No comments about Calling C and C++ from IDL: Making Sense of the Sometimes Confusing World of C and IDL.

5 comments about Advanced C Programming by Example.

1. The title of this fantastic book is misleading since the author's name is John Perry NOT Example. Who's Example? It should have been called "Advanced C Programming by John W. Perry" :)

   Also, John Perry shouldn't be confused with Greg Perry, the guy who wrote -among many other books- a similarly entitled beginner's book called "C by Example" in the Que series. Both claim to have been written by Example, but have been written by different programmers who are possibly relatives? Or are totally unrelated, but have same last names and almost identical book titles. strange... ;)




2. I've got a few C-programming books, but this is the one that I love best of all. It is a gem of a book that resonates with simple, crystal-clear explanations on topics so seemingly difficult to understand in the classic book by Kernighan and Ritchie. I would recommend using these two books together.

   What makes this book even more entertaining and readable is that Perry is not afraid to lay on his idiosyncrasies regarding the practice of programming. There is a little hiccup, though, when he recommends the use of gets() and sscanf() together for nearly all input of strings from the terminal: gets() is widely known to be inferior to fgets(), and sscanf() is not discussed in the book at all!

   But all in all, a book that deserves full marks.




3. I own hundreds of programming texts and this is by far one of my very favorites, and my absolute favorite book on C.

   This book tackles the tougher issues of C programming in great detail, with concise and self-contained examples you can type in directly, compile and run (many books only provide code sections, not entire programs).

   Each chapter includes quiz questions that are just difficult enough to challenge the reader, but not so difficult that you will skip over them. I found the quizes to be very useful.

   This book is pleasantly slim (although dense). Does anyone really read those 800 page books? I don't. This book will take you a long time, as the content is dense, but you can actually read the whole book and get a sense of completion.

   I also enjoyed the author's commentary on C and other programming languages.

   I'm really amazed that more people do not own this book.




4. If you're looking for a concise and throughout book in C programming. Don't look further!
   I wouldn't recommend it for beginners though (as the title says it's for advanced programmers)! If you're beginner I'd recommend to start with C in 21 days from Sams publishing or similar book.



5. This may be the best book I have ever bought for any language! Very well written with examples of the features of the C language that you will use everyday. This book assumes that you know the basics of the language. There should be a book like this for every programming language. I especially appreciated the parts on pointers, memory management, and data structures. This book is sure to turn the some-what experienced C programmer into a real pro with good style and good problem analysis skills. It has helped me get passed the basics and move on to the next level with a solid knowledge base and confidence. Buy it if you can find it! Worth every penny and more!

5 comments about Programming with Qt (2nd Edition).

1. I am new to Linux programming (I'm a .Net developer) and was a bit frustrated with the online tutorials for Qt and decided to give this book a try. I am very happy with the decision, this book is very well written. I like the style of the author, giving us some practical exercises after each topic, so we can improve the application he develops throughout the book (a "paintbrush"). Now that I understood the basics I can use the Qt documentation to do my own apps.

   People who like those huge, "step-by-step" ("click File->Quit to exit the application...") books might be a bit disappointed with this one though, the author assumes that the reader knows some C++ and can figure out some stuff by himself/herself, so be warned. Not that he skips any information needed, but he doesn't repeat the same thing 10x either, so you gotta be a bit "smart" to read this book.




2. Not enough examples und for beginners as I am, too many questions. Betterone is "Das Qt Buch" in german. This ise tehe bestone what I have ever seen.



3. Book starts out strong, and was helpful as an introduction for Qt. However, it seems to cut out about 350 pages in, putting subjects such as "Focus Handling" in its own 3 page chapter, rather than integrating it into an existing chapter. That said, the Portability chapter, which includes a list of Qt functions that are not portable, was a valuable addition.
   
   Keep in mind, the 2nd edition of Programming for Qt was written for Qt 3. At the time of this review, the latest version of Qt is version 4. This is a problem because Trolltech appears to reinvent the wheel for each major version. While the author had me salivating at the thought of a QStyleSheet, checking the API docs for Qt 4 QStyleSheet is now a deprecated class, and as far as I can tell there is no current equivalent.
   
   One aspect I wish the author had covered in more detail is the actual compiling and linking of applications that use Qt. I'm starting to get the impression that Trolltech's dirty little secret is that while their API is both clean and thorough, the signal/slot method is overly reliant on #defines, and the developer has to compile and link as many as twice the number of files to make it function. Trolltech includes a program 'qmake' almost as a bandaid which will generate Makefiles that will then automatically generate and compile the extra 'moc' files. The problem is that if you're porting an application to Qt, you're likely to have existing makefiles. Adding the additional layer of qmake and it's .pro files is both cumbersome and not actually necessary. While you can certainly figure out on your own how to avoid using qmake, it would have been helpful if the book described the functionality of the qmake-generated makefiles. This would help developers porting to Qt to include that functionality in their existing makefiles.



4. If you want to learn Qt, you'd better start with Qt4. This book is really for Qt3, but it's still full of useful examples and information. In order to get the code in this book to work, you should #include at the top of your code, and then add "CONFIG = release", "CONFIG += qt", and "QT += qt3support" to your *.pro project file. After that was done, I had no problems with the code from this book.



5. This book gives you a relatively quick and easy introduction to using Qt. You should know the fundamentals of C++ programming to benefit from the book. However, if you seriously want to get into using Qt are several much more up to date titles that also comes with a more modern and appetizing style. I bought this item because I have been using Qt for some time (Qt really rocks!) and went in to get all the books without critically reviewing before buying.

2 comments about Pattern Recognition with Neural Networks in C++.

1. This book comes with C++ source code, and thus provides a nice place to begin for someone who is interested in experimenting with neural nets. The author's focus on the character-recognition problem, so the book is somewhat specialized from this perspective. I would not recommed this book to someone who is primarily interested in a strong theoretical book describing learning with neural nets.



2. This book explains the concepts in clear simple language and shows you the source code in C++, class diagrams (unique), and how the algorithms work with flow charts (unique). Often, each chapter contains step-by-step examples of how these algorithms work on some simple input vectors - exactly what I need for exam preparation.

5 comments about Data Structures and Problem Solving Using C++ (2nd Edition).

1. I am writing this review of Data Structures and Problem Solving Using C++ by Mark Allen Weiss on the heels of completing an undergraduate course in data structures. On a scale of 5 ( being the best ) and 1 ( being the worst), I would rate this text at a 2. I am being generous because I don't want to underestimate the possibility of this book having some future usefullness.

   Mr. Weiss has an impressive academic record. With a PhD from Princeton in Computer Science and having studied under Dr. Sedgewick, a king of algorithms, he now teaches at Florida International University. Clearly, he is an authority on the subject. However, he should pursue something other than writing textbooks. Let's examine the flaws in his approach.

   The author works heartily to impress you with his ability to demonstrate proofs for algorithms. He illustrates various proofs throughout the text and gives a liberal discussion of each. He then provides implementations of each algorithm and spends considerable time discussing the C++ language statements that are used. What he never does adequately is to provide a discussion of data structures and algorithms absent the details which distract the reader of an introductory text. As a point of comparison and constrast, I ask you to consult Data Structures with C++ using STL by William Ford/William Topp.

   Consider the study of stacks and how compilers utilize them to evaluate expressions. This is a subject taught in every data structures class. Let's examine the approaches of Weiss and Ford/Topp.

   Pages devoted to the topic. Weiss ( 38 ) vs Ford/Topp ( 45 )
   Number of tables+figures(excluding code listings) Weiss( 5 ) vs Ford/Topp( 27 )
   Pages devoted to writing about data structures ( not C++ implementation ) Weiss ( 8 ) vs Ford/Topp ( 17 )
   Questions at the end of chapter with solutions provided . Weiss ( 0 ) vs Ford/Topp ( 11 )

   From the brief analysis above, you may recognize a pattern that Dr. Weiss himself admits to following in the writing of his book. In the preface, he says that "fundamental choices need to be made including ... level of mathematical rigor, balance between implementation of data structures and their use ... and programming details related to language chosen ". Regrettably Dr. Weiss has made poor choices on all three areas.

   First, the mathematical rigor which might be highly valued in a graduate level text is seen here as a mere annoyance. Second, the balance between implementation and their use is skewed toward the former when it is needed toward the latter. Finally, students who have had adequate instruction in C++ do not need to be led by the hand as the author guides the reader through an implementation. Too many other authors do a much better job with C++ than Dr. Weiss ( read Schildt, Meyers, many more ). Dr. Weiss would be well advised to keep the code examples in play but cut out the narratives on the code.

   I was able to do well in my class because I recognized the deficiencies in Dr. Weiss' book and quickly abandoned it in favor of the Topp/Ford text.

   On a final note of disappointment, the binding of this book, purchased brand new, failed after just two weeks. I treat my books with respect and in the last twenty years have had only one other occasion of a binding failure ( the pages separate from the web and glue that holds everything together ). My bookseller replaced the text without question.

   You will probably be required to buy this book for your data structures class ( as I was ). It is a sad waste of money but many faculty remain impressed with Dr. Weiss' output. I recommend buying a used version ( absent the broken bindings ) and gettinf another readable text from a different author. To be fair, I did give this book a 2 rather than a 1 ( worst ) on a scale of 1 to 5. Since I am planning graduate study in computer science, I believe that the book might hold some value as a reference for the very items that I criticize here. That is, the proofs might be of some interest in a advanced data structures or advanced algorithms course.




2. This book was required for a data structures and algorithms class. At first it seemed interesting. By looking at the table of contents, lots of topics were covered. But the problem is that each chapter lacks a good introduction context or example. That is, when you dont know anything about hash tables or binary trees, this book starts by telling you what are the rules and types of binary trees or hash tables, but does not tell you really why they exist or how can it be useful in the first place. But the most frustrating part is the examples after each chapter that does include any answers, it is nearly useless.

   Please excuse me for my poor english, it is not my primary languange.




3. Today is Nov 10, 2005. I e-mailed Professor Weiss concerning his book on Nov 7, he responded promptly on Nov 8. His advice was very valuable. In a nutshell he advised me that online students using his text (or any text for that matter) may find the subject difficult to negotiate (if they are new to the material) and that a traditional classroom is preferred for getting the most learning out of a Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis course. As a result of his advice I researched teaching methods in general and discovered several additional sources supporting his remarks. Don't rely soley on my interpretation of Prof Weiss'observation...you have to check this out for yourself.



4. Although I did not read much of the content about data structures, I can say that the other half of the book is great for those in the field that have studied these topics previously.
   
   The concise lists of C++ gotchas are worth the price alone. Many of the topics from the Meyers' 'Effective C++' series are touched on (much more briefly) here. There's also a short chapter that very briefly highlights some major design patterns. I was pleasantly surprised to even find descriptions of pointer arithmetic efficiency in an appendix! This book really had exactly the scope I was looking for while job hunting; it's broad and concise.
   
   I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars because it might be too difficult for someone just starting out to follow and because its STL coverage is a little out of date and thin.



5. This is one of the best Data Structure books I have ever read. A Data Stuctures course is usually a second or third course in learning any programming lanaguages and it is where you actually learn why we do some things in C++ the way we do them. This book has done a great job giving a through explanation of what one might need to know about a lot of fundamental and practical issues in programming with C++! If I could, I'd give it 10-stars instead of 5-stars!!

5 comments about Computer Science: A Structured Programming Approach Using C (2nd Edition).

1. I used this textbook for my C class. I found that this book covers the detailed basic. For a beginner, it is regarded a good book to start.



2. This is the best C book I have ever seen. If you want to learn C programming language this is the only book you will need.



3. I studied from this book for my class two years ago. I thought that the book carefully explains concepts with out being wordy, which lessen the frustrations and uneasiness of learning how to program for the first time. After each major new concept, the book writes an example program. Following the programs are explanations of everything in the program. Why they write this or why use this method, etc. The exercises are helpful. However, if they have a solution guide to go with it, it would had been even better. Overall, this book is great for anyone trying to learn C on their own. It doesn't leave out anything and the concepts are explained in a straightforward and clear manner.



4. Used this text in college for C programming, and will adopt the C++ version for the class I teach!
   Easy to read, plenty of examples, and does not overwhelm the beginning programmer with useless information. Practical, easy to use...best for C programming (and it's sister text for C++).



5. i receieved the book on time but there was a huge ugly sticker on it and the cover was kind of crumpled./

2 comments about Handbook of Algorithms and Data Structures in Pascal and C.

1. Both this book and the preceding (smaller) edition have earned their place on my reference shelf. More up to date than Knuth's 2nd edition and covering much broader territory than (for example) Samet's D&A of Spatial Data Structures, I've found a number of algorithms and data structures in this text that have been directly applicable to my work as a systems programmer.

   One of the major features of this book is, where possible, the consistent presentation and comparison of expected running times under a variety of input data conditions, with both theoretical and empirical results.

   A very browseable handbook. Not one of the hundreds of 1st year textbooks. It's a shame that it's out of print.




2. This was a great cookbook for the kinds of things algorithms that were most important in the early 90s. Computer science has not necessarily advanced that much in the last twenty years, but computer applications have. Most people had never heard of the Internet in 1991; that one development alone makes a whole new universe of applications and algorithms interesting.
   
   If this book had been updated (which it sadly has not), it might have a lot more optimization, cryptographic, pattern matching and graph theoretic content. If this were 1991, this book would get 5 stars. In 2008, it gets three: it's still useful, but not a must have.

5 comments about VC++ MFC Extensions by Example.

1. I like it very much for it provide lots of examples and explain many questions about programming. So after I finished this book, I bought the other two books written by swanke.



2. The great thing about this book is it addresses so many situations that MFC programmers find themselves in, and it seems like you're always trying to reinvent the wheel to deal with them.

   We're currently wrapping up a 1 year project, and we had a lot of user interface issues that seemed minor, but required some investigation in how to deal with them. Just scanning through the table of contents, we found the solution to at least 4 of those issues, and we implemented them in a matter of minutes.

   After greater examination of the book, we've discovered many ideas to incorporate in future releases of our software. Things we had considered, but seemed more difficult than they're going to be.

   Swanke is a solid MFC coder who really understands the ins and outs of MFC. His examples don't take the bizarre hack routes that many programmers tend to use to implement things that are out of the ordinary. Instead, he uses MFC in very elegant ways that don't always seem obvious to the rest of us.

   I applaud him on a very fine book. I also purchased his book, "Visual C++ MFC Programming by Example" and was equally impressed, and my review of it is available as well.




3. There are two MFC books real-world MFC programmers should keep as future references. VC++ MFC Extensions by Example by John Swanke is one of them. This is an essential MFC extension. Swanke presents powerful, yet surprisingly really simple fully implemented solutions to questions MFC programmers most often ask. For example, the author provides a solution to a folder selection dialog box. Swanke presents elegant solutions that are so simple, yet effective, they make Visual C++ Wizard seem overly complicated!

   Swanke includes another element that definitely distinguishes this book from other MFC books: MFC virtual function execution sequences. Swanke does an exceptional job mapping the order of which Windows calls different virtual functions and presents fundamental pointers to important MFC messages. I believe the execution sequences Swanke presents help in design process, during implementation process, and ultimately during maintenance of MFC based applications. Lastly, his solutions are mixtures of MFC and Win32 API. Programmers learn to directly use Win32 API in an MFC architecture and get the best of both worlds.

   I highly recommend VC++ MFC Extensions by Example.

   Kuphryn




4. The ftp address for the source codes do not work, and the author and the publishing company do not help the people who have bought his book.



5. Unfortunately there is a serious lack of books written on MFC. One would think that there would be a number of excellent books by this time. Nope. MFC looks like it was abandoned. WTL, a low-overhead replacement for MFC, has less documentation yet.
   
   I bought this book hoping that it would help me learn MFC. It covers some of the concepts, but it just doesn't go far enough. The example program are no longer available online, so you'll have to type them in yourself. Some of what is covered in the book has been changed, so you'll have to try to make sense of the online reference.

5 comments about CGI Programming in C and Perl.

1. Those of us who participate in the CGI programming newsgroups know Thomas' reputation and it's steller. When this book was first released, it was the best book available, and it some ways it still is. But the current edition is showing its age. It doesn't cover many new CGI topics or concepts. I still use this book as a reference now and again, but I wouldn't buy it today.



2. With many years of experience under my belt, i found this book to be easy. I'd written many complex cgi scripts using perl and c previous to this book, for many fortune 500 companies. They are much more complex than the ones "Dennis Chang" clamis to have written. The conepts in the book are sound but a little outdated. One major complaint is that there aren't enough code examples to look at while you are reading along. The bottom line, its a easy book to read that teaches sound principles for programming cgi in c, but remember you pay for what you get. So i recommend getting a more advanced book for when you master this one.



3. An EXCELLENT buy -- you don't have to be a "Pro" to use the programs here -- but you can't be a rookie either... Get it "New" or "Used"--the price difference is insignificant--compared to what's inside the book....I bought this book a few months ago--here on AMAZON--and was delighted to find this book contained entire (web)-C-programs that ACTUALLY WORKED! If your web-server(CGI-scripts) are runnning at a crawl...it's probably because you are running a "convenient-scripting-language" -- instead of a C-program!! This book is NOT long-winded, but very practical. I have seen (repackaged???-or-similar)-versions of this code running on a few of the "higher-profile" web-sites. Over the years, I have acquired a STACK of other C-Programming Books--and I am afraid to buy any more of them--because I am tired of EXPERIMENTING to see which ones are PRACTICAL to READ, and I'm tired of reading GOBS of POINTLESS-and/or-BLOATED text--I am very happy with this book. I am a self-taught (Linux) C Programmer, and the C-and-PERL-programs from this book run well on Linux(kernels 2.2 thru 2.4)... This book is a great start in getting you up and running--but the rest is up to you--since you'll REALLY NEED to UNDERSTAND MODERN WEB SERVERS !!! ...and... ONE LAST NOTE-- this code may be considered "old" (written in 1996?) --it's NOT obsolete--but it still runs perfectly-and-flawlessly "as is" --on a modern-day Apache Web Server(Linux). This code has stood it's test of time. After you use these programs--it may become more obvious as to the "updates-additions-or-deletions" you'll want to make. Be sure to get Boutell's UPDATED CODE (from his web-site).



4. I bought this book around 1998. It was the only book that cover
   CGI and C, the rest talked about PERL which I hadnt learned yet.
   
   Once the reader learns the basics (assuming they already know 1 of the 2 languages and have a webserver to play with), they should be able to construct any CGI program in almost any language.



5. I tried for a long time to get a handle on C. My background is PERL, and then later PHP, so i figured it might make sense for me to come at this from a web-based perspective. By chapter 4 I knew enough to start writing simple programs on my own (not using samples in the book). By the end of chapter 7 I was well versed enough to start more complex programs using PATH_INFO variables. Extremely good book. If you write web-based apps, and are thinking about learning C this is *the* book.
   
   One reviewer mentioned something about screenshots looking old, which is true, they are obviously Netscape 1, running on Unix's now ancient Motif window manager, but the concepts are all still exactly the same. The cgi's you write will look the same on Netscape 1, as they do on Seamonkey, or IE, or Safari so that's no big deal.
   
   I gave it a 5 because the concepts contained inside are very well written easy to understand and this is the only book that has given me a decent base on which to learn C.
   
   If I could change my rating now, I'd give it a 3 or 4. I wrote some more complex CGI's based on some of the ones in this book that didn't work. So for kicks I copied the source from the cd and tried to just compile those...gcc refused saying I hadn't declared strcmp(). :-/
   
   Indeed, I did a 'gcc *' in the SOURCE/C dir and didn't end up with a single a.out file. They all gave errors either on strcmp, feof, fgets, fprintf, in, isspace, fclose, and numerous others.
   
   Still an excellent book but things have changed a lot since it was written.
   
   Hey Thomas! How 'bout a Second Edition? :-)

4 comments about Beginning Mfc Com Programming (Beginning).

1. I found the material in this book to be a bit difficult to follow. Although the author has more than a firm grasp of the topic, he conveys the ideas wthout remorse. If you dont already have a firm grasp on the C++ language and MFC, this book will serve quite nicely as a paperweight.



2. It always make me laugh when I read a review of a book by someone who has done no research to the type of knowledge you must have before reading the book. If you don't know C++ or MFC very well then this book is not for you yet, and if you look at the back of the book you can see it show this to be true. But if you do have a firm grasp of C++ and MFC but lack the understanding of MFC COM then this book can help get you coding MFC COM in no time at all. A fine list of books for further reading in appendix F.



3. This book makes COM easy to understand



4. I thought this book would be great because it talked about COM programming using MFC. Most COM books use SDK code, which is something I wasn't interested in. However, the minute I opened this book, I realized that Mr. Templeman must have wanted to be a college professor. There is way too much detail here, however that wouldn't be a bad thing if it was somewhat organized. Unfortunately, it wasn't and I was deeply disappointed in this book.