No comments about Borland C++ 4.X Tips, Tricks, and Traps/Book and Disk.

No comments about Borland C++ 4.5 Object-Oriented Programming.

No comments about Killer Borland C++ 4/Book and Disk.

No comments about C++ and C Debugging, Testing, and Reliability: The Prevention, Detection, and Correction of Program Errors/Book and Disk.

No comments about C++ Programming for Windows/Book and Disk.

5 comments about OLE DB Consumer Templates: A Programmer's Guide.

1. With high hopes, I bought this book. But it has been a big disappointment. The book explains the concepts of OLE DB templates and the various macros, quite well. Lot of figures explaining the relationship between objects. But it is very much lacking on real usable examples. There is not a single complete example. Most examples are real simple. Inserts and Deletes get just one page each, hardly useful, and also the example used for these is with a CTable. How many people use a CTable for inserts and deletes? It is like saying "Delete/Update the first row in the database", which is hardly practical. There are about 30 OLE DB types, but no examples on how to use these. In summary, the book is better than the SDK documentation on OLE DB templates, but not much useful if you want to get into OLE DB programming quickly.



2. The coverage for basic OLE DB is not good in this book. To get a decent coverage of this in my opinion you can do no better than: "Beginning Components for ASP" which not only explains basic OLE DB well, but also explains MTS and Writing components for ATL to work with ASP amongst other things.



3. This book isn't exactly what I had hoped for. It seems that only about 30% of the book is actually devoted to "Consumer Templates" and the other 70% talks about raw OLE DB interfaces. However, since it is the only book that covers anything on consumer templates ... it is better than nothing.



4. As you can see, there are not many books on the subject. However, this book contains very few code lines and it is not organized well. The fact that a programming book does not have even 1 (!) full example can't be good. You will get a fair amount of information from this book; however, YOU WILL visit MSDN regularly. The author spend time on known subjects like performance again and again (although that C++ programmers are well aware to this subject) and less to the whole concept of the templates. He is breaking up all the objects very well, but failing terribly in providing the whole system. A "nice to have" book as a second or third reference. Don't buy it as first.



5. I am by now several months into a project using the consumer templates. I have to say at this point that the decision to use them was the biggest mistake I have made on this project. They do not make the grade and it is too late to back out and user another interface.
   
   The templates would be a good idea if carried to completion and fully supported. They are not. The template classes Nallet presents are not a full wrapper, but just a series of incomplete examples. They do not compile under newer versions of C++ and must be hacked just to build. Each hack in turn produces more problems. The publisher's web page no longer contains any reference to this book, nor to it's source code. The author's web page is "404", and the code exists on the Internet only in "pirate" sites. I have turned up references to the author through search engines but see no sign he is maintaining his code.
   
   Microsoft is in the process of abandoning OLEDB in any case in favor of ADO.
   
   In short and in other words: DON'T BOTHER!!

2 comments about C: Step-By-Step (Computer Science Series).

1. One of great book to learned C. I highly recommended



2. I teach your good book in Tanriz university. But I haven't the disk which includes the files of book. So I appreciate it if you could send me the programming file which are inside the book. Regards Sajjad Fekri

1 comments about Waite Group's C + + Programming (The Waite Group).

1. This is an excellent book. I don't know why they stop publishing it. It is a must read. Highly recommanded.

No comments about Intro to C++.

5 comments about Schildt's Windows 95 Programming in C and C++ (Osborne).

1. This is a great introduction to Microsoft Windows 32-bit programming in C. Each of the basic aspects of the user interface is well explained with fairly simple examples. This is a good place to start before getting into Petzold's more thorough work. This has two shortcomings: - the source code is not easily gotten nor free - depite the title, there is not one line of C++



2. This book will teach you everything on how a windows program works as well as all the different types of resources you can use, how they work, where to use them and how to program for them. The structure he uses allows you to start writing your own programs after the first few chapters, grated that they all follow the same base.

   You already have a small concept of C if you wish to read this book, althought the sample are very well prepared and explained, I don't think you could learn C from them.

   The only thing that I dislike about this book was that he never did say how to get out of the skeleton and start with just a dialog and not the basic window. I have not read the Advanced edition however. I will do so as soon as I get it.




3. This book is perfect if you are a programmer new to windows 95 programming. Schildt knows his stuff and the book's well worth its money!



4. This is a great book for someone with good knowledge of UNIX C++ or Console based C++. The person will quickly learn how to program under Windows in C++ without using MFC.

   Herbert explains the basic concepts of programming under Windows including the basics which are very important. Althought this book does not present MFC, but it is a great book for fundementals, such as Message Passing and even Threading. It Gives it to you easily step-by-step. Herbet builds upon a skeleton .

   The only thing is that you need very good knowledge of regular C++, and you are all set. would highly recommend this.




5. I study programming more to learn the operating system and environment. And Schildt is my favorite programming author. This is a classic book, and I definately learned how to programm in the Windows because of it. Even if you are using Windows 98 or Windows 2000, the code will be very similar. Now I have Schildt's "Windows 2000 Programming from the Ground Up" so I know this is true. You will find much of the same examples in Schilds "Windows 98 Programming in C and C++" and "Windows 2000 Programming from the Ground Up", so you certainly get by with those books as well. Bottom line is that Schildt doesn't just list API functions, he teaches you how to program in the given environment. Now I'm going to do his "Windows 2000 Programming from the Ground Up". Next, I want to do his MFC book, and also, the basic C# book looks great. If you want to learn C, C++, and Java, there is no better author than Schildt. C and C++ programming is a challenging subject, and it does take time to learn, but Schildt is the best instructor around.