Thread: Should I upgrade? Be honest people

  1. #1
    Shadow12345
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    Should I upgrade? Be honest people

    I have 'Sams teach yourself C++ in 21 days second editon' it was written in 1997, do you think I should buy the newest release? (I think it is the fifth edition).

    Ok, that is all i wanted to ask!

    beer...

  2. #2
    Registered User xds4lx's Avatar
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    No offense but those books really really really suck, they use really bad examples and just fly thourhg things not informing you of pitfalls to avoid. I would suggest getting a better book, seach this board and you will see the topic of C/C++ books discussed quite often. Id suggest getting a more up to date book so that you can learn the current C++ standard, altough an older book is ok, when i first learned C++ 9 years ago the book I learned from was already 8 years old lol. Anyways this post was not meant to be rude but everyone here needs to learn how to use the darn search button!
    "only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and im not sure about the former." - albert einstein

  3. #3
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    I actually liked that book because it gave me a really good jump start. I have fifth edition but I would think they are about the same. Sure after you are done with that book you should get more books, you can never have to many books.

  4. #4
    Shadow12345
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    xds4lx

    Hey xds4lx what is the most recent book you have used??? It is kind of frustrating that i am starting to understand the material in the book I am reading, but then someone says it completely sucks. Oh well not much I can do about that.

  5. #5
    Unregistered Leeman_s's Avatar
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    I have a VERY good book called "Beginning Visual C++ 6" by ivor horton. It explains things real well and I love it.

  6. #6
    Registered User Dual-Catfish's Avatar
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    I agree, Sams books suck you in for the price.. but I've found most of them to be really bad books (Ones i've bought and read are Teach yourself TCP/IP in 14 days / Teach yourself JavaScript in 24 hours / Teach yourself Photoshop 5.5 in 24 hours and I've read Teach yourself C++ in 21 days on the internet) but it's worth it to spend a little more for a better book... How about the C++ programming language (3rd Edition?) by Bjarne Stroustrup (sp?)

    I REALLY hated Teach yourself C++ in 21 days.. like someone said; bad examples and it speeds through things too quickly.. needless to say it did teach me most of the C++ basics.

    Teach yourself TCP/IP just sped through at light speed... Although the JavaScript book was very informative

    Or if you've already read the C++ book, why not start on something new, like Win32 or something?

  7. #7
    Registered User hk_mp5kpdw's Avatar
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    I have a VERY good book called "Beginning Visual C++ 6" by ivor horton. It explains things real well and I love it.
    I have version 5 of that book and it gave me a good start in C++. I thought it was easy to understand, but by that point I already had several years of on the job programming experience with C so maybe that helped.

    Check out the Association of C & C++ Users website
    here for a list of "highly recommended" beginners C++ books. One of the highly recommended books is "Accelerated C++" by Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo. I've heard that one mentioned before as being very good.
    "Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods."
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  8. #8

    Question C++ Book

    I would recommend buying any book by Ivor Horton you can find! His books are enjoyable to read and also easy to understand. You can also download the code for the books from wrox.com

  9. #9
    geek SilentStrike's Avatar
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    Stroustrop's book is not aimed at beginner's though... having some experience with some introductory level book is probably less likely to lead you into frustration. That said, after you have a grip of the langauge, read his book.
    Prove you can code in C++ or C# at TopCoder, referrer rrenaud
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  10. #10
    Andre` LaMothe` makes some pretty good books too. Some of his books are so elementary it's not even funny. Here is a quote from one of his books.

    "Do you know that math is important in computers? Computers are basically just over-grown calculators that take numbers to tell which hardware to interact with and how to"

    Elementary indeed. Don't let that scare you though, it was in an elementary book anyway. It was in learning to program for dummies. Do not buy general programming books, for they just basically teach you which programming language to use. I never bought one, thank god.

  11. #11
    Registered User dirkduck's Avatar
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    Personally, I think the teach yourself C++ in 30 days is a fairly good book. For one, you can find it online for free (legally). Other than that, when I read parts of it a few years ago, it really actaully was the book/tutorial that got me away from BASIC and into C++. You'll have to go find some other tutorials that go more in depth, but for a start, I'd say that its great.

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