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- Path: news.cyberport.com!usenet
- From: tangent@cyberport.com (Warren Young)
- Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
- Subject: Re: Need advice on book...
- Date: Sat, 27 Jan 1996 03:04:23 GMT
- Organization: ETR..., Inc.
- Message-ID: <31099247.437682496@news.cyberport.com>
- References: <4dj5qd$lfk@tempo.univ-lyon1.fr>
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-
- ameetoo@ifhamy.insa-lyon.fr (Avinash Meetoo) wrote:
-
- > I want to buy a good reference book on C++. I need some advice.
- >
- > What do you folks out there think of "The C Programming Language
- >(2nd edition)" by BS? It is an expensive book and if ever I can get
- >a cheaper book with the same content I would be rather pleased.
-
- I had the same dilemma; since I came from C, I'd found Harbison and
- Steele's C reference, which is less than half the combined price of
- both editions of K&R (the "standard" C reference, aside from the ISO
- standard) and yet worth more to me, if you discount K&R's tutorial
- stuff, which I wasn't after to begin with.
-
- So, I entered the C++ world looking for something similar. No such
- luck. The simple fact is, the ARM is something _every_ serious C++
- programmer needs, at least until H&S get on the stick and get their
- C++ edition out B-)
-
- However, there is one more book you may want to look at. First, let
- me get into my asbestos underwear so I don't get too badly scorched by
- the imminent flames.....Zzzzipp. Okay, the book is (duck) Herbert
- Schildt's _C++: A Complete Reference 2/e_ (or is it 3/e?), published
- by Osborne/McGraw Hill. The only problem with it that I've found is
- the problem that is _always_ found with a Schildt book: it doesn't
- devote itself sufficiently to accuracy. However, the book is much
- more readable than the ARM, and it covers things like IOStreams that
- the ARM doesn't even attempt. As far as accuracy, it bad, but in a
- dispute between it and Stroustrup, vote Stroustrup. For these reason,
- it's the second-most used C++ book on my shelf. I think you should
- get the ARM first, though.
-
- (Aside: If anyone can point me at a better but similarly-broad C++
- book, I'd sure like to hear it. But until then, Mr. Schildt's book
- will remain on my "main" shelf. Maybe it's not the best book it could
- be, but it's head-and-shoulders above anything else I've seen.
- Something in the spirit of H&S would be wonderful.)
-
- >By the way,
- >do you know if a 3rd edition of the book is in progress???
-
- I'm sure one is at least being contemplated, but don't look for it
- until the ISO standard is completed (sometime in (early?) 1997,
- probably). That's just my personal guess, though.
-
- = Warren --
-