Jamsa's C/C++ Programmer's Bible: The Ultimate Guide to C/C++ Programming [With Contains Borland Turbo C++ Lite...]

I am suprised that this didn't receive 5 stars overall. I own about 30 programming books and this one is my main REFERENCE, while I trust Herbert Schildt's book's for complete learning. You can get answers FAST. The book is loaded with useful ADVANCED TECHNIQUES, but is NOT INTENDED FOR BEGINNERS. Unlike most books, it answers the questions what, how, why, etc. For that reason, it deserves 5 stars.

This book presents numerous stand-alone topics and code samples that are grouped together in more or less logical chunks: Basic C language stuff, strings, functions, keyboard handling, files, directories, and disk operations, arrays, pointers, structures, DOS/BIOS, memory stuff, date/time. The book also contains a bunch of C++ topics such as the obligatory object/class and inheritance material, templates, exceptions, STL, windows programming topics, and some useful material on processes and threads.The book is not designed to be read through for a comprehensive understanding of any of the logical areas. Hence it is not suitable as a beginner's book. Rather it is designed for the programmer who is familiar, but not entirely proficient with C and just wants to know how to accomplish some very focused task: "gee, what's one way to spawn a process?"I program in C a fair amount, but am not a guru at it by any means, and so I have found this book to be very useful as a resource when I wanted to do something new. I hate wading through all the nonsense you get with most C references which are slanted towards beginners and not toward those of us who have to do something real, and really quick. Most of those books contain the same information and none of them ever seem to have just that piece of information you happen to need.

In searching for a C++ reference I wanted three things: a well written, easy to read book; a thorough index section; and a comprehensive examination of the language. This book provides all of those things. I haven't had the chance to check all the code samples included within the book so I cannot confirm or deny of the validity of the complaints registered by other users. However, to those who deride this book because its disorganized and hard to read cover to cover: Its a REFERENCE BOOK. You aren't supposed to read it cover to cover. Any disorganization of material is more than made up for with the books excellent index (the best one I've seen in a reference book).I looked at MANY C++ references in Barnes & Noble. Since they're ALL so expensive, I wanted to be sure that I chose the right one. For my needs, this was the best choice by far.

I have 8 programming books and have read them all, but until I read this book, I didn't feel like I had a good grasp of the C and C++languages. The problem other books are unorganized, poorly written, and to often, just plain wrong. This book has none of those problems. Very few of the examples had errors, you can't expect perfection from a book so large. The few errors I found were simple to correct (extra parenthesis for example). After reading this book everythign "clicked" and I no longer spend hours lookign for solutions in my other books, because after learning from this book I am now able to develop my own solutions. This book is also so well organized that when I do occasionally have to look up something I can find a solution in seconds. I would highly recommend this book for anyone from begginer to advanced.

As a beginning C/C++ programmer I find this book to be very helpful. It is not a book that will teach you C/C++ programming but rather provide you with informative concise examples of how to complete a particular task and provide a quick refresher for those times when your mind goes blank.I use this book often in conjunction with other texts that do teach C programming because I have found it easy to find the examples I need and like the straight forward explanations and code samples.This book get's a permanent place on my desk top.