Product Description

Proudly presenting the latest edition of one of the all–time bestselling books on the C++ language, successful author Ivor Horton repeats the formula that has made each previous edition so popular by teaching you both the standard C++ language and C++/CLI as well as Visual C++ 2008. Thoroughly updated for the 2008 release, this book shows you how to build real–world applications using Visual C++ and guides you through the ins and outs of C++ development. With this book by your side, you are well on your way to becoming a successful C++ programmer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31303 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1392 pages

From the Back Cover
Ivor Horton′s Beginning Visual C++ 2008

Proudly presenting the latest edition of one of the all–time bestselling books on the C++ language, successful author Ivor Horton repeats the formula that has made each previous edition so popular by teaching you both the standard C++ language and C++/CLI as well as Visual C++ 2008. Thoroughly updated for the 2008 release, this book shows you how to build real–world applications using Visual C++ and guides you through the ins and outs of C++ development.

Horton′s accessible approach and detailed examples cover both flavors of the C++ language—native ISO/ANSIC++ Windows application development using the Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC), as well as the development of C++/CLI Windows applications using Windows Forms. He also introduces you to the techniques you can use for accessing data sources in both MFC and Windows Forms, and working examples demonstrate each programming technique that is being discussed. With this book by your side, you are well on your way to becoming a successful C++ programmer.

What you will learn from this book

• How to use the Standard Template Library, a powerful and extensive set of tools for organizing and manipulating data in your native C++ programs

• Techniques for finding errors in your C++ programs

• The ways that Microsoft® Windows® applications are structured and the elements that are essential for each application

• How to create and use common controls in order to build the graphical user interface for your application

• Ways to develop your own libraries using MFC

• The different controls that are available for accessing data sources, how they work, and how to customize them

Who this book is for
This book is for anyone who wants to write C++ applications for the Microsoft Windows OS. No prior experience of any programming language is assumed.

Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

About the Author
Ivor Horton graduated as a mathematician and was lured into information technology by promises of great rewards for very little work. In spite of the reality being usually a great deal of work for relatively modest rewards, he has continued to work with computers to the present day. He has been engaged at various times in programming, systems design, consultancy, and the management of the implementation of projects of considerable complexity.
Horton has many years of experience in the design and implementation of computer systems applied to engineering design and to manufacturing operations in a variety of industries. He has considerable experience developing occasionally useful applications in a wide variety of programming languages, and teaching primarily scientists and engineers to do likewise. He has been writing books on programming for more than 10 years now, and his currently published works include tutorials on C, C++, and Java. At the present time, when he is not writing programming books or providing advice to others, he spends his time fishing, traveling, and trying to speak better French.

Customer Reviews

C++ showing its age
Just read an interview with Bjarne Stroustrup, the inventor of C++, where he studiously avoided talking about C# as much as possible. Understandable, perhaps - in my opinion most (not all, but most) programming projects for Windows systems would benefit greatly from using C# instead of C++.

Not that the above observation has anything to do with "Ivor Horton's Beginning Visual C++ 2008"; I just felt the urge to pass along that opinion in case the reader of this review has not yet decided whether to start learning C++ or C#.

For those who are interested in learning C++ for use with Windows, I can recommend this book. It is well written and covers everything you need to know to get started. In fact, at 1356 pages (not 1392, as currently listed at Amazon) it covers much more than most people need to know.

In Visual Studio 2005, and continuing in Visual Studio 2008, Microsoft introduced a new dialect of C++ called C++/CLI. The great advantage of C++/CLI is that it allows you to integrate "managed" programming (programs that run on the .Net Framework) and "unmanaged" or "native" programming. This is a unique ability of C++/CLI, and for this kind of programs C++/CLI can run circles around C#.

Ivor Horton's book provides a good introduction to C++/CLI, with most chapters being divided into two parts; the first part about classical (ANSI/ISO) C++ and the second part about C++/CLI. However, as a beginner's book, it does not get into the really exciting managed/unmanaged "interop" parts of C++/CLI. For that you will need a more advanced book, for example "Expert Visual C++/CLI: .NET for Visual C++ Programmers" by Marcus Heege - and some experience in creating both managed and unmanaged programs.

On the other hand, if C++/CLI is of no interest to you, then you can easily ignore those parts of the book.

Turning to more general comments, this book is well written and does a good job of describing all of the (sometimes messy) details about C++. There are many programming examples, all meticulously explained. The source code for the examples is available on the publisher's web site. There is even an online service - at one point I mistakenly thought I'd found a bug in one of the examples and I reported it as errata. In response I received a kind message from Mr. Horton himself telling me why I was wrong.

I liked the occasionally humorous tone of the book too, and was especially intrigued by Mr. Horton's reference to a book called "Paneless Programming" from 1981.

There are no major negative aspects, but I did find the fairly large number of typos somewhat irritating. Another surprising experience was that the index, although huge at 38 pages, was missing obvious entries such as "enum" and "typedef". Occasionally material was presented in a slightly illogical way, being (prematurely?) mentioned briefly in one chapter and then finally described properly in a later chapter.

You should also be aware that in order to do the MFC parts of the book you need to have access to one of the non-free versions of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008.

This is a very good introductory book about C++ and C++/CLI for Visual Studio 2008.

Rennie Petersen

Visual C++ program edition warning
This is a heafty volume and at first glance this may be a bit of an uphill struggle for the complete novice, but the examples are well structured and detailed and I am sure in time I will get something from them. However, it does state in the introduction that using Visual C++ 2008 Express edition is "unsuitable" to get the full benifit out of the book as it relies heavily on the current 2008 commercial edition and not the free download, my mistake, I should've read the other review down to the end.

good book
Not the best book for learning core C++ syntax from, I would recommend herbert schildt's "C++ a beginners guide" to be your first book if you know nothing about programming. However this book does cover a lot more including the use of visual studio 2008 which is an industry standard and so important to be familiar with. It also covers C++/CLI which is the new extension of C++ and it covers the STL, MFCs and winforms which are very relevant to windows programming.

I would recommend this book to anyone who already knows a bit about standard c++ syntax and needs to know about the use of visual studio 2008 and wanting to create windows applications. It is well written and the information is given clearly and concisely. I personally think that for a pure beginner this book may be too much to take in in one go, I skip all the C++/CLI material as it is not something I need yet and would probably only serve to confuse me at the moment, but its nice to know I have a reference book should I need to use it in the future.

A good book for revising core c++ material and learning the use of visual studio, MFC's and winforms (and C++/CLI if you want it).