Programming in C++: Lessons and Applications

I have taught C++ for several years at the college level and am always on the lookout for a better textbook, which is the context within which I examined this book. We also have a course in programming with C and most students take the two classes sequentially. Therefore, the coverage of C in the C++ class is on the order of, "Recall that in C when we want to do X we use language feature Y." This book has too much coverage of C to be used as a text in our C++ class. For example, chapter 11 "Pointer Variable" is a complete description of pointers, what they are and how they are used. In our program, this is covered in C and brushed over in C++. Another example is chapter 12, "Character arrays", which is followed by chapter 13, "The C++ string class." Once again, there is no reason for chapter 12 to be covered in our C++ class. Other chapters that would be lightly covered or skipped are: *) Chapter 1, Computers and computing fundamentals *) Chapter 2, Getting started - program structure, screen output, and comments *) Chapter 3, Variables and arithmetic output *) Chapter 4, Basic input/output *) Chapter 5, Decision making, if, if - else and the switch command *) Chapter 6, Iteration - loops *) Chapter 7, Functions *) Chapter 9, One-dimensional numeric arrays *) Chapter 10, Multidimensional numeric arrays However, these points aside, this book would be suitable for a course where knowledge of C is not a prerequisite. If the students lacked that knowledge, then coverage of these areas would be essential. There are many questions and programming projects included in the text. They are placed in two categories: lesson exercises and application exercises. Solutions to the lesson exercises are included. While I will not be using this book in my C++ class, I can recommend it to anyone who offers C++ as the first programming class in a computer science program.

Dr. D'Orazio's C++ Programming textbook is very easy to follow and has many useful examples to learn from. It is very well written and helpful in mastering the C++ language. I would recommend this book for students learning C++ for the first time.