Thread: C++ Book Recommendations

Wow, four pages of book recommendations and not one mention of "The C++ FAQs", by Cline, Lomow, and Girou. Much more material than the online version.

Also, while not strictly C++, "Refactoring" by Fowler is a must read for any OO programmer, IMO.

Finally, "Large Scale C++ Software Design", by Lakos.

I have C/C++ Programmer's Reference from him. Osborne, ISBN 0-07-882367-6.

I bought this book right after I decided to learn C++ a little over 2 years ago, just as Daved mentioned. As a reference material, the book is incredibly badly put together. The very first problem you have with it is the title as Herbert is actually, for all purposes making no distinction between C and C++. The whole notion of C/C++ Programming Language is a mistake. There is no such thing. But here you have a book author with catch phrases in the cover aiming at newbies, making such reference. A reference that goes beyond the title and spills into the book contents.

Meanwhile there's very little of C++ on the book. The STL is covered in 6 pages. The C++ I/O system deserves only 8 pages and the old C++ header system is mentioned and deserves a comparatively high 6 pages to describe it in the context of the I/O objects and functions. All these three sections are at the end of the book and are frankly insufficient, giving rise for beginners to write C++ code that is heavily based on C objects, types and functions; a common mistake that this author always ignored on any of his books.

The book also carries a heavy load of errors, bad advise and mistakes. Some of these that I carried on to this board and only here was I able to slowly start correcting them. Some of them I have noted down on the book and will be more than glad to share if anyone is willing to go through one big post.

All in all, C/C++ Programmer's Reference by Herbert Schildt was the worst book I ever bought on C++. It was my first so I don't consider it a blooper. Still it serves as an example of what kind of stuff this "World-renowned programming author [...] of many best-sellers" (sic) teaches to those starting programming in C++.

Originally Posted by chiefmonkey

I see that the majority of the recommended advanced books have to do with STL. Is STL widely used in the software industry these days? or is it a decaying technology? I just wanted to gather some information before I dig into the books. Thanks!!

STL is widely, but not universally, used. What is more important is to understand templates in general, and perhaps the iterator concept (which is extremely powerful even without STL). A lot of people are rolling their own template algorithms instead of using STL, but STL is a great place to start.

I'm currently looking for in-depth knowledge of boost and template meta programming, so I was wondering if anyone knew any good resources and books on the concepts?

I've currently found C++ Template Metaprogramming: Concepts, Tools, and Techniques from Boost and Beyond By David Abrahams, Aleksey Gurtovoy and I do understand the basics, but from chapter 3 forward, it's getting mega confusing, so I was wondering if there are any other resources/books about this?

Second up is boost. It's a great library with lots of promise. I found the book Beyond the C++ Standard Library: An Introduction to Boost By Björn Karlsson which is great, but it doesn't cover so much about boost. There is a great deal yet that lies hidden, just waiting to be explored. So is there any other resources or books about boost?

I'd be thankful for anything.

Originally Posted by Elysia

I've currently found C++ Template Metaprogramming: Concepts, Tools, and Techniques from Boost and Beyond By David Abrahams, Aleksey Gurtovoy and I do understand the basics, but from chapter 3 forward, it's getting mega confusing, so I was wondering if there are any other resources/books about this?

You might try "Modern C++ Design" by Alexei Alexandrescu. It's more accessible than C++TM, but less in-depth. It uses a very practical approach, by introducing techniques the moment they're needed, with very practical examples.

Second up is boost. It's a great library with lots of promise. I found the book Beyond the C++ Standard Library: An Introduction to Boost By Björn Karlsson which is great, but it doesn't cover so much about boost. There is a great deal yet that lies hidden, just waiting to be explored. So is there any other resources or books about boost?

Hardly anything. There's a book specifically about the Boost Graph Library, but a) the library is about to be rewritten, with probably significant interface changes and b) unless you actually need the graph library, there's no point in this.

I think there's a book about the Regex library, but that one is pretty straight-forward anyway.

For Boost, I recommend just browsing the library documentation, reading the introduction to every library and then more if you're interested.

I find it a shame that for such a popular library as boost, there is literally no resources or books. I was afraid I would get that answer, though.
But thanks for the tips anyway.

On Boost I don't think there is. I always used mostly Boost documentation and their excellent mailing lists. But in general I always found the libraries easy to use and rather well documented. The rest ends up being looking at the library code and resorting to the mailing lists on those rare occassions I cant find an answer.

As for template Metaprogramming I'm currently an avid learner too. I have two books under my belt. Loving them both:

Addison Wesley (who else?) - C++ Templates: The Complete Guide, by Vandevoord and none other than Josuttis

(guess who...) - Modern C++ Design, by Andrei Alexandrescu. The book that started it all. It will be your bible and Alexandrescu the Messiah.

(again...) - The C++ Standard Library: A Tutorial and Reference, by Josuttis makes also a fundamental reading at this point, although for slightly unrelated reasons to do with the STL.