Learning to Program in C++

C++ is a very rich language, so there is no way to thoroughly cover all its features in an introductory text. There are two obvious ways to deal with this fact: an author can give very shallow coverage to almost all of the syntax, or he can give deeper coverage to a smaller subset of the language (and I'm ignoring the large number of books that really don't teach programming at all, but just have you connect the dots on a visual interface). For some reason, almost all authors take the first path. After finishing their books, the reader knows three ways to write a loop, five ways to write a branch, and very little about classes or object-oriented programming. In fact, most readers don't finish, because it's too boring to read endless chapters of syntax, without learning to write useful programs.Almost uniquely, Steve Heller takes the second approach. He gives you one way to write a loop, one way to do a branch, and then starts in on classes. I doubt you'll find many other C++ books that have the reader learning sophisticated virtual class techniques before encountering "while" loops. This could be risky, but Steve pulls it off, for two reasons. One is that he is a very good writer, and an expert in the subject. The other is that whenever a tricky concept is discussed, the questions you are likely to have are asked for you --- the narrative of the book contains a concurrent correspondence with an intelligent beginner, who got drafts of the chapters as they were being written, and asked for alternative explanations whenever something wasn't clear to her.The time Steve saves by not discussing redundant language features is used to go into more depth about what it really means to program. A sample project is built from the ground up, with successive chapters adding features and refinement to the basic concept. By the time you finish the book, you'll have an idea of how much work it takes to write a real application, and also the sense of accomplishment you get from doing it.This book isn't for everyone. If you just want to dabble in programming, and let the visual compiler wizards do most of the work, you won't like it. If you aren't willing to put some work and study into it, you won't get as much out of it as you could. But if you want an excellent introduction to programming, and an excellent foundation for intermediate books, you could hardly do better than to read this book.

This book is one of the easiest C++ books to learn! It's not like those other books that sound like your talking to a computer itself. Yes it might be easy to learn but if you want to learn fast, this book is not for you. And if you don't like reading to much, this book is not for you either. When I first picked up this book I had only one thing in mind,"Hey wouldn't it be cool to program." I had no past experience at any type of programming, and I thought it was going to be like a flash that I would learn C++. Well it was easy to learn by the way Steve Heller wrote it, but I had to put some hard work into it. C++ isn't an easy programming language to learn but with this book you can master it!

This is one of the best programming books I have read. I was in the middle of my second semester of C++ programming in college when I bought this book. I learned more from "Learning to Program in C++" than I did reading the required textbook for the course. Mr. Heller writes and explains things so that anyone can follow the logic. While reading this book I had a couple of questions that my instructor was not even clear on, so I sent Mr. Heller an e-mail. He wrote back an explanation in less than an hour. Then he followed up on my question to make sure I truly understood the process that he had clarified for me. I found this to be most impressive. I have never learned from a book where I was able to actually question the author, and have him respond to my question. What a great experience. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to get started in computer programming or needs to expand on what they already know about C++. Sincerely, G. Tripp

This was an excellent book for C++ and programming fundamentals. I have been a software engineer for a large technology manufacturer for a few years. I have been programming for 4 years after leaving college. This book covers the foundations of computer science in such a way that you CANNOT NOT UNDERSTAND. These basics are absolutely critical to understand before you can really begin to hope to understand complex systems programming. I would recommend this book to anyone at any level looking to tighten up their skills. It is a great refresher for things I did in school and it is a great introduction for first time programmers. Sometimes the dialogue is heavy but only if you don't need it. If you need it, it is everywhere and it really helps you to understand the current topic better; Susan asks every question you can imagine. I would put this book in the hands of anybody. It is truly an idiot proof explanation to computers/software and the underlying architecture that supports both.

I think this book is by far the best beginning programming book I have ever seen. Although I had wanted to learn programming in the past, I was always daunted by the weighty tomes I picked up in bookstores or libraries. In Learning to Program in C++, Steve Heller starts out explaining that programming is simply a basic, step-by-step process of problem solving. Each chapter presents problems and programming solutions in small, easy to chew morsels. Always building upon what you know and almost always giving you all of the information required to come to a solution, (aside from the occasional intentional mental exercise which are resolved within each chapter), this book makes the process easy and painless.A very helpful and cute aspect of the book are the e-mails between Steven and Susan. Susan was a beta reader/student for the original edition of this book, "Who's Afraid of C++" and is now Steve's wife. The questions Susan asks are frequently questions that came up in my study, and the answers are presented right there in a venue which allows me to not feel too dumb when the answer is obvious. And, an e-mail to Steve concerning a question I had resulted in a timely and easily understood answer.The CD contains a C++ compiler, programming environment, and all of the source code contained in the book. Everything you need to jump right in.This book is well worth the price for anyone who has wanted to learn programming, but was afraid to start.