A good base for C++, but not a lot of usefull content.

This book is simply put, a good base for learning C++, however, you won't walk away from it knowing enough info to start programming.

First, what is good about the book. The book is truly for beginners, and John Smiley has a way with explaining concepts. The book gives a great base for C++ and object oriented programming. The classroom format works well, and all in all it's a great book.

Now for the bad. The thing that was a major dissapointment is that after reading the book, you really don't have enough knowledge to build your own programs. I mean I wasn't expecting to be programming Xbox games, however, I can do hardly anything. This is due to the fact that rather than teaching new coding techniques (building a graphical user interface would of been great), he simply shows better ways of using the same code. This is why I say it is a great base, it shows you a lot of the important concepts in C++, however, it fails to deliver a lot of usefull code.

Another problem is that it tends to go too deep into explanations sometimes. It's great that he explains things, but sometimes he just goes too far. Another problem I had was the choice of topics, like he went into some things that seemed like advaced topics(inheritence for one), and while they may be usefull in the long run, they seem like something a "beginner" would have no need for. Some info on building GUI's would have been a nice replacement, something people will use right away, unlike inheritence which would take time to find uses for. Another thing I didn't like was the huge intro to the Systems Development Life Cycle. It is good to know, but this is a beginner's book, no one will read this book and then do projects that would have any use for the Life Cycle. It seems that the author can't decide if he really wants this to be a beginners book. At times it seems as though this is an introduction to object oriented programming (using C++ as a model language), as opposed to a book on C++

So, what I recommend is to buy this book, as you will learn lots about object oriented programming and the basics of C++, but then immediately buy a more technical book with lots of content, take a course, etc. Just don't read this book and expect to be able to write (even simple) C++ programs, and if you do, they will just be little Command Prompt Programs. (not a whole lot you can do in it)

Now that I want to learn Java, I've decided not to get John Smiley's JAVA book. I'm getting Sam's Java 2 book. It's simply that it looks like Sam's has way more content, and since C++ is similar to Java, I know all the basics of object oriented programming from this book, as well as the main coding techniques, therefor I don't need a book with John Smiley's great explanations and would rather go for a book with lots of content.

Other Reviews

• Great for Newbie
• Didn't read the book, but don't need to
• A mediocre book at best.
• A good base for C++, but not a lot of usefull content.