Beginning Programming with C++ For Dummies [Paperback]

I can't believe this book made it past an editor. It is the #1 worst edited book I have ever laid eyes on. And in this case, the mistakes are so frequent and blatant that they almost make this book completely worthless for a beginner. I've never seen anything like it.

On several occasions the introduction to a chapter is repeated for the following chapter. References are made to program outputs for which the program doesn't exist. For example, the author must have changed his mind about the example code he wanted to use and made the change to the code, but failed to change the following summary text. Even some of the code is printed wrong in the book. I am brand spanking new to programming and this made my trust of the book's content shaky at best. I can't quickly or automatically breeze through a new concept and get past the errors as if they don't have an impact on my learning. There are so many obvious errors I can only wonder how many my novice understanding didn't catch.

I will say this, it was because of the well written and clear sections in the book that I was able to catch the first error in the code printed in the book, make the correction and puff my chest out that I was actually able to do that! But the mistakes are so rampant in just the basic writing of the book that when the subject matter DOES finally get complicated, they become a real issue.

I did get value from the book in the beginning and I was able to look at the code and his explanations of what was going on and make sense of it all. However, it got so unbearable and I had to move on to another book. Sections of code, typed and checked and quadruple checked to match exactly what was in the book, wouldn't work and I could no longer figure out where the errors were (I figured out the first occurrence as I mentioned before, but had to just move past the section on later occasions). Because I couldn't understand what the issue was with some bits of code, the rest of that particular section never completely came together and therefore, neither did the last half of the book.

I'm sorry, but as much as the author seems like a likable guy, this book is terrible BECAUSE of all the mistakes (as of the date of this review). The author states that corrections will be posted on his website, but (as of the date of this review) there are none, not one, for the miriad of mistakes in this book.

I purchased this book with 2 other dummy ones(Computer Forensics for Dummies and Hacking for Dummies) and so far I really like them. They are short, sweet and to the point unlike other ones I purchased. I was struggling with Sams Teach Yourself C++ in One Hour a Day as the author constantly rambled on every bit of detail and possibility giving me headaches(author noted in the intro it was for beginners and made no assumption you have any programming experience,but constantly gets carried away).

Here the author uses short paragraphs(Sams Teach Yourself had dozens of gigantic paragraphs)with good spacing and around 20 pages per chapter. The author does not get carried away and only teaches you the basics to get you started and leaves everything else out.

The software it includes is called Code::Blocks, but the disc is seriously outdated and best to download an updated copy of Code::Blocks with MinGW(the GCC compiler for windows) from the website it gives you.

Other then the problem with the outdated compiler/ide set, this is definitely a must have for anyone wanting a quick read up on the basics of C++! Although it can take years to master any programming language this definitely gets you started!

This book is just great.

It covers all the basics of C++ clearly and concisely and in logical order with subsequent topics building on the preceding ones.

I'd read a couple of introductory books on C++ trying to get a handle on the language and always felt a little lost. With this book I just seemed to start to "get it" - even as topics started progressing towards being a little more advanced with pointers and classes.

There's also lots of practical advice here and the section on how to make good use of a compiler and, especially, a debugger are just invaluable and not something I've encountered in any other introductory C++ book.

If you want to learn C++ this is, in my opinion, the best place to start.