Reviews for The C++ Programming Language, Special Edition

1. Excellent

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, March 12th, 2010

   Having read a number of introductory texts on C++ I wanted a book that would count as a one stop fits all repository of information on the C++ language as a whole without having to trawl through reams of example code and explanatory text to get to the actual info. This book does that in spades being, in some places, so terse that it is necessary to closely examine some statements to fully comprehend their full implications, providing further useful learning. Excellent.

2. The definitive C++ manual

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, November 12th, 2009

   This really isn't a "learn C++" tutorial, its a book to have on your desk as reference. In that respect its excellent, covering just about every nook and cranny of C++ that exists.

3. Not a tutorial, not a reference. What is it?

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, October 12th, 2008

   As the title of my review says, this book is not a reference or a tutorial. It fails as a reference because the table of contents is too concise, the index seemingly incomplete, and the actual explanatory detail a sprawling mess. As a tutorial it is lacking thanks to a poorly thought out structure, and Stroustrups inability to provide clear examples.
   
   Basically, the book reads like a hastily edited set of notes on the evolution of C++ - ironic seeing as one of the authors other books claims to be precisely that. The only possible use I can see for this it is as a companion to the C++ standard if your trying to write a compiler frontend.
   
   Typically, each chapter or major section of the book will start with a vague rationale for what follows - error handling in the case of exceptions for example. What follows is then a number of incomplete examples of how the C++ syntax can accomplish the same thing in different ways. No summarising is attempted, leaving one to wonder what the pros and cons of each approach are. In the last section of the book, which is ostensibly on program design, one would expect a lucid summary of how to put C++ to work in the real world. Nope. It's more aimless waffle.
   
   Quite simply, this is one of the worst programming language books I've read, made worse by the cachet the authors name gives it. It's this credibility of being authored by the languages principal creator that can be the only explanation for the more positive reviews of the book, as you'd be much better served by buying the following:
   
   "Accelerated C++" by Koenig and Moo
   "The C++ Primer (4th edition)" by Lippman, Lajoie and Moo
   "The C++ Standard Library" by Josuttis
   
   The first two are good tutorials, while the third is a superb reference to the library that can also function as an advanced tutorial for templates, and proves good books can be written about C++.

4. Probably the greatest programming book

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, April 12th, 2008

   I haven't read a programming book better than this. Only a great designer like Stroustrup can write with such clarity and lucidity. A comparable book would be K&R's C

5. It's not a tutorial...

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, August 12nd, 2005

   I don't know where Amazon got their title for this book from: It's simply "The C++ Programming Language." Nothing about "tutorial" which seems to have been the impression a lot of other reviewers have got.

   As such it's not a tutorial - don't buy this as a first taste of C++ or even of programming as a whole. Perhaps have a gawp at Koenig and Moo's "Accelerated C++" instead.

   This is the book to use if you want to know how the language and standard library behaves without having a dig around in the language standard itself. While there are more complete references to the standard library, this book is the best I've seen on the language itself.