Search in Book Reviews

First off I must say this book is completely free, gratis, etc. so I can't really judge it that harshly - after all, you gets what you pay for. Examining the introduction reveals the authors' intended readership as undergraduate Computer Science students who, they suggest, might like to use the book as a complete tutorial and reference. It is even suggested that lecturers could use the book as a basis!

Let me also say I am a simple student and completely unqualified to do a technical review, so I have not attempted to do so, instead I have looked as this book as a student to comment on what I consider to be the good and bad points of this publication.

The author sets out to be concise (to the point of stupidity sometimes in my humble opinion) and provide a tutorial and reference book. This type of book rarely succeeds and this is no exception; the chapter on stream I/O contains only one example program and would leave anyone but an expert confused, but it does have its brighter moments (such as the coverage of the scope operator and the meaning of static - brilliant).

To conclude, take a look at this example form chapter one and remember that this book is for beginners ...

#include<iostream.h>
int main(void) {
	cout<< "Hello world\n";
}

Commentary: '

main

has no parameters' OK, hands up who spotted the obvious omissions (I got at least two).

Download the book and check for yourself athttp://www.pragsoft.com/