Professional C++

This book is written in a very good style (not boring) and has a good balance between the concepts (design, metods, testing, debugging, etc) and the language issues. As the autors explain, they focus in the "important" aspects on the C++-related subjects, and barely comment on the most obscure ones. The result being that after reading some chapters I've gained a lot of useful insights that really helped in my work. The comments clearly reflect autors' opinions and personal recomendations on several subjects, which in turn provide more value to the book and sometimes help the reader in not feeling annoyed at some issues. For example, on page 322 you may read (on the subject of templates): "...The concepts can be difficult to grasp when you are first exposed to them, and the syntax is so tricky that the authors of this book consult a reference whenever they want to write templates....". I think that's a very helpful "confession" from an prof. programmer to a beggining reader. The book's objective is twofold: being a tutorial of the most useful aspects in typical C++ related proyects, and being a reference on broad subjects of the language and programming in general (but is not an exaustive or detailed reference for every construct or library class feature: use the Internet for that.) In sum, the authors are trying to "convert" the reader in a good programmer and that is really beyond the language syntax. Obviously, with the (too?) big number of subjects considered, a lot of people may feel that some of them are considered too superficially (me included at times.) For example, why to provide an introduction to SOAP (wikipedia may be better) without actually providing a C++ related sample or concept? Another "subjective" complaint is the lack of GUI-related material (I think the number of people having to deal with GUIs is larger than the number of people having to deal with, for example, XML; and XML is well discussed, not being a C++ specific.) Overall this book was really useful to me and I believe has a lot to provide for most people trying to do some serious work with C++.

There are many books out there how not to shoot yourself in the foot with C++. There are also many books that assume nothing about reader prior knowledge and explain the language as if it was your first ever book. Both types have their own merits. However in every day practice nothing can beat a reference book. I personally need to switch all the time between C++, Java, C#. And even being an experienced developer with all these languages I need to refresh various syntax details here and there, all these subtle nuances of the language. So from time to time I find this book very handy. The book is indeed superficial in many covered topics but in depth coverage would require dozens of books. On each and every topic be that templates, STL or distributed programming there are many more advanced books. However if all you need is a quick reference or an example this book is unbeatable. Nowadays one year old book looks old and I personally reluctant to buy such outdated books. But this book is very well done and can be useful for quite a few years.

This is a very readable and helpful guide to C++ OOP. It is meant to be a programming guide rather than merely covering syntax (as C++ Primer does for example). As it says on the back cover, "You'll learn simple, powerful techniques used by C++ professionals, little-known features that will make your life easier, and reusable coding patterns that will bring your basic C++ skills to the professional level." Coming into this with extensive C and other programming experience, including some C++ many years ago, this book was ideal for me. I especially appreciated the authors' ability to give a very good foundation for developing well-designed, robust C++ code. I went from a very solid C programmer to developing using a new C++ mentality in a couple of weeks. The authors are obviously quite experienced and knowledgeable in C++ and OOP, and write in an enjoyable, easy-to-follow manner. They don't just present C++, they discuss every aspect of how to develop great code using C++. They take a very reasonable and competent approach to coding, pointing out pitfalls and providing much guidance together with good explanations of their reasoning. This book doesn't just tell you how you can do something in C++, it explains how to do it well. Professional C++ is for an intermediate to advanced programmer with either some C++ experience or a good deal of other programming experience. It is not meant to be an exhaustive exposition of C++ (although it does cover all the basics of the language), but it is certainly sufficient to get a developer not only up and coding, but doing so with better style and more competence than many seasoned C++ professionals. Some of the many topics I found interesting and useful include: code reuse, software engineering methods (including a several page synopsis of extreme programming), exceptions, STL, frameworks, and design patterns. On some important topics that could be books in themselves, enough material is presented here to give the reader a basic understanding of the subject and an awareness of the issues so that the reader can decide whether to pursue the subject further. Although this book was all I really needed to get up and going, I found a couple other books also quite helpful, in particular "Object Oriented Design Heuristics" by Arthur J. Riel and the new third edition of "Effective C++" by Scott Meyers.

I gave it a 5 because it accomplished what I was looking for. I am an experienced programmer with C and needed some reminders usning C++. I think the sections for Distributed programming is a very useful topic, since most people don't get training using CORBA.

If you need a book to bring you up to speed in C++ this is good choice. I will recommend to people who want to learn C++.