C++ in a Nutshell

I always like O'Reilly books and are usually what I purchase. The "In A Nutshell" may be misleading to some. Just think of it as "C++ A Language & Library Reference." If you are a beginner looking for a how to, this isn't the one for you. "Thinking in C++" by Bruce Eckel (great book), or "Practical C++ Programming" would be the one a beginner would want. However, when you are ready to explore the inter-details about what C++ classes provides, this would be a good one to add to your collection. The first half describes C++ in general, while the last half details the language reference. I like how the reference is structured, grouped by the easy to find header declaration at the bottom of the page. Quickly finding what you need is a great feature here. You can only do so much "std::cout << "hi" << std::endl; without a reference and this one covers the missing details. Not for beginners, but an excellent reference.

The first third of this book contains an thorough explanation of everything C++. Grammar, semantics, constructs, namespaces, it pretty much covers everything. On the downside, it pretty much just jumps right into the structure of the language. This works for me, being moderately experienced with C/C++ and several other languages, but it would be downright confusing to a beginner. I know that this book isn't meant for beginners, but other "In a Nutshell" books are appropriate for people with little to no experience in the topic. This is not one of those books. The other two thirds of the book is a comprehensive printed reference to the entire C++ standard library. This is extremely helpful to anyone who does serious programming.

C++ programming bible and cornerstone.

I would ask my old engineering mentor if it is ok to bring all my books to the job. His answer: "All engineers do research!" Thank god for the Nutshell books. This series [Nutshell] is not for language learners, although I still learn new things from these books. Like most object-oriented languages, C++ is a huge language with many constructs. The "C++ In A Nutshell" book documents nearly all the basic functionality and some esoterica.Since all engineers do research, we have to have research materials. The Nutshell series does just that, it documents what is, without throwing-out to much design phylosophy. There are other books better suited for this purpose.DC

I've met Ray personally, and his clear exposition is on display in this book.If you ever have to convince your management not to do a project in C++, this is a great book to give as it's the fattest, most arcane Nutshell book I own.Instead of using this book as a reference, I would just ask Ray for help because it helped me avoid having to learn something as poorly designed as C++. I'd rather be programming in C or assembly than learn how to make C++ produce the machine code that I want.

Despite the negative reviews, this book is really useful. Admittedly it is not a masterpiece, but the only thing I would need a C++ book for is to find some arcane bit of info on the standard that I forgot. Online there are C++ tutorials aplenty, but good luck finding a human-searchable database of real info. That's where a good ol' book is handy, so why nit-pick?

This is definitely not a book for beginners. However, this makes a great reference for experienced C++ programmers. I find myself going to it much more often than  The C++ Programming Language: Special Edition  because it is much more succinct, yet comprehensive. I only break out Stroustrup when the compiler error messages get really hairy :-)Hopefully there will be an update for the upcoming new C++-0x standard.

I bought this book because my algorithms class instructor recommended it. But after having it for awhile now I really do not use it as much as websites like cplusplus.com , also this book is written for programmers who already have a very firm grasp of c++ so if you are not already pretty experienced with c++ this book will be very hard to follow.

C++ ist eine jener Programmiersprachen, bei denen man einfach nicht daran vorbeikommt, eine Referenz zur Hand zu haben - die Sprache ist einfach zu umfangreich. Das Referenzwerk von Lischner ist geeignet für die alte C++ Version, wobei jedoch alle Hersteller von C++ Compilern fleissig dabei zugange sind, den C++11 Standard zu implementieren. Hierzu ist dieses Werk dann doch jetzt schon etwas zu überholt. Der STL-Anteil des Buches hat sich damit quasi bereits überholt, hier ist eher zum Werk von Nikolai Josuttis zu raten, um es als Nachschlagewerk parat zu haben.Alles, was dieses Buch beschreibt, macht es ausführlich - und vor allem korrekt (was man von vielen C++ Werken leider nicht sagen kann). Man kann dieses Buch also noch als Referenz auf dem Tisch stehen haben - und ich hoffe auf eine Aktualisierung, damit dieses Buch auch mit dem C++11 Standard gleichzieht - und es wieder 5 Sterne wert sein wird.

I found this to be a good book on the C++ language, however it often felt difficult to follow and the ordering of topics seemed a bit off (e.g. explaining classes but not explaining visibility modifiers till a fair bit later). The C++ language is difficult to master, so perhaps its just also difficult to write about. The book also has 500 pages devoted to the C++ library API, which I think is too much for a 'XXX in a Nutshell' book and is perhaps not all that useful considering the same documentation is easily available on the internet.

A very handy reference; good for either study C++ or use as reference when write C++ program. It worth every cent I paid to keep it on my shelf.

C++ est un langage abscons à bien des égards, et ce livre ne fait rien pour rendre les choses plus simples à comprendre. Les sujets sont présentés de manière très peu didactique, et le texte passe beaucoup de temps à expliquer des évidences. On voudrait que l'auteur aille droit au but (après tout ceci est supposé être un abrégé de C++), mais les concepts fondamentaux sont noyés dans une pluie d'exemples pas toujours pertinents. La partie référence est très aride, et ne permet pas de rapidement s'approprier les classes et APIs, au final une recherche web ira bien plus vite pour comprendre le fonctionnement de telle ou telle classe. Bref, ce livre est un échec sur toute la ligne.

This book is so terribly layed out it is hard to think it was ever approved to be released this way. I found myself constantly having to go to the index at the back in hopes of finding what I was looking for because the chapters made no sense.