Post by thread:[EE]: Good C++ reference books?

Hi guys, I realise this is the "PIC" list, but I suspect at least a few of you are C++ programmers, so I'm asking this here. And, after all, [EE] is "Everything Engineering", right? (and I'd just get flamed into oblivion by asking this question on comp.lang.c++) I'm after one or two *really* good C++ reference books. Basically, I've been using C++ for a couple of years, and my O'Reilly C++ and STL Pocket References are starting to show their limits (and age). For instance, neither of the two makes any significant mention of file I/O streams. cin and cout are (briefly) mentioned in the C++ reference, but neither of them cover the C++ Standard Library. Unfortunately for me, it's the function names (and parameters) I keep forgetting! Obviously Stroustrup's book is on the shortlist as a "hard reference", and "C++ In A Nutshell" by Lischner looks interesting on three fronts: good content, low price, un-DRMed EPUB format ebook (that I can put on my Sony Reader) available. Can anyone suggest some other good C++ books? Cheers, -- Phil. spam_OUTpiclistTakeThisOuTphilpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/

On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 7:14 PM, Philip Pemberton <.....piclistKILLspam@spam@philpem.me.uk> wrote: > Hi guys, > I realise this is the "PIC" list, but I suspect at least a few of you > are C++ programmers, so I'm asking this here. And, after all, [EE] is > "Everything Engineering", right? (and I'd just get flamed into oblivion > by asking this question on comp.lang.c++) ...but Software Engineering had never been thought to be Engineering :-) (just kidding) > I'm after one or two *really* good C++ reference books. Basically, > I've been using C++ for a couple of years, and my O'Reilly C++ and STL > Pocket References are starting to show their limits (and age). My 2 cents: I use MSDN, that answers to most of the questions (function names etc) -- that is free and online :-) Also if you google on "C++ STL reference" there are many-many and even more hit, for example: http://www.cppreference.com/wiki/ http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/ I would prefer one of these or couple of these instead of a book -- I can find things faster by searching phrases or slicking on structured links than reading a paper book, but you might find it the other way around. Tamas {Quote hidden}> > For instance, neither of the two makes any significant mention of > file I/O streams. cin and cout are (briefly) mentioned in the C++ > reference, but neither of them cover the C++ Standard Library. > Unfortunately for me, it's the function names (and parameters) I keep > forgetting! > > Obviously Stroustrup's book is on the shortlist as a "hard reference", > and "C++ In A Nutshell" by Lischner looks interesting on three fronts: > good content, low price, un-DRMed EPUB format ebook (that I can put on > my Sony Reader) available. Can anyone suggest some other good C++ books? > > Cheers, > -- > Phil. > piclistKILLspamphilpem.me.uk > http://www.philpem.me.uk/ >

:: 'm after one or two *really* good C++ reference books Not a reference book per se, but have a look at the code that goes with this book and see from that if the book might be worthwhile. http://www.murach.com/books/pls8/index.htm Shame I sold all my Borland C++ reference books last year :(. Colin -- cdb, .....colinKILLspam.....btech-online.co.uk on 12/10/2009 Web presence: http://www.btech-online.co.uk Hosted by: http://www.1and1.co.uk/?k_id=7988359

> For instance, neither of the two makes any significant mention of file I/O > streams. cin and cout are (briefly) mentioned in the C++ reference, but > neither of them cover the C++ Standard Library. > Unfortunately for me, it's the function names (and parameters) I keep > forgetting! For the STL; Josuttis - "The C++ Standard Library" is probably the one I'd recommend. [1] I you really want to know all about the C++ IOStreams then the only book I'm aware that covers this reasonably in depth and would recommend is the Langer/Kreft "Standard C++ IOStreams and locales" [2] [1] http://tinyurl.com/ye8jca2 [2] http://tinyurl.com/yc6rjlc HTH, Richard.

Tamas Rudnai wrote: > ...but Software Engineering had never been thought to be Engineering > :-) (just kidding) I *KNEW* someone was going to bring that up... The original version of my message (before I basically rewrote it) had this little gem in it: ] And, after all, [EE] is ] "Everything Engineering", right? (please don't start arguing about ] whether SE is a true "engineering" discipline, I don't want to start a ] Holy War) > My 2 cents: I use MSDN, that answers to most of the questions > (function names etc) -- that is free and online :-) Catch: it covers Visual C++. Both VCPP and gcc deviate from the spec in different ways. For bonus points, some of gcc's deviations aren't documented particularly well :-/ > Also if you google on "C++ STL reference" there are many-many and even > more hit, for example: > > http://www.cppreference.com/wiki/ > http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/ I've seen those, but by the time cplusplus.com loads, I could have looked it up in a book. > I would prefer one of these or couple of these instead of a book -- I > can find things faster by searching phrases or slicking on structured > links than reading a paper book, but you might find it the other way > around. I've got a Sony Reader (PRS505) that I mainly use for reading sci-fi books on the bus/train (courtesy of the "Baen Free Library" on http://www.baen.com). It works pretty well for ePUB-format books, too -- the catch is that it seems to have been designed for reading (e.g.) paperback novels, so it doesn't do full-text searching Skimming big books tends to upset it a little, too. The ePUB version of "C++ In A Nutshell", for instance, repaginates to ~4000 screens worth of text. Going over a section break (or attempting to view a section you haven't looked at before) tends to make the Reader spin its wheels for a few seconds... -- Phil. EraseMEpiclistspam_OUTTakeThisOuTphilpem.me.uk http://www.philpem.me.uk/

Philip Pemberton wrote: > Can anyone suggest some other good C++ books? I guess I am after a different kind of books: I prefer language books that explain the rationales behind the language design, and I use google to find library interfaces. For me the C++ book is the "The Design and Evolution of C++" (but it is a bit outdated in some aspects). -- Wouter van Ooijen -- ------------------------------------------- Van Ooijen Technische Informatica: http://www.voti.nl consultancy, development, PICmicro products docent Hogeschool van Utrecht: http://www.voti.nl/hvu

Hi Philip, 2009/12/9 Philip Pemberton <piclistspam_OUTphilpem.me.uk>: ... > Â For instance, neither of the two makes any significant mention of > file I/O streams. cin and cout are (briefly) mentioned in the C++ > reference, but neither of them cover the C++ Standard Library. > Unfortunately for me, it's the function names (and parameters) I keep > forgetting! If that's the main issue, try these two: http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/ http://www.dinkumware.com/manuals/ Good luck & enjoy! Peter Bindels

On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 5:43 AM, Philip Pemberton <@spam@piclistKILLspamphilpem.me.uk> wrote: > I've got a Sony Reader (PRS505) that I mainly use for reading sci-fi > books on the bus/train (courtesy of the "Baen Free Library" on > http://www.baen.com). It works pretty well for ePUB-format books, too -- the > catch is that it seems to have been designed for reading (e.g.) > paperback novels, so it doesn't do full-text searching > > Skimming big books tends to upset it a little, too. The ePUB version of > "C++ In A Nutshell", for instance, repaginates to ~4000 screens worth of > text. Going over a section break (or attempting to view a section you > haven't looked at before) tends to make the Reader spin its wheels for a > few seconds... > Hmm, the reader's performance seems to be lower than my 7.5-year-old HP Jornada 565 (Pocket PC 2002, 206MHz StrongARM CPU). It is quite a good e-book reader. I mainly use it to read Chinese Wu Xia (kung fu) novels. Amazingly the battery still works quite well. But I was reading some C++ books last time and it was very fast. ;-) -- Xiaofan http://mcuee.blogspot.com

2009/12/10 Philip Pemberton wrote: > I'm after one or two *really* good C++ reference books. Basically, > I've been using C++ for a couple of years, and my O'Reilly C++ and STL > Pocket References are starting to show their limits (and age). Hello Philip, This one probably is not the best, but it's free to grab. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/cc305129.aspx Best regards, -- WH Tan

*cough* google iso14882 1998 filetype:pdf *cough* 2009/12/10 Chris Emerson <KILLspampicKILLspamnosreme.org>: {Quote hidden}> Hi, > > On Wed, Dec 09, 2009 at 07:14:15PM +0000, Philip Pemberton wrote: >> Â Obviously Stroustrup's book is on the shortlist as a "hard reference", > > There's also the ANSI C++ standard itself. Â I bought it as a PDF for $18, > though that was quite a few years ago so not sure if that's changed. > > Regards, > > Chris >

WH Tan ha scritto: > 2009/12/10 Philip Pemberton wrote: > >> I'm after one or two *really* good C++ reference books. Basically, >> I've been using C++ for a couple of years, and my O'Reilly C++ and STL >> Pocket References are starting to show their limits (and age). > > Hello Philip, > > This one probably is not the best, but it's free to grab. > > http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/cc305129.aspx The Download-Full-12-Chapters links are broken for both format, at least in here with Mozilla. Turns out that the "++" did disappear, and this works <http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/F/4/2F46E904-5C10-4728-B1B1-F0CB1948F3EE/C++BegGuidePDF.zip> -- Ciao, Dario -- Cyberdyne

I would recommend Bruce Eckel's "Thinking in C++", it's available for free in HTML format on several places, here's one of them http://www.janiry.com/bruce-eckel/ Regards On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 2:50 PM, Dario Greggio <RemoveMEadpm.toTakeThisOuTinwind.it> wrote: {Quote hidden}> WH Tan ha scritto: >> 2009/12/10 Philip Pemberton wrote: >> >>> I'm after one or two *really* good C++ reference books. Basically, >>> I've been using C++ for a couple of years, and my O'Reilly C++ and STL >>> Pocket References are starting to show their limits (and age). >> >> Hello Philip, >> >> This one probably is not the best, but it's free to grab. >> >> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/cc305129.aspx > > > The Download-Full-12-Chapters links are broken for both format, at least > in here with Mozilla. > > Turns out that the "++" did disappear, and this works > <http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/F/4/2F46E904-5C10-4728-B1B1-F0CB1948F3EE/C++BegGuidePDF.zip> > > -- > > Ciao, Dario > -- > Cyberdyne >

On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:14:15 +0000, Philip Pemberton wrote: > I'm after one or two *really* good C++ reference books. Basically, > I've been using C++ for a couple of years, and my O'Reilly C++ and STL > Pocket References are starting to show their limits (and age). Evening Philip. For my money, you can't get much better than Josuttis' 'The C++ Standard Library' (ISBN 0201379260). You can get it for under 30 quid from Amazon, but could be cheaper elsewhere. I've had mine about 5 years now (I think...) and he does a very good job in explaining concepts and the libraries very clearly and in a very structured way. I got my copy because I wanted to get into the STL, but also learned a lot about C++ in general too (not a 'Learn C++' book though). He covers the libraries, as well as the thinking behind them, providing both tutorial and reference material. Whenever I do any serious C++ work, it's always there - and you should appreciate the chapters on streams too by what you were saying. Plus it's a really nice hardback, so if you like books in general, it will also look good on your bookshelf (when it's not on your desk...) Regards, Pete Restall