Programming

1 Review

• 

  Thanks, Bjarne

  What can I say? This book is by far the best choice for a "introduction to programming" college class or for self study for anyone serious about learning programming. It offers depth, clearness, vision, wisdom and raw technical skill far beyond the reach of any of its competitors..
  What really ... (continue)

  What can I say? This book is by far the best choice for a "introduction to programming" college class or for self study for anyone serious about learning programming. It offers depth, clearness, vision, wisdom and raw technical skill far beyond the reach of any of its competitors..
  What really amazes me is that Stroustrup has managed to write a book that's really, essentially about learning what programming is and how to do it best, using C++ just as a useful tool avoiding the trap of cherishing and exalting his "creature" bringing it to center stage and instead letting it do its quiet work in the background.
  Seeing someone with caliber, history, skills and reputation of Stroustrup, who could just go on being revered writing highbrow terse articles, taking the time and exercising the patience necessary to write a beginner book is really a testimonial to the value of this guy.
  As an added value, his approach contributes to fight off from the very beginning the confusion that exists in many aspiring ( and unfortunately even is some experts..) programmers about knowing a programming language or knowing the art and science of programming. I find it quite ironical that it should be the job of the creator of a language to underline so effectively the difference between a "language lawyer" and a good programmer.
  It is true that the text has many typos and imperfections, as the long errata shows, but being realistic, how many long, clear, detailed, deep technical text don't have mistakes? Even here the author deserves some credit for being so strict and efficient on error correction. Some more proofreading would have surely helped anyhow, that s' a fact, but this issue is largely insignificant compared to the overall quality of the text.
  There are only two things that I would have loved to see done in a different way. First, I agree with the idea that introducing polymorphism with the classic toy examples reduces the appreciation for its power and usefulness at first, but I think this fault is inevitably and gradually eliminated later on when the students end up applying the concept to more realistic and complex problems. Presenting it while also teaching computer graphics application concepts might end up making polymorphism seem more complex and obscure than what it actually is, unless the student has already been extensively exposed to the graphics techniques that are being used. I do believe that a clear, immediate, simple even if a bit primitive grasp on a concept is key to fully internalizing it.
  I also think that using an established and powerful graphics library like OpenGL would have made the computer graphics section much more fascinating and useful.
  What else to say, do yourself a favor and read this book. It has something to tell you, even if you are an expert programmer.
  And.. ah yes, thanks Bjarne.

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  The Teach said on Nov 3, 2009 | Add your feedback

Book Details

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• English Books
• Paperback 1088 Pages
• Edition: 1
• ISBN-10: 0321543726
• ISBN-13: 9780321543721
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Pub date: Sep 22, 2008
• In other languages: other languages 简体书, Livres Français, Deutsche Bücher, Российские Книги

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