Author: Marc Gregoire
Publisher: Wiley
Date: February 2024
Pages: 1376
ISBN:978-1394193172
Print:1394193173
Kindle:B0CRXK5191
Audience: C++ developers
Rating: 4
Reviewer: Mike James
Can a book on C++ get any bigger and does it need to?

This is the 6th edition of a huge book on C++ at a more-than-introductory level. C++ is a complex and very extensive language and it comes as no surprise that you need a book this big to cover it. There are only a few tens of pages added to this edition, but it is still too big to handle.

The book is divided into six parts moving from the simpler C++ language aspects to issues that are more  general. The fact that it has five major parts strongly suggests that it could be divided up in a small number of smaller more focused books. Another clue is that the final part is called Software Engineering, which is an almost non-C++ topic.

Part I is an Introduction to Professional C++ and has three chapters and 140 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. What is more, there are notes and warnings in boxouts that vary from trivial to difficult-to-understand unless you are already a reasonable C++ programmer. 

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++.

Part VI is a collection of appendices  and could mostly be omitted from the book without 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. Even though C++ is now a "big" language, it should be possible to convey the logic of it in fewer pages and my guess is that most readers would benefit from a more focused book on the language and perhaps other books on more general topics such as design, testing and software engineering.

• For recommendations of C++ books at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels see Top Choice C and C++ Books in our Programmer's Bookshelf section.

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