Sams Teach Yourself Borland C++ Builder 4 in 24 Hours

In the beginning of the book, Chaper 1-7, the author starts with teaching C++ in a CONSOLE APPLICATION. This is really great, because when I want to learn to program, I don't want to place all kinds of objects on a form and customize those. Instead, I just want to see all plain text in one view. This section of the book I find very brilliantly written: exactly my level of depth I want to read in a starters book, without too-exhaustive examples. From chapter 8 on, the 'Builder' environment is described. I like best reading this part before sleeping or when travelling: Because I find the Builder environment so intuitive, it is in my opinion not needed to explain all 'obvious' stuff. But I guess for people not familiar with a Windows environment, this will be a great help. But for me, I only read it for those 'magical' lines of code (like how to read a line from a Memo component, which I found very hard to find out alone).Chapter 20 is filled handy 'programming tips', like the use of 'ALT-[' or 'ALT-]' to find corresponding curly brackets. Chapter 23 is about the debugger, which was also a need-to-read section for me. Concluding, I find the book superficial in its most positive sense: it describes what a beginning programmer needs to know to start with, without going into not-needed details or falling into exhaustive examples. It gives you all you need to know to start with.

Excellent intro to C++Builder. Thorough, patient, well-paced, informative. Required if you are a newbie to Builder. I used it to learn the new Builder 5.0 and found no problems. (A small part of this book is an intro to C++. It is too small -- but that's okay. There are plenty of good books out there on C++. I like Herb Schildt's work.)

This book provides a good introduction to the C++ Builder environment as well as a good start on writing basic programs. The author keeps the book purposely low key and cookbook like. Perfect beginning book.I would grade it harsher if there were any other books on the market to compare it to, but there aren't!

English: This kind of book (teach yourself in 24 hours, 21 days , etc) always have been suspect for me. But Kent Reisdorph's "Teach Yourself Borland C++ Builder 4 in 24 Hours" is a very good publication, specially for beginner/intermediate level. It starts with an explanation about C language, then goes to OOP and C++ and finally covers C++ Builder 4, always well-explained. Kent is also a member of TeamB, Borland's online volunteer support group. It really worths its price !Portuguese: Apesar do nome gerar suspeitas (sempre desconfiei de títulos aprenda em 21 dias ou 24 horas), é um livro muito bom. Começa com uma visão geral da linguagem C, depois entra no C++ com todos os conceitos de OOP e depois entra no Builder 4. Na realidade são 24 capítulos que o autor chamou de 24 horas. É o mesmo autor de C++ Builder Unleashed(este é um livro para nível mais avançado) e faz parte do TeamB da Borland. Este livro vem ainda com um CD com todos os exemplos e um trial do Builder 4 por 60 dias

This book is by know means an in-depth view of C++ or C++ Builder 4. It simply cuts to the chase. I am an Visual Basic programmer struggling to learn C++. This book was ideal for me. It explained essential topics and I was able to be up and running with C++ Builder in hours. The authors humor was refreshing to all those other very dry C++ books that I've choked down. Thank you Kent Reisdorph, Brian Gill and thank you Borland for a best C++ tool to date.