5 comments about An Introduction to Design Patterns in C++ with Qt 4 (Bruce Perens' Open Source Series).

1. I am extremely impressed by this book - not only does it provide excellent information on design patterns, and using Qt 4, but its written so that those new to C++ and Qt can understand and progress throughout. This book is heft, but extremely informative, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in C++ development!



2. If Qt is what you are interested in, go to trolltechs website or another online resource and don't waste you money on this book. The book is not very well laid out, the exercises are ambiguous and you have to work on the example code to get them to work. Although a lot of material is covered, the coverage of certain topics is barely adequate, although they do supply information on where you can get additional information.



3. The book is an easy read and has good examples, but unless you already know how to use Xcode or have KDE on your Mac this book is not for you, because you will find that the build instructions found in the book do not work in Mac OS X. Has anyone tested them on Unix or with KDE? I can only assume that they work there.
   
   Qt4 is not compatible with Xcode. (It is not possible to display Qt4 Objects like QString in the Xcode debugger. This used to work with Qt3, but was lost in Qt4.) While this is not the book's fault, it makes it very difficult to step through the examples or debug your own coding efforts in the exercises.
   
   I like the way the book introduces topics a chapter or two before going into detail. Also, the book makes an effort to reinforce what was learned in previous sections and chapters, making it a very good learning tool for anyone new to the topic.



4. This is a very good good which teaches you C++, Qt and design patterns.
   
   I am surprised by the commentaries saying this is not an introductory book. Quite the opposite: this is the perfect book if you do not know any one of Qt, C++ or design patterns but you want to use them together.
   
   Some may say the book worries too much about syntax. Wrong. The authors want to make sure you understand C++ perfectly well because subtle differences (such as the 'static in declaration' vs 'static in definition', introduced in chapter 2) may have devastating effects in your software. The same goes for Qt macros: the book explains them because when you know and understand them, you will write better code; the book by Blanchette and Summerfield barely names them.
   
   As the title says, this book is only an introduction. There are three natural companions you should get if you want to delve deeper in the wonderful world of Qt and design patterns:
   * A Complete Guide to Programming in C++ by Prinz and Prinz
   * C++ GUI programming with Qt by Blanchette and Summerfield
   * Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software by Gamma et al.



5. I don't major in CS but I have to use C++ and QT for my PhD research. Although I had pretty good general understanding of IT and some experience in web programming, I struggled to teach myself C++ from scratch. I tried a few popular books, but none of them worked very well. As someone said, "the trouble with C++ is there's an awful lot to remember". Those big thick books are often quite easy to follow from page to page, but very quickly all the details become overwhelming. C++ is a powerful and flexible language that incorporates different paradigms so there're always many different ways of doing things but quite often (particularly for beginners) we only need to know the best practices. As Bjarne suggests: "A focus on details can be very distracting and lead to poor use of the language. You wouldn't try to learn a foreign language from a dictionary and grammar, would you?" (http://www.research.att.com/~bs/learn.html). Ironically, most of the big books I read did exactly the same for me. They all tend to provide too many details upfront. You could end up reading 500 pages but still don't have a clue what's the correct way of programming in C++. Plus you'll probably forget what read before...
   
   
   
   I felt a great relief when I came across this book. I would say the authors have done a marvellous job. From the very beginning they teach you how to program in the C++ way, more precisely in the Qt way. The book suggests Qt coding style is not "pure" C++ but that's a different story. By throwing away all the irrelevant bits, they give you a good idea of the whole picture so that you'll be on the right track very quickly. Then you can let you knowledge grow by accumulating more technical details - it's just a matter of time and practice. Of course, a big thick book is still needed as reference. If you don't know anything about programming, I would suggest you read the first few chapters of one of the primers, then switched to this book. I feel it still requires some basic programming background.
   
   
   
   I would definitely give it a five star and recommend to anyone learning Qt

5 comments about Advanced CORBA(R) Programming with C++ (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series).

1. Don't wish to wade through book after book? This book would be the one to buy! The concepts are clearly defined and the code examples are fairly easy to follow. (The thermostat example grows too complicated at the end of the book to even comprehend all pieces - authors could use other smaller constructs to show the concepts.)

   The authors are well-versed in the topic and it shows in every chapter. There is no hand-waving on topics, as I have seen in other treatments of this subject.

   I've been a Corba programmer for the last 3 years and this has been my bible...

   Can't wait to see a second edition of this book from the authors!




2. Good book. Worth the money. There is a a lot of material here and it is pretty well organized. Some of the examples assume to much - they would be better if they showed complete code segements. If you needed to get one book on C++ and CORBA, this would be the one.



3. As the title states this is a book for advanced programmers. Not the kind of book I would recommend to someone looking to pick up a book and the learn from it. Might serve as an excellent reference source.



4. For my money, this book is worth every cent and more. The authors are knowledgable and articulate. If you know of a
   better book on CORBA, please let me know.....



5. This has to be one of the best CORBA books that I have read. It has helped me debug code and fix some really knotty problems. I found the exposition clear and easy to follow, and the index a useful tool. I don't think the authors intended it to be read cover-to-cover.
   
   If I am working on a CORBA project I alway like to have this book to hand.

5 comments about Building Automated Trading Systems: With an Introduction to Visual C++.NET 2005 (Financial Market Technology).

1. Unlike some other comments about this book, the intended readers are serious developers who have not started or just begining to use .Net 2005 framework. That is why some readers do not like this book.
   
   A pure programmer do not need to read this book.
   A pure quant strategist do not need this book.
   A network specialist do not need this book.
   
   It is only good for the intended readers.



2. I wish there was slightly more explanation of the code. 1 small paragraph doesnt cut it for me. I have ran the code merely as a puppet of the author and really dont 100% get a grasp on it. I dont think this book is for beginners, you should have a decent knowlege of c++ (pointers especially) already before getting into this book. The ony intro involved in this book is a slight .net informational. Title should be "Building Automated Trading Systems with Visual C++ .NET 2005, featuring slight intro to .NET framework". Probably an awesome book for people w/ good working knowledge of c++ and want to tie in with .net and financial systems programming. I have put the book down for now and am going to hit the programming gym before I pick it back up. Maybe I will make a follow up post at that point.



3. If you want a very practical introduction on how to design and implement your first trading system, this book is for you.
   The initial chapters cover all the C++/CLI concepts needed to understand the detailed case studies of two actual trading systems. The reader is assumed to have some general understanding of OO languages, preferably C++.
   
   Be realistic. As the author points out in the book, the algorithms driving these trading systems are well known, so they probably will not make you a millionaire. But the software included with the book will give you a head start to try out your own ideas in a simulated environment.
   
   People interested in running a hedge fund are advised to read the chapter on development methodology. It will help you get a handle on the software development side of the business.



4. Hands down this is the most useful financial-programming guide on the market. I would question the capabilities or intellectual capacity of any person who thinks anything less.
   
   Step-by-step, it shows the user how to take the concepts of object-oriented programming and apply it directly to the financial markets, ultimately yielding an automated-trading system designed to trade futures through Trading Technologies' XT_API.
   
   The book is thorough, yet simple to follow, descriptive, but not drawn out.



5. Waste of paper.
   I've started reading this book a few times but find myself paging through it trying to find something worth reading.
   As an introduction to Visual C++ .NET it might be useful but most chapters cover the matters in about two pages and I have a sneaking suspicion this is just a copy of MSDN with new code examples.
   As for Automated Trading systems it has about 10-15 pages on the subject and of that probably 8 are just code (could have been omitted and just put on the CD).
   If you don't have access to the internet this book will come in handy. Otherwise go for Practical .NET for the financial markets instead.

2 comments about The Elements of C++ Style (Sigs Reference Library).

1. This book is too small to be used as a physical weapon in the "style wars." Nevertheless, it is large in terms of content. Nearly all of the areas of style differences and disputes are covered. The authors do a good job in presenting their solutions to style difference problems without resorting to evangelical techniques. They express their opinions, justify them and then move on to the next style issue. Small segments of code, demonstrating both the right and wrong ways, are used to illustrate the point.
   The issues are placed into several groups:

   * General principles.
   * Formatting conventions.
   * Naming conventions.
   * Programming principles.
   * Programming conventions.
   * Packaging conventions.

   The 175 style issues are summarized into a set of short rules at the end of the book, which makes it easier to find specific elements.
   This book is not a bible, setting down the commandments for the proper style to be used in creating C++ code. It is a set of suggestions, and if you read it with that in mind, you will find this book of value.




2. Packed into a deceptively-diminutive size paperback package is an essential programmer's guide which should be a reference bible for all C++ programmers: a survey of the basic elements of formatting, naming, documentation and programming which provides a foundation of rules for writing in C++. Organized by programming conventions and principles, Elements Of C++ Style is invaluable for the programmer who would produce consistent, accurate documentation.

5 comments about Algorithms in C++ Part 5: Graph Algorithms (3rd Edition).

1. i feel writer is confused and writes very jumbled together spaghetti code.
   to tough to uderstand
   horrible reference book



2. I'm a learned industrial engineer in electronics but got into informatics right after my degree. So I never had a course on algorithmic and had to learn nearly everything by myself.

   After some years of working in the field, I tought it was maybe time to get some background on the subject so I got this (now an outdated edition) of the book.

   Well, it was the book it took the longest to me to finish in the informatics field.

   The book explains a whole bunch of basic and more advanced general-purpose algorithms, and so has a good coverrage of the subject.

   However, there are two problems with the book:

   1) The coding style is very bad: the author likes to use global variables, and variable names are often very cryptic. Example:
   * p = parent
   * g = grandparent
   * gg = greatgrandparent
   * c = child
   * x = current node
   * y = temporary node
   ...

   2) You cannot read this book's chapters in a random way: you have to follow the chapter ordering, because often knowledge of later chapters is based of knowledge of earlier chapters, and, because of the bad coding style you have to often remember the meaning of the cryptic variable names several chapters later when they are reused. If you're like me, you've forgotten the meaning, which means reread that damn chapter, which in turn can again be based on an earlier chapter. You get the picture why it took me so long?




3. I had to teach this course and must see it is the pick of the books I have seen on this subject though it is far from ideal. Why can't these people use meaningful variable names and comment the code. Is it the authors intent to teach bad programming practice.



4. I don't intend to read this book from front to back (well maybe one day if I get really bored) but I think this book does a very good job explaining the algorithm without getting obsessed with overly formal mathematical games. In my opinion the graphs are the most important part of the series, since these are the algorithms and data structures that usually AREN'T included in a programming language's libraries; STL for example. You will find many of these topics in a mathematics and statistics program (how I first encountered them) so the book does get mathematical, but out of necessity.
   
   4 out of 5 stars for sometimes being unclear.



5. This is an okay book. The algorithms are described in great detail (actually sometimes too much detail), moreover it is not very mathematical. For this reason it could be the choice for the readers fed up of the math in other algorithms books e.g., Cormen et al's.
   
   However the biggest complain I have with this book is that it is overloaded with too much contents. When things could have been described in a few lines, dozens of paragraphes have been used for it. The reader just losts in the text. And interestingly the job is still not done, i.e., the reader is still not able to follow the algorithms easily.
   
   Also for this reason it is not a good choice for someone wants to get a quick overview or revision.

5 comments about C Traps and Pitfalls.

1. This is a very interesting book. It's titled "c traps and pitfalls", yet talks all about the beauty of c. You will need some fundamental knowledge of computer systems and programming; however, you don't need to be a serious programmer to adventure this book, because while you are enjoying reading it, you are becoming one yourself.



2. I ordered this book recently. It turned out to be a complete disappointment because of the following reasons:
   
   (1) the book is thin and does not justify the high price
   (2) It does not cover many of the traps and pitfalls of C language
   
   Based on the expensive price tag, I would not recommend this book. Instead, I would highly recommend the other book called "Expert C Programming".



3. If you have to write in C, then yes, it is still worth reading a good, short book about C even if it was written in 1989. It can get a bit boring to read the details of selected problems and solutions in C cover-to-cover, but it's only 100 pages. An experienced C programmer will probably know many of these answers, and can skim over what's not new. But if you hit even one pitfall which is new to you, or which you have not made the effort to avoid, then the book was worth it. The bonus is the last chapter, "Advice". It's only a few pages, and is followed by answers to exercises. But I think it has more meaning if you do leave it until the end of your reading.
   
   (One caveat: Since Koenig was writing before long variable names were common, his examples do not serve as best practice for modern variable-naming in an IDE with auto-complete.)



4. I recommend this for programmers having 1 to 4 years experience of writing program in C. Doesn't matter even if it was academic years :-). For 4+ years experience I don't see value addition from this book.



5. To preface my review, I learned how to program in C four years ago as an undergraduate engineer, but didn't really get into it until I started my graduate studies about a year and a half ago. I would describe myself as a very competent C programmer, but by no means an expert.
   
   There are many doorstops that call themselves C programming reference books, including the one that I used as an undergrad. This book should be on any C programmer's shelf as the first go-to guide during debuggings. I found this book very helpful, despite the fact that it is almost 20 years old (pre-ANSI C). It highlights many issues that I have pulled my hair out trying to find and fix in the programs I have written over the years, and also some new bugs that have yet to bite me. Perhaps my original C text wasn't the best to begin with, but the proper usage of many aspects of C have been explained to me with this text, such as safely writing macros and using the static keyword (especially with multiple-file programs), just to name a few. He also explains (in an appendix) using the library variable-argument functions, which I have been trying to get working without any success...until now.
   
   This is a small book, and I read a chapter or two every night for a few days. Programming isn't exactly page-turning literature, but the author makes his point clearly and concisely. I highly recommend this book for students and practicing programmers alike.

5 comments about Programming Microsoft Visual C++ (Microsoft Programming Series).

1. Let the truth be said that this book has terrible organization. The authors start off very poorly and constantly refer to SmallTalk as if this has anything to do with C programming! I am a professional and I recommend that this book be a Reference or a THIRD book. But steer clear of it for a First or Second book on Visual C++. The LOW PRICE for the used copies should tell you what the previous owners think about it. I am proceeding to but another book, as I relagete this one to the Reference Shelf for future use. I suggest Programming Windows with MFC by Jeff Prosise (Expensive Though) or Using Visual C++ 6 By Kate Gregory for a beginner with MFC, though prior C++ expertise with Classes and Inheritance is REQUIRED!. The authors of this book were hiding behind the Microsoft Press Logo. This is poor work for a book authored by THREE PEOPLE ! They knew the material but could not just present it in a digestible manner for a learner. Call it Scattered Knowledge is you will. They should all be arrested!



2. This book claims to be teaching almost all aspects of Visual C++ 6.0. In reality, it should be named "Programming VC++ with MFC and Overview of the rest of the technologies.". I read this book from cover to cover and I felt good about it until I got to Part III. After that it was just boring and difficult to read it, because the style of explaination of the topic was far from the one that covered MFC. It just felt that the author(s) were in a hurry fo the deadline.

   In my opinion, the worst part of this book is the one that attempts to cover programming for the Internet.

   Thus, for covering MFC I give 5 stars, and 1 start for the other topics.




3. I'm a big fan of examples and this book has plenty of them. Also all examples are shown how to develop using the Class Wizard which is what most programmers will be using these days. I use this book 10 times more than all of my C++ books. This is a must have for your typical programmer.



4. This is a good book to learn how to code in MFC. The biggest drawback of this book is that it does not mention the MFC application architecture in the begining at all. So the reader is immediately starts coding whithout knowing what the MFc is actually doing for him. I have very strong experience in developing windows applications under the Win32 SDK and I believe that this book should have discussed the MFC message maping and application architecture before writing any code (at least). Overall, i think the book is okay. Personnely, I like "Professional MFC With Visual C++ 6
   by Mike Blaszczak" better.



5. after several detailed reading the book , I am completely disappointed! I began to learn MFC about three years ago, using this book for my first step. after I finished the book, yeah, I can write some codes, but I really didn't know how the codes run
   under the hood! this book just tells you ,click appwizard, click this or that button, click classwizard, then click classwizard again and again! then you finish your program.
   the part about COM,OLE is absolutely rubbish! when I first learned COM and OLE using the book, I was completely confused!
   I have struggled with COM for three months , the only thing I got from Kruglinski is confusion and angry. until I turned to jeff. prosise's great book:"Programming windows with MFC"( 2nd)
   I found myself in MFC programming.

3 comments about Bundle of Algorithms in C++, Parts 1-5: Fundamentals, Data Structures, Sorting, Searching, and Graph Algorithms (3rd Edition).

1. Any professional programmer would benefit from having these books at hand. Excellent discussions of the basic algorithms which every programmer needs to know.
   
   But I would like to particularly highlight the discussions on binary and n-ary search trees. The most enlightening discussion in print, giving the reader a real synoptic view of search tree algorithms, how they evolved, and their culmination in red-black trees.
   
   Other reviewers have mentioned that the algorithms as presented here seem to be just warmed=over versions of their C counterparts presented in the C edition of this work. There is a germ of truth to this, but I really don't consider it to be a valid criticism of the books. The point here is not to present C++ coding techniques, but to understand algorithms. If you want to know what a state-of-the art C++ implementation of Red-Black trees looks like, just read the source code which comes with the GNU compiler toolchain. But you're not going to have a prayer of understanding it until you first understand how Red-black trees work--that's where this book comes in. If you are trying to explain the Red-black tree algorithm, you don't want all of the C++ do-dads and optimizations, templates, etc, all cluttering up the presentation of the skeletal algorithm.



2. If you need a book to introduce yourself in data structures, thats not your book. This books are for consult, not to learn, cos there are leaks : insuficient code, insuficient large explanations and drawings about TDAs. Furthermore, its expensive.
   Even trough that, Id recommended part 5 because its a good collection of the most used algorithms based in graphs.



3. What happened to the sections on string processing, geometric algorithms, and advanced topics? The Introduction says parts 5-8 are contained in a separate volume, but the second volume contains only the part on Graphs (which the intro says is supposed to be Part 7) What gives?

1 comments about Financial Applications using Excel Add-in Development in C/C++ (The Wiley Finance Series).

1. Microsoft was invested considerable effort in enabling its Excel spreadsheet to be integrated into a C++ program. Where the latter is Microsoft's version, Visual C++. Or, somewhat more broadly, you can hook programmatically into Excel from within Visual Studio .NET. Permitting the use of Visual Basic, for example.
   
   However, much of the book restricts to the discussion of using C or C++ code. There are lengthy explanations of how to pass data between Excel and the C/C++. A comprehensive API in C is available. Its use is certainly non-trivial, as will be evidenced if you start reading the chapters on it. You can even crash Excel from your C/C++ code by several inadvertant means, as cautioned in the text.

5 comments about Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition Programming for the Absolute Beginner (For the Absolute Beginner).

1. This is the worst computer book I have bought in some time. It's biggest problem is typos and errors. There are several pages of errata on the web site and I've found another several pages as I have worked through the example programs in the book. The book also has examples that are way too long to make the point that needs to be made to learn what is featured in a given chapter. The book is also very disorganized. The authors continually refer to information that they are going to explain in future chapters but they never really do. The book also really doesn't explain a lot of what is going on. The book is very basic but someone without programming experience is not going to have their questions answered. I would strongly recommend people try another book.



2. I would recommend the book for begginners and people interested to learn from zero how to program in Visual C++. It should be the first programming language book to someone starting to study Visaul C++



3. I am a Visual Basic novice programmer that wanted to learn how to do the same task in Visual C++. This book provides a good introduction. It does not cover some of the topics that are needed to have a solid understanding of the features of the Visual development enviroment such as connecting to databases, deploying your finished appliction, or using multi interface forms. Nevertheless, I recommend it for someone that wants to get a quick grasp of how to use the Visual develoment features. The book does not teach hard core C++. If you want to learn how to build windows applications this book is what you want.
   
   I must warn everyone that the error list (Errata sheet) that is needed for this book is very long. I am amazed that the publisher allowed this book to be released with the amount of errors in this book. I spent a considerable amount of time correcting errors. I even had to correct the code in one of the programs for the book that I downloaded from the publisher's web site! One error is so extensive that I could not simply write the corrections in the book. I had to print it out and leave the page in the book. The amount of errors was a big disappointment.
   
   I read in the other reviews about the amount of errors in this book. However, I could not find any other books on the express edition of Visual C++; so, I ordered this one.



4. Iam going to refrain from using certain words but this is the worse book i have every read. This is not for beginners. Doesn't really explain anything clearly. It just tells you to input the code and some of it doesn't even work. get another book



5. I debated whether or not to give this book one or two stars. I guess I'm just a nice guy.
   
   This book is full of errors and has examples that are way too long to prove their point. It spends most of it's time demonstrating slick little features of VC++ 2005 express and not enough time teaching basics of programming. It's the type of book that DeVry or the University of Phoenix would pick for one of their classes to con you into thinking you're learning programming. I've gone to both, I know what I'm talking about.
   
   Also, vc++ 2005 express has a few bugs and lousy debugging. I could go into more detail about what's wrong with the book but the editors at Course should've done their job and I'm not going to do it for them.
   
   Even the quote from a reviewer for the Dr. Dobb's Journal on the front cover is deceptive. It praises the book series and not the book itself. That should've been a red flag for me but I wasn't paying attention.
   
   This book is a waist of time.