14 ms·

Anyone know the background. Is it worth a read compared to more traditional books, like Stroustrup's book?

by 616c 13y ago

cordite 13y ago
I first was a backer and then the main guy behind it asked if any of the backers had experience with LaTeX. So I volunteered as a technical editor. The book seems to be written for those that have _some_ but not extensive programming experience, and have a desire to learn C++ as a real first or second (not fifth) language. It is still rough, but it has all the content proposed now put together. For those that don't know programming, but want to get into it: You might want to wait a bit, but it should give a gist of what code can be like. For those that know programming but not C++: this should be a simple book that you can skim through and start writing (valid) C++ code like a college freshman. For those that know C++ well: Skip this, this won't teach you anything new. You won't learn the internals of how inheritance works at runtime and how virtual methods are called or anything else cool like that. Within the next week the repo should be opened up for those that wish to contribute.
yelnatz 13y ago
Pretty basic, but a good place to start with. It definitely is for beginners. The things you learn in the first month, in your first programming class, in your freshman year. It doesn't get going until chapter 19, but it suddenly cuts off.
stinos 13y ago
not sure. It has some good basic introduction, mainly to syntax, but (imo) leaves out and even goes against quite some good prcatices. If it would include that, instead of just laying out dry theory, it could be pretty good (eg I especially like the C++ FAQ Lite way of explaining why and not just how). For instance there's a very small chapter on const saying it declares a variable you cannot change. A novice will just read it and forget it. It should (again, imo) say "use const for everything possible" and explain why that is. Likewise, the strnig chapter starts with saying "use code like using namespace std; string blabla; or you can also use std::string" and leaves it like that without further explanation. A novice might read that, think the first one is less effort and just continue using it. It would be better to make clear the second one has some advantages. I could go on like that (all loops using post-increment, chapter on array while vector is only covered in the last chapter, chapter on pointers but references are mentioned nowhere, really??, new/delete but no smart pointers anywhere, templates, lamdas or most C++11 features for that matter, ...) but of course there's always a line between introductionary and deeper knwoledge and it's not entirley clear to me where the authors wanted to draw the line. Also there's a lot to tell about C++ of course. Yet, we're in 2013, close to C++14, and C++ has evolved a lot. Large parts of modern C++ programs look nowhere close to what is presented in this book.

Anyone know the background. Is it worth a read compared to more traditional books, like Stroustrup's book?

by 616c 13y ago

Anyone know the background. Is it worth a read compared to more traditional books, like Stroustrup's book?

I first was a backer and then the main guy behind it asked if any of the backers had experience with LaTeX. So I volunteered as a technical editor. The book seems to be written for those that have _some_ but not extensive programming experience, and have a desire to learn C++ as a real first or second (not fifth) language. It is still rough, but it has all the content proposed now put together. For those that don't know programming, but want to get into it: You might want to wait a bit, but it should give a gist of what code can be like. For those that know programming but not C++: this should be a simple book that you can skim through and start writing (valid) C++ code like a college freshman. For those that know C++ well: Skip this, this won't teach you anything new. You won't learn the internals of how inheritance works at runtime and how virtual methods are called or anything else cool like that. Within the next week the repo should be opened up for those that wish to contribute.

yelnatz 13y ago

Pretty basic, but a good place to start with. It definitely is for beginners. The things you learn in the first month, in your first programming class, in your freshman year. It doesn't get going until chapter 19, but it suddenly cuts off.

stinos 13y ago

not sure. It has some good basic introduction, mainly to syntax, but (imo) leaves out and even goes against quite some good prcatices. If it would include that, instead of just laying out dry theory, it could be pretty good (eg I especially like the C++ FAQ Lite way of explaining why and not just how). For instance there's a very small chapter on const saying it declares a variable you cannot change. A novice will just read it and forget it. It should (again, imo) say "use const for everything possible" and explain why that is. Likewise, the strnig chapter starts with saying "use code like using namespace std; string blabla; or you can also use std::string" and leaves it like that without further explanation. A novice might read that, think the first one is less effort and just continue using it. It would be better to make clear the second one has some advantages. I could go on like that (all loops using post-increment, chapter on array while vector is only covered in the last chapter, chapter on pointers but references are mentioned nowhere, really??, new/delete but no smart pointers anywhere, templates, lamdas or most C++11 features for that matter, ...) but of course there's always a line between introductionary and deeper knwoledge and it's not entirley clear to me where the authors wanted to draw the line. Also there's a lot to tell about C++ of course. Yet, we're in 2013, close to C++14, and C++ has evolved a lot. Large parts of modern C++ programs look nowhere close to what is presented in this book.