C++ Programming in easy steps Fourth Edition

Pros: Short (~180 pages) in full color. Easy to follow, big font, SMALL coding samples. You won't die trying to get through this book. Easy to make notes, not to lose interest, and to cover basic concepts one at a time so you can go back to youtube or a larger book to see each concept more in-depth. Keeps you organized. I'd say this book is geared towards children with all the color, but it greatly helped me (I'm 24).Cons: Covers the basics (great for beginners!) thus good only if you're a super beginner to programming in general. Also doesn't cover the basics in depth- just code, straight to the point. What it is and how to use it, no theory behind it. Some examples redundant or useless, and some things (ie the use of this->) isn't encouraged in the c++ community the way its illustrated. But again, not a big deal, and much of it is personal preference.Suggestion: If you're new to programming and are trying to pick up these skills, get this book. Get CodeBlocks or NetBeans or a similar platform downloaded, and get a git account (free) to upload your code online to GitHub. Git will keep you motivated to continue (you can track your status, etc). Good luck!

This is an excellent start to learn C++. The book takes you step by step into actual C++ programming without technical jargon or mumbo-jumbo. While the steps seem mundane, they provide a sound basis of this complicated language and will facilitate your use of the most extensively used contemporary computer language. A word of caution, you must complete all the exercises in the book (ie type them into your computer and watch them run!). You cannot learn any computer language without using it. It helps if you have a project in mind, because you can best learn the language by actually doing something with it.Here are some important adjuncts. An excellent C++ language (console edition, by Orwell) can be downloaded from the internet at no charge on the sourceforge site. There is a wonderful source on the internet called cplusplus which has an extensive reference base and a very active forum to answer questions and help with problems. This is particularly important with C++ because there are a zillion little quirks in the language (example: who knew that you can't load a file title from a saved string but have to add the suffix .c_str on the string?). You will find the participants in the forum are tolerant and patient for what may seem to be even the most stupid questions. Be very careful downloading material, many C++ sites contain spyware/computer viruses which are impossible to remove. The site recommended above seems to be free of these problems.Your reward: C++ is here to stay and is the basis for most new languages. I wondered why until completing the implementations of my previous applications. C++ is 20 times faster (I measured it) than my old compiled Pascal programs, is more facile, and works with many operating systems.Go for it!

I've almost finished this book ( I have 2 chapters left) and i think it's structured very well, i like the way the author explains each line of code in his examples;I'm a grown man but i have to say i like the way code examples are presented in color.Basically the information is presented in a way that easy to digest. It's not as daunting as some other other programming books that just gives you one big chunk of code that's hard to follow.If your new to C++ programming or just Programming in general this book is a good start. Now bare in mind that there is only one chapter on visual programming and the book doesn't cover everything there is know about c++, but it's still a great book and it covers the fundamentals. So i recommend this book to anyone who is new to c++, it's worth the read for the price tag.If your not so new to c++ this book isn't for you. Though it does cover the concept of classes, encapsulation,inheritance and polymorphism in a way that made it easy for me to understand. Well maybe i just think those are advance topics because i'm relatively new to programming....oh well, its a good book

I started years ago with Mike McGrath's "C Programming in Easy Steps" I picked up in London before I found them in the USA.As a hardware designer more and more of my designs have embedded processors. Today most processors are supplied with reference designs, eval boards, and sample code including C++ code that runs under a OS on a host.What I needed was a top level guide to understand the sample code sufficiently to tailor it to my specific application and a reference to decipher the error messages as a result of my tailoring. McGarth's book was perfect. I have long since graduated to a book shelf of "heavy" C reference books which I use. But McGarth's book is within close reach for the occasion when I haven't used a function for a while and need a quick peek to remember the correct syntax.C++ Programming in Easy Steps has proven to be as useful as the C version as I tackle C++ sample code for a host OS application. The book’s format is very clean and well organized. Each section has at least one complete example and avoids generalized snippets that only a CS major would appreciate. He includes useful Tips and “Beware” to avoid common pit-falls many people fall into when first writing code. His books are not full of what is supposed to be humor as some are. They are very clear and to the point.If you are a student, hobbyist, old Fortran coder, or a hardware designer and need to bang out some rudimentary C++ code for a project this book is highly recommended.

Most 'beginner' books in programming languages follow the same depressing pattern: For a couple of chapters, they're great. Everything is easy and well-explained.Then, usually around chapter 3 or 4, you suddenly find that what you thought was a gentle learning curve has suddenly turned into an impassible vertical cliff-face with its top lost in the clouds. You look at the text and examples, and unless you're NOT a beginner at programming, everything may as well be written in Martian.Even the much-praised C++: A Beginner's Guide, Second Edition ALMOST falls into this trap, because right from the start it uses jargon and mathematical terms that won't be clear to the non-mathematical beginner.By now, I must have looked at just about every single C++ book that's aimed at beginners, and in my opinion, this is the only one I've seen that really IS for absolute beginners.If you're taking your first steps, begin here. This one WON'T have you tearing your hair out in frustration!

This book is logically laid out, it has chapters each with a theme covering an area and each chapter has half a dozen or so exercises in the area. This would be great but the problem is it is pretty poorly written with as much space saving as possible.This means that there are short sentences describing key concepts which also introduce new concepts which each require a short paragraph. So one is left re-reading the same sentences and exercises to try to understand what is going on.The exercises explain very succinctly what to do, and how, but now why, and if they do it's not written in a very clear or grammatically helpful way, probably to save space.Probably it's better as a source to refer back to once the basics are understood,

This book is great when used in conjunction with other online resources. However, if you are NOT an absolute beginner then you may want to use a different book, as it really does get down to the very basics.The book is vibrant and full of examples and pictures, which guides you through step-by-step. However I would prefer if there was less "spoon-feeding", however, I appreciate this book is for absolute beginners.Some sections could have been explained better or in a more concise manner, though, especially Object Oriented Programming. Then again, this is a tricky concept to distill down into a couple of pages.

This book is simply fantastic, a long time ago i knew c++ but after a few years of not writhing simply one line of code it got me quickly back to track.And to test the "easy-to-follow style" part i gave it to my brother who have absolutely not seen any code in his life and after a few chapters he was interested in c++.For that i can clearly recommend this to anyone who is interested in the language.A more personal view point is that i really love how you are not lost in the second or third chapter after the brief introduction and have to get the information from here and there.

Succinct, informative and easy to understand. Takes you through basic C++ procedures with clarity giving a novice such as myself confidence and encouragement. Good value and excellent for later reference. Why not five stars? It lacks reference to present day tasks such as sending emails or posting URLs that are more difficult in this language.