Professional C++, 5th Ed (Wrox)

Author: Marc Gregoire
Publisher: Wrox
Date: February 2021
Pages: 1312
ISBN: 978-1119695400
Print: 1119695406
Audience: C++ developers
Rating: 4
Reviewer: Mike James


Professional C++? Who wants to be unprofessional?

C++ is a complex and very extensive language and it comes as no surprise that you need a book this big to cover it. It is a bit of a surpise that the is space left over to cover software engineering topics, but the book is called "professional" C++.

Banner

The book is divided into six parts moving from the simpler C++ langauge aspects to issues that are more  general.

Part I is an Introduction to Professional C++ and has three chapters and 110 pages. This is a lightning, but reasonably well written, intro to C++. It is far too patchy to be a complete introduction and it will really only suit the programmer willing to spend a little time working outside of the book. It isn't suitable for the complete beginner.

Part II is Professional Software Design and this is a basic introduction to object-oriented design. The bulk of this could be about any object-oriented language and not just C++.

Part III is more focused on C++ and is called C++ Coding the Professional Way. This is mostly about particular topics in C++ and usually topics that C++ does differently. For example, memory management, classes, I/O and so on. If you are trying to learn how to apply C++ then this is the section that will interest you the most.

Part IV continues the focus on C++ and is called Mastering Advanced Features of C++. It covers extending the standard library, templates and multi-threading.

Part V - Software Engineering is mostly about topics that could be applied to any language - debugging, testing and design paradigms. Of course all of the topics are illustrated using C++ and there are some C++ specific topics, such as writing efficient C++.

The final part is a collection of appendices  and could mostly be omitted from the book without too much loss.

This a big book and I'm fairly sure that, while not all of it will be useful to any given reader, there is bound to be something that fills a hole in your knowledge. This is not a book for the C++ beginner and it probably best suits a reader who wants to brush up on their existing C++ skills. If you are looking for a C++ primer or reference work then this isn't the book for you. It is more a general reader in programming technique with C++ used as the example language.

To keep up with our coverage of books for programmers, follow @bookwatchiprog on Twitter or subscribe to I Programmer's Books RSS feed for each day's new addition to Book Watch and for new reviews.

Banner


Software Requirements Essentials

Authors: Karl Wiegers and Candase Hokanson
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
Pages: 208
ISBN: 9780138190286
Print: 0138190283
Kindle: B0BTLC53FF
Audience: General
Rating: 4.5
Reviewer: Kay Ewbank

This slim book looks at how to work out the requirements for a software project through twenty 'practices' that you c [ ... ]



Visual Differential Geometry and Forms

Author:  Tristan Needham
Publisher: Princeton
Pages: 584
ISBN: 978-0691203706
Print: 0691203709
Kindle: B08TT6QBZH
Audience: Math enthusiasts
Rating: 5
Reviewer: Mike James
The best math book I have read in a long time...


More Reviews

Last Updated ( Saturday, 18 September 2021 )