC++4.0 Level.addressed.........: Beginner Your.opinion.of.the.book: [...] the book, which has taught me a lot, however it does not cover every aspect of programming windows. Nevertheless I reccomend the book for a beginner to Windows programming. -Richard May ( rpm@sys.uea.ac.uk ) Title....: Windows Programming with Borland C++ Author...: Steve Oualine Publisher: M&T Books Edition..: Date.....: Pages....: ISBN.....: 1-55851-313-2 Disk/CD..: Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: General.Subject.Matter..: Borland C++ Level.addressed.........: Beginner Your.opinion.of.the.book: It's written at a pretty basic level, which suits me fine for now. I'd recommend it. - Fred Hensley ( fhensley@eskimo.com ) Title....: Visual C++ Object-Oriented Programming Author...: Mark Andrews Publisher: Sams Edition..: First Date.....: 1993 Pages....: 1067 ISBN.....: 0-672-30150-4 Disk/CD..: Yes Cost.....: US$40 Mag.revus: Comments.: A good part of the book is about the C to C++ step. Level.addressed.........: Beginning C++, MFC & Windows programming Title....: Inside Visual C++ Author...: David J. Kruglinski Publisher: Microsoft Press Edition..: 1st Date.....: 1993 Pages....: 598 ISBN.....: 1-55615-511-5 DISK.....: disk Cost.....: US$40 Mag.revus: C/C++ Users Journal July 1994 Page 93 Comments.: The Inside Visual C++ from Microsoft Press is highly recommended. The only drawback is that is based on Visual C++ 1.0, not 1.5. -kmr@stud.unit.no ( Knut Magne Risvik ) I second the recommendation for this book. The 1.0 vs 1.5 isn't too much of a problem. Very well written. -shill@clark.net (Steve Hill) The best book around for MFC is generally regarded as "Inside Visual C++" by David Kruglinski (Microsoft Press). It doesn't cover the MFC 2.5-specific classes (OLE2, ODBC), but is very good for a lot of advanced topics. -chris@chrism.demon.co.uk ( Chris Marriott ) Title....: Inside Visual C++ Author...: David J. Kruglinski Publisher: Microsoft Press Edition..: 2nd Date.....: 1994 Pages....: 732 ISBN.....: 1-55615-661-8 Disk/CD..: CDROM Cost.....: US$40 General.Subject.Matter..: guide to the Visual C++ environment, MFC 2.5, AFX, OLE 2.0, ODBC, DLLs, MFC GDI, C++ primer, VBX controls, MFC controls, dialog boxes, the timer, MFC model-view-document application architecture. Level.addressed.........: Beginning and Intermediate Windows programming Level.addressed.........: Should be an Intermediate C++ programmer Topics.covered..........: See above Quality.of.Code.Examples: Very Good Online.code.address.....: Comments.: It's a comprehensive introduction to VC++ including MFC and AFX (the application framework). It is well-written, highly accessible and reader-centric. One of the few how-to books that introduces OLE Automation. Even Inside OLE 2 by Kraig Brocksmith (an MS sanctioned OLE introductory text) does not discuss OLE Automation at this time. Your.opinion.of.the.book: Great book for intended audience above! Actually the 2nd edition, which comes with a CDROM of source, is more of an _introduction_ to VC, MFC and AFX (the Application Framework) though it does have a skinny "C++ basics review" in the appendix. And what an introduction to VC, MFC and AFX it is! For me it's the "Petzold" of Visual C++ books--same accessible, reader centric style too. [The book has good extended fundamentals on using VC, MFC, and AFX for ODBC database access, including coverage of CRecordView and CRecordSet.] -Elliott Coates Title....: "Windows++: Writing re-useable Windows C++ Code Author...: Paul DiLasca Publisher: Addison Wesley (Andrew Schulman Series) Edition..: Date.....: 1992 Pages....: 571 ISBN.....: 0-201-60891-X Disk/CD..: none Cost.....: CDN$40 Mag.revus: General.Subject.Matter..: Generic Windows book Your.opinion.of.the.book: I just read "Windows ++" of Paul DiLascia, Addison Wesley, and I'm totally fascinated by it. - Thomas Wolff @ (2:246/8006.14) So am I. It's very clearly written, and (for me) quite packed with ways to really put C++ to work in a complex system and to design a class hierarchy. There is of course no dynamic dispatching of windows messages like OWL or MFC do, but I'm surprised how well one can get by without it :-) -Bart Corthouts (2:292/311.3) Actually, Win++ uses virtual functions to 'dispatch' messages where MFC uses a static hash-table (and a lot of casting). The Win++ method might be (a bit) slower but is a lot easier to use, and more C++ of course. It does mean that a 'window' class has a rather large vf table. Win++ is recommended reading for everyone wanting to use C++ and Win, it shows for example how there is an (obscured) inheritance relation between Information Contexts and Device Contexts and defines classes accordingly. -Henk Holterman (2:283/307.35) Title....: Taligent's Guide to Designing Programs: Title....: Well-Mannered Object-Oriented Design in C++ Author...: Taligent Inc. Publisher: Addison-Wesley Edition..: 1st Date.....: 1994 Pages....: 176 ISBN.....: 0-201-40888-0. Disk/CD..: none Cost.....: US$20 Mag.revus: Comments.: Topics.covered..........: It's not so much on writing "good" code. It's Taligent's OO style guide, and the guidelines vary in specificity to Taligent. Some of the material should be helpful to anyone working on C++, and some are quite specific to Taligent's products. I think reading the book should be helpful to anyone working on substantial C++ projects, but I'm definitely biased :-). -David_Goldsmith@taligent.com This book is very good, although not easy to read in some sections. However, it is more about the design and organization of the code development than about coding itself. If you are looking for a guidline/tutorial material check out a book by Scott Meyers, "Effective C++;50 specific ways to improve your programs and designs", Addison-Wesley. "Talligents guide to designing programs - well-mannered object-oriented design in C++", ISBN 0-201-40888-0 is still good and very useful. I would say that it porvides more information helpful, when programming at large, while Meyers' book is focused more on issues close to the individual developer. Both worth the money. -fgajdecz@td1-25.sbi.com (Franek Gajdeczka) Title....: Graphics Programming in Turbo C++ An ObjectOriented Approach Author...: Ben Ezzell Publisher: Addison Wesley Edition..: Date.....: 1990 Pages....: ISBN.....: 0-201-57023-8 Disk/CD..: Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: Your.opinion.of.the.book: [...] This author seems to think that throwing the word "class" around converts C to C++. This is a C primer with delusions of grandeur. For example, he gives a Mouse class that is just a bunch of variables and methods, without thought of the real questions: - what is a Mouse object? - can you have more than one of them? - how should the object be referenced? (messages? interrupts? ???) These are difficult questions in practice, and as i've been writing Mouse drivers, i've had to answer them. I use timer interrupts to manage a queue of Mouse events, and my Mouse class is just a wee bit hairier than Ezzell's. Where the book has value, it's in having the hardware explained clearly, but lots of tomes do that these days. So, in summary, this book has bugger all to do with Object Oriented Programming, but the hardware explanations are OK. -maxtal@extro.ucc.su.oz.au (TIM (TAL) LISTER) Title....: C++ FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions Author...: Marhsall P. Cline, Greg A. Lomow Publisher: Addison Wesley Edition..: 1st Date.....: 1994 Pages....: 224 ISBN.....: 0-201-58958-3 Disk/CD..: none Cost.....: US$25 Mag.revus: Comments.: See the Online References Section General.Subject.Matter..: Book version of the C++ FAQ Your.opinion.of.the.book: Based on a few hours of preliminary reading, I would say that this is a REALLY good C++ book. I already feel it should be enshrined with the ARM, Lippman, Meyers, Booch, [iyf]. If you don't already have a copy of the C++ FAQ (the electronic version), get it from comp.lang.c++ or your favorite FTP site. Then buy this book. The book claims to have 5 times the material in the on-line version, and I believe it! Besides, you can't read the electronic version in the john (without risking electrocution). This book will NOT teach you how to write your first C++ program. This book is for programmers who have (mostly) mastered the syntax, and are now wondering things like "should class bar inherit or contain class foo?" or "should this method be virtual?" or "how the heck should I use exceptions, anyway?". That is to say, A LOT OF US! This book contains the answers to many design questions that my team has had to figure out the hard way. This is practical, real-world stuff. I wish I had it a LONG time ago. This book may answer questions you don't know you need answered yet! And no, this is not a paid endorsement. :) -scullard@interport.net (Rand Scullard) I second Rand's opinion. Cline's FAQ should be mandatory reading for every aspiring C++ programmer (and such a practice would cut down the traffic in clc++ down to ~10 articles per diem, and make life easier for many of us). The C++ FAQs book is worth every bit of the money you pay for it (although there are a few minor typos and glitches in places). Run, don't walk, to your nearest bookstore and buy a copy. -krishna@cs.wisc.edu (Krishna Kunchithapadam) Title....: Practical C++ Author...: Mark A. Terribile Publisher: McGraw-Hill Edition..: 1 Date.....: 1994 Pages....: 681 ISBN.....: 0-07-063738-5 Disk/CD..: Cost.....: US$40 Mag.revus: Dr. Dobbs Journal February 1994 Page 97 Comments.:A comprehensive compendium of design techniques Level.addressed.........: Advanced Your.opinion.of.the.book: Very good. - dougm@cs.rice.edu (Doug Moore) Title....: Developing C++ Software Author...: Russel Winder Publisher: Wiley Edition..: 2 Date.....: 1993 Pages....: 494 ISBN.....: 0-471-93610-3 Disk/CD..: no Cost.....: Mag.revus: Level.addressed.........: Beginner Your.opinion.of.the.book:Good intro for programmers of limited experience - dougm@cs.rice.edu (Doug Moore) Title....:C + C++: Programming With Objects in C and C++ Author...:Allen I. Holub Publisher:McGraw-Hill Edition..:1 Date.....:1992 Pages....:427 ISBN.....:0-07-029662-6 Disk/CD..:no Cost.....:$24.95, to me Mag.revus: Online.code.address.....: General.Subject.Matter..: Level.addressed.........: Intermediate Topics.covered..........: Quality.of.Code.Examples: Your.opinion.of.the.book: Good for C++ haters. Comments.: Author is opinionated and criticizes much of C++. He presents C implementations of several C++ features (e.g. virtual functions). Some errors in C++ description, but entertaining. -dougm@cs.rice.edu (Doug Moore) Title....: Class Construction in C and C++ Author...: Roger Sessions Publisher: Prentice Hall Edition..: Date.....: Pages....: ISBN.....: 0-13-630104-5 Disk/CD..: Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: Level.addressed.........: Beginner Your.opinion.of.the.book: I've read into chapter 3 at this time. It really looks good. The review section on basic C is sparse but accurate and understandable. The author does assume you know C pretty well. There are exercises at the end of each chapter. His writing style agrees with me and the contents seem well laid out. 1- C Refresher 2- Structured Programming in C 3- Object-Oriented Programming in C 4- Run Time Resolution in C 5- C Limitations 6- Introduction to C++ classes 7- Inheritance 8- Method Resolution in C++ 9- Managing Memory 10- How C++ Works 11- C++ Problems 12- Final Examples The author seperates the object oriented paradigm from the language by using C to illustrate. Once objects are covered, he then introduces C++. -JOHN TESSIN @ (1:202/1329) Title....: Object-Oriented Software Engineering Author...: Ivar Jacobson et al Publisher: Addison-Wesley Edition..: 1st Date.....: 1992 Pages....: 524 ISBN.....: ISBN 0-201-54435-0 Disk/CD..: no Cost.....: US$43 Mag.revus: Comments.: General.Subject.Matter..: OO methodolgy Level.addressed.........: Advanced Topics.covered..........: High level soup to nuts of development of OO SW Quality.of.Code.Examples: N/A Online.code.address.....: N/A Your.opinion.of.the.book: I like it very much. The authors are folks who have been using OO methods sucessfully for years and back up recommendations by pointing to real world examples. At first glance I was concerned that the book would be of little use if one didn't espouse Jacobson's Objectory approach (that's a tool he sells), but the book has a lot of good stuff for everybody doing OO. I think one very distinguishing point about the book is that it has a very even treatment of a whole process. -whm@mse.com (William H. Mitchell) Title....: Object-Oriented Software Development: Title....: Engineering Software for Reuse Author...: John D. McGregor and David A. Sykes Publisher: Van Nostrand-Reinhold Edition..: 1st Date.....: 352 Pages....: 1992 ISBN.....: 0-442-00157-6 Disk/CD..: No Cost.....: Mag.revus: Comments.: General.Subject.Matter..: OO SW development (just like the title!) Topics.covered..........: Focuses more on tactical issues in OO development Quality.of.Code.Examples: Mostly N/A -- very few examples Your.opinion.of.the.book: I like it. It covers tactical issues -- "when the rubber meets the road" -- that a lot of books stop short on. It seems to be a well thought and carefully written book -- they weren't paid by the page. The back cover says the book is based on a three day course developed by McGregor for AT&T Bell Labs. -whm@mse.com (William H. Mitchell) Title....: Programming in C++ Author...: Stephen C. Dewhurst and Kathy T. Stark Publisher: Prentice Hall Edition..: Date.....: 1989 Pages....: ISBN.....: 0-13-723156-3 Disk/CD..: Cost.....: US$28 Mag.revus: Comments.: Level.addressed.........: Beginner Your.opinion.of.the.book: IMHO, this is a good book for those wanting to learn C++. I came from a C background and this book helped me catch on to OOP rather well. The only serious problem with this book is a lack of coverage of templates. But, for beginners, this is a great first book on C++. Later, though, you'd have to get something else more advanced. -ecrampto@csugrad.cs.vt.edu, (Eric S. Crampton) I'd add a caveat here as well. This book is well written and quite good technically ( Ie. few if any errors in content or example code ) it has one glaring weakness for many users: it's based on a relatively old specification for C++, so it discourages some things nearly no current compiler will allow at all, such as assigning to 'this' in a constructor. This is nearly guaranteed to confuse a beginner. OTOH, if you avoid those parts of C++ that have changed since 1989 and simply want to learn how to use the core OO features ( inheritance, polymorphism ) to create higher level abstractions, it's a very good book. Reccomended more for language lawyers who already know the syntax, but not how to use the langauge, than the average beginner. -Jerry Coffin @ (1:128/77.3) Title....: User Interfaces in C and C++ Author...: Mark Goodwin Publisher: MIS Press Edition..: Date.....: 1992 Pages....: ISBN.....: 1-55828-224-6 Disk/CD..: Cost.....: US$30 Mag.revus: Comments.: This book is really for C programmers, don't let the C++ fool you. The book covers many aspects of NON-PORTABLE IBM DOS user interface development. There's only one simplified C++ text-window class covered here which doesn't even support buttons, input fields or the like. It's really just a slew of code in a book with little or no explainations. Stay away from this one if you need a _C++_ book! -ecrampto@csugrad.cs.vt.edu, (Eric S. Crampton) Title....: The C++ Programmers Handbook Author...: Paul J. Lucas Publisher: Prentice Hall Edition..: 1st Date.....: 1992 Pages....: 127 ISBN.....: 0-13-118233-1 Disk/CD..: none Cost.....: CDN$35 Mag.revus: General.Subject.Matter..: A quick reference handbook Level.addressed.........: Intermediate Topics.covered..........: CFront 3.0 code Your.opinion.of.the.book: Title....: A C++ Toolkit Author...: Jonathan Shapiro Publisher: Prentice Hall Edition..: 1st Date.....: 1991 Pages....: 231 ISBN.....: 0-13-127663-8 Disk/CD..: none Cost.....: CDN$ 45 Mag.revus: General.Subject.Matter..: Designs & implements a toolkit Level.addressed.........: Intermediate Topics.covered..........: Bit Sets, Lists, Arrays, Dynamic Arrays Binary Trees, Hash Tables, Smart Pointer Your.opinion.of.the.book: ===:8) The Schildt Thang=================================================== There are wildly disparate views on Herbert Schildt on the net. People seem to love him or despise him. Complaints seem to revolve around poor/incorrect coding practises passed onto beginners as gospel and a series of books which are rewrites under different titles. Note that there are several authors in the list who have more than one, more than five which may be considered to be rewrites. -het All opinion aside, it is a demonstrable fact that several of Schildt's books contain serious errors. We have threads currently running on two of them: whether main() can usefully declared as void (it cannot, though Schildt regularly suggests that it can), and whether fflush() has any meaning on input streams (formally, it does not, though on most of the MS-DOS C compilers which Schildt favors it evidently does something quasi-useful). It is a matter of opinion, though not likely to be contested, that, as a previous poster has stated, these errors in Schildt's popular books, contradicting as they do both the relevant Standards and references such as the comp.lang.c FAQ list, are likely to be quite confusing to the unwary. -Steve Summit (scs@eskimo.com) I decided that Schildt's stuff was not worth buying when I realized that he had only written *one* book, and was peddling collections of chapters from within it under *other* titles ... what a ripoff. -Syed Zaeem Hosain (szh@zcon.com) Not an errata, but a critical review can be found on WWW at the URL: http://www.lysator.liu.se/c/schildt.html ==:9) C++ Magazines======================================================== C++ Report SIGS Publications P.O. Box 2031 Langhorne, PA 19047-9700 USA C/C++ Users Journal 1601 W. 23rd St., Suite 200 Lawrence, KS 66046-9950 USA MFC Journal (Anybody have an Address?) 1 year (6 issues) costs $140 with the disk, $85 without the disks for USA residents. [Suggestions on other C++ Mags?] ===:A) Bibliographies====================================================== The Journal of Object Oriented Progamming has an object oriented booklist every October issue. In the 94 issue there were 455 books in the list of which 218 were C++. Note that the magazine is relatively expensive (US$9). Object Oriented Design with Applications by Grady Booch has an extensive (57 pages) classified bibliography. See B::23 below. [Leads on other offline bibliographies gratefully accepted. ;-)] ===:B) Online Tutorials Source FAQs BookLists============================== A note on URLs. I am beginning to change all network references to URLs. URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. This is the new standard for accessing information on the nets. Think of it as an extension of the filename. Here are some examples: To point to an FTP'able file: URL: FTP://sun.soe.clarkson.edu/pub/C++/FAQ To point to a Usenet newsgroup: URL: news:comp.lang.c++ To point to a Fidonet conference: URL: fido:C_PLUS_PLUS To point to a WWW document: URL: http://nyx10.cs.du.edu:8001/~vcarpent/learn-cpp.html BTW. I don't have a reference to the document defining URLs. There is an Internet Draft [working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)] called draft-ietf-uri-url-01.txt [dated July/93] available where you get RFCs. (See also the WWW FAQ for info on URLs.) Note that the text URL: above is not a required part of the entry. [BTW: In general case is significant in unix filenames.] 0) This bookList is FREQ'able from Frog Hollow (1:153/290) with the filename CPPBL_08.lzh. This bookList is FREQ'able from Tunnel Vision (1:153/910) with the filename CPPBL_08.lzh. This booklist is FTPable. ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/books/reviews/cppbl.txt [Thanks to rns@mobicom.demon.co.uk (Rick Stones)] 1) Coronado Enterprises tutorials shareware, available on many BBSs. The C tutorial as two files: CSRC22.ZIP and CTEXT22.ZIP. The C++ tutorial is CPTUTT22.ARJ and CPTUTS22.ARJ. 2) The latest snippets SNIPxxxx.lzh on PDN BBSs. Fidonet locations to get SNIPPETS (for FidoNet file requests, the magic names "SNIPPETS" and "SNIPDIFF" may he used to obtain the latest versions from many BBS's): 1:106/2000 1:11/70 1:272/38 - home of FidoNet Programmer's Distribution Network (PDN) Other PDN sites Internet locations to get SNIPPETS via anonymous ftp: 131.156.7.2 C directory ftp.fidonet.org /pub/fidonet/pdn/pdncee oak.oakland.edu /pub/msdos/c 3) comp.lang.c FAQ Author: scs@eskimo.com (Steve Summit) ftp://usenet-by-group/comp.answers/C-faq/faq 4) comp.lang.c++.FAQ Author: Marshall P. Cline E-mail: cline@parashift.com FTP: sun.soe.clarkson.edu in the file: pub/C++/FAQ Note: This is now available in a book. 5) LEARN-C-CPP-TODAY by Vinit Carpenter [ carpenterv@vms.csd.mu.edu ] http://ncc1701d.csd.mu.edu http://nyx10.cs.du.edu:8001/~vcarpent/learn-cpp.html ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/C-faq/learn-c-cpp-today 6) g++ and libg++ FAQ on rtfm.mit.edu Plain text version ftp://usenet-by-group/comp.answers/g++-FAQ/plain Texinfo version ftp://usenet-by-group/comp.answers/g++-FAQ/texi 7) An Short List of Common C++ Texts by Jim Adcock [ Jimad@microsoft.com ] 8) YABL (YetAnotherBookList) (ask archie) 9) C++ Libraries FAQ: The "Available C++ libraries FAQ" is posted to comp.lang.c++ every month or so. It is also archived on rtfm.mit.edu. ftp://pub/usenet-by-group/comp.answers/C++-faq/libraries 10) Untitled booklist: at gregg@tpc.com 11) C++ on the World Wide Web: If you have a WWW browser up and running, try going to http://info.desy.de/general/users.html and look for "C++" in the panel which appears. The precise URL is http://info.desy.de/user/projects/C++.html If you have no clue what WWW is, you can go over the Internet with telnet info.cern.ch which brings you to the WWW Home Page at CERN. You are now using the simple line mode browser. To move around the Web, enter the number given after an item. To go to the C++ documents, enter go http://info.desy.de/user/projects/C++.html 12) Free C/C++ for Numerical Computation An index of resources for numerical computation in C or C++. It is a collection of pointers to: - free source code available on the net, - books which come with source code, and hence act as low-cost libraries, - articles and documents, especially those available over the net. Maintained by -Ajay Shah, ajayshah@cmie.ernet.in ftp://usc.edu/pub/C-numanal/numcomp-free-c.gz 13) Fido C++ echo FAQ will be available RSN (as per David Nugent) 14) A C++ Styleguide Programming in C++ Rules and Recommendations. ftp://euagate.eua.ericsson.se/pub/eua/c++/rules.ps.Z 15) CyberReview a booklist and commentary by Scott McMahan How to get it? One of two ways, either via e-mail or ftp. Mailing List: send cyber-reviews-request@cs.unca.edu a message with get crev.ps or get crev.txt depending on what you want. FTP://ftp.cs.unca.edu/pub/mcmahan/cyber 16) "A Technique for Tracing Memory Leaks in C++" by Steve Beaty The best way to get the code is probably through Mosaic: http://www.craycos.com/~beaty/C/space.shar 17) Amiga Related Books FAQ by Marc Atkin (atkin@cs.umass.edu) FTP: rtfm.mit.edu 18) Title: C++ on the World Wide Web Filename: C++.html Author: Marcus Speh E-mail: marcus@x4u.desy.de URL: http://uu-gna.mit.edu:8001/uu-gna/text/cc/index.html 19) The ANSI C Rationale is available online: ftp://ftp.uu.net/doc/standards/ansi/X3.159-1989/ ftp://unix.hensa.ac.uk/pub/uunet/doc/standards/ansi/X3.159-1989/ ftp://black.ox.ac.uk/DOCS/ansi-rationale.dvi ftp://scitsc.wlv.ac.uk/pub/cprog/ansi.rationale.ps ftp://scitsc.wlv.ac.uk/pub/cprog/ansi.rationale.ps.Z http://www.lysator.liu.se/c/rat/title.html Note that the ANSI-ISO doc itself is not available online. Also note, there will be no rationale document for the ANSI/ISO C++ standard. 20) The comp.object FAQ ftp://zaphod.uchicago.edu:/pub/CompObj6.faq(.Z) ftp://rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/comp.object/*_Part_* http://cui_www.unige.ch/OSG/FAQ/OO-FAQ/index.html 21) The Standard Template Library (STL) is a library of generic data structures (list,map,set,vector etc) and generic algorithms (sort, search, functional style iteration etc) which will be part of the ANSI/ISO C++ standard. Several implementations are available online. URL: ftp://butler.hpl.hp.com:/stl/sharfile[.z] URL: ftp://ftp.cygnus.com:/pub/stl.h URL: ftp://ftp.cygnus.com:/pub/stl.ps.gz FREQ site - MacSavvy (1:124/1208) The current version of the STL is now available from MacSavvy. The filename and description are: STL21SEP.ZIP 232670 02-Oct-94 Standard Template Library as of 21 Sep 94. Library is now part of Draft C++ Standard. Source in text files, docs in .ps files. Files may be downloaded by calling the board or by FREQ. 22) A general bibliography on graph drawing algorithms: ftp://wilma.cs.brown.edu:/pub/papers/compgeo/gdbiblio.{ps,tex}.Z 23) A collection of bibliographies in various fields of computer science (including object oriented) is available via anonymous ftp, World Wide Web and mailserver. via WWW: http://www.ira.uka.de/ftp/ira/bibliography/index.html via FTP: ftp.ira.uka.de[129.13.10.90]:pub/bibliography via mail server: bibserv@ira.uka.de ===:C) FTPMail============================================================= If you do not have FTP, you may use FTPMAIL to retrieve many documents. Start by sending the message below to ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com. In the message put the lines: HELP QUIT ===:D) MailServers========================================================= If you do not have FTP, you may use MailServers to retrieve many documents. For example, the comp.lang.c++ FAQ may be retrieved using the clarkson mailserver. Send mail To: archive-server@sun.soe.clarkson.edu Subject: send C++/FAQ Another useful email server is mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu (send a message with the line "help" to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu). ===:E) Request for Reviews================================================= I have data on a lot of books for which I have no reviews. I need reviews/comments on the following books. Do you have info to offer? Algorithms and Data Structures in C++ Alan Parker C++ Math Class Library Scott N. Gerard C++ Programming Guidelines Thomas Plum & Dan Saks C++ Strategies and Tactics Robert B. Murray Flights of Fantasy Chris Lampton Fractal Programming and Ray Tracing With C++ Roger T. Stevens Microsoft Foundation Class Primer Jim Conger Object-Oriented Analysis Coad, P. Yourdon E. Object-Oriented Design Coad, P. Yourdon E. Object-Oriented Software-Construction Meyer, B. ObjectWindows 2.0 Programming Tom Swan, Bob Arnson & Marco Cantu Practical data structures in C++ Bryan Flamig Scientific C++ Buzzi-Ferraris Taming C++ Jiri Soukup Technical C++ Andrew C. Staugaard Jr Windows Visualization Programming with C/C++ Lee Adams [You see all the blanks in the Book section above...;-)] =========================================================================== "How much goo could a guru do, if a guru could..." -BC Harvey Taylor Internet: Harvey_Taylor@tvbbs.wimsey.bc.ca Thnik ScrambleVision! Fido....: 1:153/(911 or 910 or 290)