Rating:  - Bogus Reviews
...This is a horrible book with little if any value.
I am a professional programmer and a writer, take my word for it, this book is not worth the pulp it's printed on.
Rating:  - Quick way to learn C++ only if you have prog. experienc
If you are an intermediate programmer who wants to learn the syntax of C++, then this is a good book to learn it on the fly. It would be very very helpful if you knew some of the concepts of programming, compiling, etc...
Rating:  - Teach Yourself How NOT to use C++
I should have known I was in for a bad time when the very first "Hello World" program wouldn't compile as it was taken from the book. Overall the author is inconsistent, contradictory, and confuses the issues by purposely showing you examples of how not to do things instead of how to do them.
The author makes the argument the you should be consistent in your coding and then immediately contradicts himself by writing code differently on many examples.
For instance he says, "Most programmers us a `p' prefix before a pointer variable." And shows several examples using the `p' prefix. Then in the next section he goes on merrily ignoring this very important indicator. The befuddled neophyte is left scratching their head wondering why the pointer variable in an example doesn't have a `p' as a prefix, or if it is a pointer at all.
Also he seems to randomly use or not use variable names in function prototypes. Is there a reason for this? We'll never know, the author doesn't deem such an important issue worth mentioning. He just starts doing it when the occasion suits him.
After wasted hours pouring over pointlessly in depth explanations of such mundane topics as "What a variable is," I was shocked at the lighting fast and totally unexplained section on operator overloading. While the author takes a great deal of time explaining a simple concept like what a stack of memory is, even going to the trouble to show a picture of a stack of dishes, he doesn't even bother to mention how the compiler knows if an overloaded operator is a prefix or postfix overload!
Instead, you are left looking at mystery-meat code, wonder what that integer does and where the overloaded operator gets it from. A simple, "When overloading an operator use no parameters for a prefix overload, and use an integer parameter for a postfix overload. The parameter is not used but is required because overloading a function or operator requires each version of the overload to have different parameters."
I would not recommend this book to anyone that has even a little bit of programming experience because you will be so bored with the simple concepts that you will be skimming chapters to get to the good stuff and miss the haphazardly placed important information. I would defiantly not recommend this book for someone with no programming experience because you will be left in the dust after the seventh day.
Rating: - Great book for learning C++ from scratch
I have always wanted to learn C++, but never had the time. I was browsing through the bookstore and came across "Teach youself C++ in 21 days." I figured "yeah, sure, I'll be programming in 21 days. Sure...... Well, after I did the 21 day tutorial I have a real grasp of C++. I can program out simple codes, along with more complex ones. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because it doesn't go into real depth, but because of that, it's a great stepping stone for more advanced books and programs.
Rating:  - Excellent intermeadiate book
I have several C++ books at work but this is the one that I refer to most often, and it's the one my co-workers are most likely to borrow. I had already learned C++ before I read Jesse's book, so I don't know if it's that good for a complete beginner -- but it is excellent for the intermeadiate student who really wants to learn how inheritance and polymorphism work, as well as some other fairly advanced concepts such as function pointers.
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