21 replies to this topic

[moe]

Whether a book is good or not is always a personal thing. I totally dislike the “for dummies” books. I’d rather buy "C++ in 21 days". I bought "C++ in 21 days" as well as "java in 21 days" and I personally find both very good for starters.

[eddie]

bramz said:

Starting with a book like that is just fine, but be prepared to buy something like Bjarne Stroustrup's 'The C++ Programming Language' later on. It probably is a bit too hard for a beginner, but once you grow more into C++, you'll find that your first book is lacking a lot of information. And that's where Stroustrup comes in. A long time it stood by me as my C++ reference (Nowdays I mostly skip it and go to the standard right away ... :) )

bramz know's what he's talking about. Those two books are the foundation of any true C++ programmer. Josuttis' book is my bible, and Stroustrup's is the covenant.

It is a bit of a boring read if you're not well versed in C++, but they teach you a large amount about the inner workings of C++, the different semantics, etc. I highly recommend them, at least as a reference!

Amazon bundles both of them together, and they're probably the best purchase I've ever made.

That said, if you're starting C/C++, I recommend you ask lots of questions. While a lot of the OO side of things is rather well done (IMO), there's a lot of ground to cover, and a lot of confusing things for a novice programmer:

- Various keywords (can you name all the different meanings/uses of static?)
- Judicious use of virtuals (an important discipline for game programming, if you need to eke out speed)
- Judicious use of templates (important for game programming on an embedded platform)
- Proper memory management
- etc.

Your best foundation is a good C++ forum... Try this one! :)