C++ Primer (5th Edition)

This is a very well written book. I'm an experienced programmer (C# and I have had experience with C++ a few years back, but nothing too serious), so it's hard for me to judge this from a beginner's perspective; however, my experience gives me a bit of an insight into what a book should include and how the material should be structured. I know what I want to get out of a book and so it makes it easy for me to judge whether that requirement has been fulfilled. I must say that this book has managed well in every aspect. It does a good job of explaining things well enough, without making it all too dry and boring. Many books do a poor job of focusing too much on some topics to the point where it's unbearable to read them, while failing to cover certain topics in any reasonable detail. I haven't had any issues with this one. It's a pretty thick book (~900 pages of actual material) and it does a good job of putting it all together. It feels like it was written by real working human beings, rather than some academic poindexter with no real-life experience. There's no pointless humor and at the same time there is absolutely no attempt at sounding superior in any of explanations in attempt to impress the reader. This book is a very easy read. I am incredibly picky on books and it's not easy to please me -- I haven't found any faults worth of mentioning with this book. I don't think a beginner will have too much difficulty with this book and I definitely think that experienced programmers wanting to brush up on their C++ will get a lot out of this. This thing will stay in my library (it's a shame there's no hardcover version, I enjoy those).As a tip to any beginners, read through the book lightly for the first time. What I mean is that don't attempt to understand everything right away and don't focus too much on the details. Make a note of the areas you had difficulty understanding, do a slight research to see if you can grasp it right away, but don't focus on that too much. You'll be surprised how much of the earlier information will become clear and a second nature to you as you progress further. Once you're done with your first read-through, go back and see if you still don't understand any of the areas you've marked down. I'm sure that you'll be able to eliminate many of them. At this point, focus heavily on the areas you still have difficulty with. Of course, results will vary and not everyone learns the same way, but this has worked out very well for me. That's how I study for everything. I read through any material very lightly the firs time around, to get the general feeling and find the areas I'll be focusing on, and then go back to focus on those details. This strategy helped me maintain 4.0 in Computer Science, so the results are real (but once again, it may vary by person).

Thumbs up

This book was recommended by Microsoft learn. It has subjects in it that are not in Beginning Programming with C++ for Dummies like the vector topic. I do not think this book is a great first option for people with no experience. I find that some of the subjects are confusing because I dont quite think that way. For instance when making a vector change to upper case letters. My first though was not to make a reference of a reference to change the characters in a vector. This Microsoft course said its a great source for learning modern syntax practices. Im on chapter 3 and it would be a lot harder without AI helping me in Visual Studio. Some of the exercises have taken me a few days to figure out. I thought the quiz in chapter 1 was hard. I had a difficult time writing the code because I had no idea what was going on in the header file. It teaches you after the fact how to make one. I found it difficult to use the variables in the header file since I couldn't understand it.

Tue May 31 2016 10:00:09 GMT-0700 (Pacific Standard Time)About a year ago, I had to upgrade to C++11/14 and due to constraints on my time, started reading selected portions of this highly readable book. During the process, I immediately noticed the crisp, precision and accuracy of the writing and eventually over next seven or so months, ended up reading it completely!For one example, you could see how they explain, towards the end of the book, the C++ memory allocation options. Many years ago, another (admittedly otherwise good) book tried to explain the nuances of "new expression", "placement new" and the "operator new library function" in a supposedly funny yet readable way but ended up completely confusing most readers. Even recently, I have run into people who were misguided by that book in their understanding of C++ memory management! In the current book, the authors took less than three pages to lay out the whole story clear and complete. This is but one example.The best parts of the book are its coverage and writing style: comprehensive, accurate and readable. Good technical editing and extensive proof reading are evident. It does not seem like there are many typos left in the ~900 pages thick book (and hopefully there would be five less of them in the next edition - if they take in my corrections). The expertise of the authors is consistently conspicuous throughout. Using this book for day-to-day C++ programming brings back the sense of security one experienced using Harbison and Steele's "C A Reference Manual" with C programming.During the prime days of C, there were three essential books: "Kernighan & Ritchie", "C A Reference Manual" and "C Traps and Pitfalls". The current book is like the modern C++ reincarnation of all those three and more.From the layout of the pages, it is apparent that the authors and publishers have struggled with the size of the book: they seem to have gone to the extremes to save space!