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C++ Templates: The Complete Guide Review by wiredweird
A gentle introduction --
-- to some of C++'s most brutal features. This certainly isn't a first C++ book for anyone; it assumes fluency in C++ and a working competence in the basics of templates and generic programming. One problem in C++ (or strength, depending on how you look at it) is that the language has surprising depths and usages, especially in the use of templates. Some are so surprising that one author claims they were discovered almost by accident. Once you're ready to leave the paved roads and sidewalks of C++, this book offers a solid introduction to some of its wilds and badlands.
I leave a detailed look at the content to other reviewers and to Amazon's "Look inside" feature - there's just too much to talk about, and this isn't the place for it anyway. I found the organization to be clear and orderly, however, and the sample code from the book's web site has already helped me in understanding a few of the weirdnesses I've seen in production code, including the SystemC library.
As of this writing, a new C++ standard is nearing completion. Features of that standard will outdate large parts of this book's content, largely by simplifying or making explicit things that are difficult or indirect today. Other books, including C++ Template Metaprogramming, go well beyond what this book covers. Rather than obsoleting this book, however, those other factors just highlight this book's value. Programmers still have to wait for the standard to settle, wait longer for compliant compilers, and wait even longer for the bugs to be worked out of the standard and the allegedly compliant compilers. Also, exploration of these C++ features is so new that references either skip them completely or dive in at the deep end. This book helps programmers through the thickets that future compilers will prune back, and acts as a bridge between books that offer too little and others that assume too much. At least for now, this has my highest recommendation.
-- wiredweird