Thread: ideas for my C++ book

Hi,

I'm nearly ready with the plans for my C++ book. I tried a somehow different approach of this great programming language in my book, and the publishers seem to like it.
I'd appreciate if you would give me some ideas regarding which parts of C++ have you found the most difficult.

So, if you have further ideas, you are welcome, and I'll mention your name in my book.

Here are the parts I'm already discussing in my book:

1.) Introduction: myths and reality about programming and programmers; Programming - art or industry?

2.) C++ and the OO concept; why is C++ considered as an OOP?
This chapter is about data hiding, inheritance and polymorphism in C++

3.) Variables and constants
Declaration to naming. Hungarian notation. Scope and lifetime. Global and local vars, the static keyword. Type casting and problems invoked by casting.

4.) Pointers
A detailed description on pointers. The reference. A special pointer: "this".

5.) Operations, operators
Arithmetical, relational, logical and bitwise operators.
Operator overloading.
Operator evaluation order.

6.) Functions
Declaration and definition.
Program arguments. Pointers as arguments.
References as arguments.
Function'S return value.
Recursivity. How to avoid stack overflow.
Function overloading.
Template functions.

7.) Classes, unions, structs
Differences and similarities.
Special typecasts : dynamic_cast, static_cast
Template classes

8.) Inheritance
A detailed description of inheritance.

9.) Source code styling. C++ programming guidelines.
The role of header and source files.
Indenting the code.
Comments.
Function description.
...

10.) STL - the C++ standard template library
Introducing STL. A problem: inter-process communication and STL

11.) Error handling and logging. Exception handling.
Bug hunt under MS Visual C++
Debugging, conditional breakpoints, the call-stack, the assembly-view
Remote debugging
Tracing and it's importance
The try-throw-catch mechanism
Be prepared - there's no bug - free software!
Error logging - a sample class
---------------------------------------------

Thanks in advance!

Have a nice code!

Originally posted by aerian
Maybe what is ANSI C++, what is not and what it is good for.

And something about functions: inline, virtual, pure virtual and const functions, mainly the last ones.

Comparing float variables (for example 0.1 * 10 may be different from 1.0, because of binary representation of 0.1, which is periodic).

Memory management. For example what should overloaded operator + return? Reference, or value? When are local variables on the stack destroyed?
And delete[]. What about overloading new and delete? And constuctions like
Someclass *t = new(1) Someclass(5);

Namespaces.

Templates with exceptions.

Great, thank you!

Originally posted by Dante Shamest
You might also like to add a section on Graphical User Interface (GUI) programming. 99% of C++ books neglect that.

They should at least mention that the standard library doesn't have any GUI classes/functions, but that you have to rely on native APIs or toolkits. It'd be cool if you devote a brief section on them.

I guess there would be problems with the portability, that's why no graphics are included in the ANSI C++.

I don't see anything in there about basic program flow constructs like loops and conditionals. Is this not supposed to be a ground-up C++ book?

Originally posted by FillYourBrain
Is this not supposed to be a ground-up C++ book?

The main intention was to explain the most interesting / obscure things in C++, but maybe you're right.

Besides, the publisher requested about 300 pages, so I'll probably include this basic flow constructs, too.

This may sound obvious, maybe not, but whatever you do, make sure that all of the code you write conforms to the standard. If you don't, people won't respect you or buy your book.

Originally posted by joshdick
This may sound obvious, maybe not, but whatever you do, make sure that all of the code you write conforms to the standard. If you don't, people won't respect you or buy your book.

Of course, I thought of that. Everything is ANSI C++.
However, some sources in the Error handling chapter will be MS Visual C++ specific.

Originally posted by DougDbug
From your outline, I couldn't tell what the purpose/goal of the book is.

Make it clear to the potential buyer/reader (and to yourself) what the purpose of the book is, what topics are covered, and who the target reader is (and what the reader needs to know before reading your book).

My primary goal is to discuss some interesting parts of C++, and a whole chapter is dedicated to Error and exception handling.
The book should help a newbie to easily understand e.g. pointers and inheritance, but I'm trying to dig deeper -especially through examples - into problems which are met day by day by professional programmers - e.g. pointer validation, using pseudo-registers, etc.
I think there are enough classical books on the market, which are from one of those two categories mentioned by you: tutorials and reference books. Well, mine will be different, call it "Working with C++"

Originally posted by Rog
Will your book be distributed in the United States?

I don't think so, it will be published in Hungary, but who knows?

Further ideas are still welcome!
Thank you very much, guys!

Has anyone mentioned function pointers?
Calling conventions?
A programmer-jargon reference?
A section on career planning?

Hi Carlos,

First of all good luck on your book!

I think a lot of newbies really struggle when they try to understand multiple file projects. I can't say for sure, so far I've only read one book, but judging by the amount of people that are confused, I would guess many books don't cover multiple files.

You should cover headers, what to use them for and what not to use them for, why not to include .cpp, maybe explain a bit of the behind the scenes work involved in linking etc.