Editorial Review

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Reviews (264)

The best C++ book!
Excellent book. You need some feedback before you read it, but this book is complete and good reference.

Indispensable great book
The reading is tedious, and in my opinion he does not cover some concepts thoroughly, such as casting. On the other hand, it is "The" C++ reference, although it isn't perfect.

Perfect!
This is a great C++ book, the best I have found around. I strongly encourage anybody interested in learning this programming language to buy it. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. C (Programming Language)    2. C++ (Computer program language    3. C++ (Computer program language)    4. Computer Books: General    5. Computers    6. Computers - Languages / Programming    7. Programming Languages - C++    8. C & Visual C    9. Computers / Programming Languages / C++   

Reviews (17)

Great glimpse of a programming language's history
This book is very interesting in that it doesn't tell you howto program in C++ but rather highlights why C++ is the way it is today. It starts with the very roots, an extension to the C language ('C with classes'') Bjarne devised back in 1979, because he faced a software engineering problem at the time where all currently available tools seemed inappropriate. This highly real world oriented design attitude was kept throughout the evolution of C++ - Bjarne specifically didn't want to produce an 'academic' language. This view and the absolute necessity for C compatibility and efficiency explain lots, if not all, of C++s more ugly syntactic and semantic constructs. While the book has chapters dealing with very specific parts of the language, I found the philosophical chapters the most interesting. These explain the author's personal views on programming and design in general and consequently why certain things were accepted or rejected into C++. Bjarne stresses the point that C++ was designed from the beginning to be a 'multiple paradigm' language. Object oriented programming was never meant to be, and is not, the only valid - holy grail - style of programming, that many make it out to be. It's quite frustrating to see features devised ten years ago still not properly supported by the current crop of compilers, templates for example (export anyone?).
Modeling Engineer
This is a great book for those who want to understand the history of C++, the details of its implementation and more importantly, this language's spirit.

For the Novice C++ Programmer
I was taking a graduate class for beginning C++ students. The book gave a wonderful history of C++.I would recommend for students who have not taken C or C+ to understand the scope of how powerful C++ is.This is also a good book for the introduction to object-oriented programming. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. C++ (Computer program language    2. C++ (Computer program language)    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Programming Languages - C++    5. C & Visual C    6. Computers / Programming Languages / C++    7. Object-oriented programming (OOP)   

Reviews (12)

Great but Outdated.
This was "The" standard for creating C++ 99. Since then the standard libraries were added, a full implementation of templates and exception handleing etc. So while its a good reference for the "core" of C++, i.e. the classes etc, it shouldn't be the first book (or even the 2nd) on C++ you buy. Better to get the Hardcover "The C++ Programming Language (Special 3rd Edition)" which has chapters on all of the language. Outdated
This book was fairly complete at the time of its publication, but there have been so many significant improvements and new approaches to the C++ language that the book is outdated.I'd recommend this book only to people who are interested in a historical collection of C++ documents. Needs to be updated.
This book was good when it came out in 1990. It needs to updated to to the newer versions of C++. Other than that it is a good book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. C (Programming Language)    2. C++ (Computer program language    3. C++ (Computer program language)    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Programming Languages - C++    6. Reference    7. C & Visual C    8. Computers / Programming Languages / C++   

Reviews (5)

Excellent, but read the back cover or description!
To all those that complain that this book doesn't answer all the questions in Stroustrup's book, the hint is in the phrase "C++ Solutions, provides insightful, logical, and easy-to-follow solutions to selected exercises found in The C++ Programming Language". See the word "selected"? Bit of a give away isn't it?!
Excellent learning tool
Vandervoorde is one of the emerging experts on C++. In this book he guides you through many of the exercises in "The C++ Programming Language". As he does so he fills in many of the gaps, and provides extra insight that you might not gleam just from reading the original book, but what he really does is let you stand by his shoulder as he works out some of the problems. A real "cop out", if I ever did see one.
First of all, C++ is a very difficult language to learn, and even moreso to master. It requires years of constant practice and learning to reach near the mountain top, and Stroustrup's book, "The C++ Programming Language" is among the most difficult to read and understand (ESPECIALLY for those just starting out).Read more

Subjects:  1. C (Programming Language)    2. C++ (Computer program language)    3. Computer Books: Languages    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Programming - General    7. Programming Languages - C    8. Programming Languages - C++    9. C & Visual C   

Reviews (2)

Another reason to avoid this
I agree with the earlier reviewer and I'll add another reason: For $18.00 you can buy an electronic version of the Standard from ANSI as a PDF file. Same content (except the TR which I think is available separately) and no issues about binding. It won't feel like a book but somehow I doubt that Programming Language Standards are read at bedtime with a cup of cocoa at hand...

the content you want, nice paper, poor binding
I'm not going to review the content; if you know what this is (the formal standard for the C++ programming language) you know that standards are written in dense, formal language, but that at times, no other source of information about the language will do; this is the primary source. If you claim to be an expert on C++ and write a lot of code, eventually you will probably have to look something up in the standard.Read more

Subjects:  1. C++ (Computer program language    2. C++ (Computer program language)    3. Computer Books: General    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Programming - General    7. Programming Languages - C    8. C & Visual C    9. Computers / Programming Languages / C    10. Reference works   

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computers - Languages / Programming    3. Programming - General   

Subjects:  1. C++ (Computer program language)   

Subjects:  1. C (Computer program language)