Old C++ Book

[Oxaqata]

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[Schadenfroh]

cout << "C++ is C++";

 

[Templeton]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

cout << "C++ is C++";

std::cout << "not quite"

Quite a bit has changed, both in language and standard libraries since then. While the code in the book may still compile(much probably wont), you'd certainly be limiting your exposure to newer features and perhaps pick up poor practices that at one point were thought to be best(or simply were all that was available) but have now been replaced by more modern aproaches. I'd recommend getting a more up to date book.

 

[Aikouka]

Unless the OP already knows how to program, learning how isn't restricted to a language or how old the resource is~. Programming isn't about the language, it's about the process that you uptake and learning to program is becoming adept at that process.

You can probably find better tutorials on the web though .

 

[brandonb]

I'd avoid a C++ book unless it was written after 2000. The standard wasn't finalized until the late 1990's if I remember right. So any C++ book before might contain wrong information.

 

[jman19]

Originally posted by: Aikouka
Unless the OP already knows how to program, learning how isn't restricted to a language or how old the resource is~. Programming isn't about the language, it's about the process that you uptake and learning to program is becoming adept at that process.

You can probably find better tutorials on the web though .

This is true, but there are different programming paradigms you can start from. Anything from the ALGOL/CPL family is probably the best to start learning from thoug (these days that would be C, C++, Java, etc.)

 

[Markbnj]

std::cout << "not quite"

pwnt

OP, don't waste your time learning the language from an early 90's book, especially a SAMs tutorial, which probably wasn't all that great to begin with. Back at that time the standard texts were the Annotated C++ Reference Manual (lovingly referred to as the ARM), Lippman's C++ Primer, Scott Meyer's Effective C++, and a few other books in that vein. But C++ as a language had evolved a lot since the early 90's. For one thing that was right in the middle of the standardization process, and C++ gained keywords like I gain pounds at Christmas. For another, that was pre-STL (standard template library) and the standardization of the namespace (hence the std::cout counter-example above).

If you want to learn C++ today the first thing (amazingly and unfortunately) is to decide for which platform. The reason for this is that there is Microsoft C++, and everyone else's. Microsoft has a very good C++ compiler, and you can get it free in the Visual Studio Express Edition. However, the specifics of the Windows linkage, compilation, and component models are woven throughout what it produces in the form of conditional compilation directives and linker attributes. If you learn "C++ for Windows development" then you will necessarily get into all this in some detail. Otherwise, GNU C++ is a fine alternative for just learning a standards-compliant variant of the syntax.