I want to learn boost, would somebody suggest a book or websites to start with? Thanks.
I want to learn boost, would somebody suggest a book or websites to start with? Thanks.
Last edited by meili100; 03-10-2008 at 08:01 PM.
Congrats -- learning Boost will make you 100 times more productive.Originally Posted by meili100
Honestly, I taught myself Boost by reading the documentation on the Boost web site. How you proceed really depends. Do you know much STL yet?
I am with what brewbuck hinted at, if you aren't that familar with STL, start there, learn about that and how the objects and algorithms and all that fun stuff interacts, then move on to playing with Boost.
If you already know the STL pretty decently then moving to Boost shouldn't be hard, what I am doing is just using the different parts of boost as I need them, there is tons of documentation available, it is just a double click away. I am not sure of what books are out there, I have yet to look into that.
I'd love to learn Boost too, but it's so big I can't figure out where to start.
Maybe if people could say which Boost classes are the most useful to them (the ones they use the most) it would help to give a good starting point.
IMO wikipedia is always a good point to start
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boost_C%2B%2B_Libraries
I got this one, but hadn't much time yet to look into:
http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Standar.../dp/0321133544
>> Maybe if people could say which Boost classes are the most useful to them (the ones they use the most)
I would start by looking at the ones used most here. There's shared_ptr and other smart pointers that are already in TR1 (in fact, a good starting point is everything in TR1, since they will probably all become standard soon). There are also the pointer containers that are interesting.
If you work with files a lot, look at filesystem. If you use sockets, look at asio (not exactly part of boost but sort of). If you use threads look at the threads library.
If you've done random number generation look at the random library. Or if you want to see a hash table implementation look for unordered_ containers.
If you come from a C background and want a C++ perspective try using array instead of static C style arrays.
If you want something advanced and powerful look at the lambda stuff and the concept check library.
Or if none of those strike your fancy then just peruse the list. I get all my learning from that site and searching the internet.
