Rating: 
Summary: Good Introduction to C++
Review: A good starting point for C++ and object-oriented programming with quite good coverage of the features of the language, but the author tends to only explain things in detail if there is an opportunity to try and be funny. Maybe 10% of the jokes in here are okay if you haven't heard them before, but most of them are lame and distracting, particularly on the second reading. Some concepts are woefully over-explained like the part on Classes which takes 2-3 pages to say "a class is a category of variables" and the reminders throughout the book which provide suprisingly obvious information when you dont really need it. Other things are not explained at all, like the chapters on Operator Overloading which begin by saying that 'this is an advanced part that you might need to use later' and then go straight into syntax and very minimal one-line explanations, completely without any context or saying exactly what operator overloading is all about. The last few chapters are uninspired and difficult to make sense of, however the treatment of other parts such as functions and classes is informative. The For Dummies books owe much of their popularity to their very reader-friendly appearance, however the content could benefit a great deal from a more sophisticated approach to programming ideas without sacrificing the overall casual/friendly tone. Introducing the concept of editing to the production of this book would also have been an improvement as errors are abundant, and many readers will be amazed that a Byte is refered to several times as being four Bits. Overall this book is informative and a good starting point in C++ and OOP, and you will benefit from reading it. But be prepared to overlook both the errors and the author's self conscious over-indulgence in making jokes that aren't funny.
Rating: 
Summary: OK.. So you consider yourself a dummy?
Review: Well you might even be one!
But if you want to qualify as a dummy capable of learning C++..
I'd say you better have done programming before, or maybe you're more intelligent than most people I can think of.
Otherwise you'll be a very confused dummy?With that aside - WOW! I've done about 6 years programming in all sorts of "lesser" scripting and languages and now I feel like I'm on my way to - ENLIGHTENMENT! Now, really.. I'm 2/3 throught the book and I say thank you, thank you, thank you (or was that the copy copy copy constructor chapter?). Ok, maybe 4 stars is nasty but let me try explain.
Jumping from arrays into advanced pointers by presenting a linked list program without much explanation is nasty too!
(I got over that one, but will you the reader?) On the other hand, if you want to learn concepts and semantics - get this book. Maybe not everything is explained in detail(that's where you could have done programming before).
Also, can a relatively small book (400 pages) really cover that much in a lot of detail?
On the other hand, what is explained is explained very well - to my opinion. And its fun too! Maybe Mr. Davis does not have a sense of humor that'll reach everybody - but after a truly hectic chapter I find myself laughing my head off. That's where I pick up on the author's own asides - my neighbour?
I'm really scared of what he thinks of me laughing out loudly by myself.. I'm now ready to hack C++ and understand concepts and semantics that i didn't 4 days ago. I'm not scared of C++ any more!!
Maybe you should try it? Also, Mr. Davis, thanks for the nacho recipe - the microwave is ready!!
Rating:
Summary: solid book - a good read
Review: I have had the opportunity to read a few books of this genre and this has been the best by far. As someone who formerly learned C++ a few years ago, but has not used it since, this book was the perfect review. It was light enough to be a good read (that in itself is hard to find in this genre), yet detailed enough to leave me confident as I take on a new adventure that assumes C++ knwoledge. I read the other reviews and agree that there are too many typos (in the text and the code samples alike) to give this book 5 stars. But I highly recommend this book for those who already know a language, e.g., C or Java, and therefore have enough of a coding base to recognize the typos and still get a lot out of the examples.
Rating:
Summary: It worked for me =)
Review: im slightly confused as to reading other peoples reviews saying it was written for the more experienced programmer, since i bought this book without any knowledge whatsoever on C++. if you want to learn a programming language completely from scratch without having any idea of how they are structured, its never going to be all that easy. i had a tiny bit of experience in Pascal, but since thats not an OO language, and didnt prepare me for the world of C++ this is the first book i bought on the subject, and i feel it gave me quite a good background to the language. what stopped me from giving this book 5 stars was that at times it didnt seem to fully explain its reasoning, or at least, i couldnt follow it too easily. i have bought other books since this one, which have helped in a big way to furthering my understanding, but would have gone over my head had it not been for this. im talking way more than i need to do here, but i think if your new, it would not be a bad place to start. there are probably better books (Such as SAMS Learn C++ in 21 days) but it did the job for me :) The author does have a witty style and i had found myself laughing out loud ocassionally, but i found it not to be the Complete beginners guide. I would advise adding this one to your shelves to begin with, but it only gives the basics, and doesnt delve into much complexity
Rating: 
Summary: Absolute First Stop for Beginning Programmers
Review: I've been looking for just the right introduction to programming for some time. I've spent more than a dozen hours combing through the shelves in my local Borders and B&N, skimming over 50 so-called "introductory" texts, looking for one that I could really learn from. By way of background, I am an advanced computer user/tinkerer, but I'm completely inexperienced in the field of programming -- never so much as typed a lick of code. In reviewing other books, I didn't want to start with a book about C, because conventional wisdom says that it's a bad idea to start with C (a procedural language) if you plan to use it to jumpstart a study of C++ or java (hybrid OOP languages). I also didn't want to start with a book on QBasic, because it seems to me that the language is pretty much obsolete. For me, I wanted to learn OOP, and that meant a commitment to C++ and/or java (preferably both, as each has its strengths and weaknesses, and they are similar and popular enough to study together). That said, I looked at somewhat advanced introductory books by Deitel, Savitch, and Horton, all of which are extremely well-reviewed here on Amazon. I also looked at several books from Microsoft Press, as I planned on learning by using components of the Visual Studio. Horton's Beginning C++ came close, but its massive size and more advanced approach left me looking for a different introductory text (I plan on returning to Horton's book though, to supplement what I learn from Mr. Davis' book). Finally, this new edition of C++ for Dummies came out just in time. This book really hits the mark on many levels: (1) it assumes no knowledge of programming; (2) it does a great job of explaining truly complex topics without going overboard or hitting you over the head; (3) it is clear and entertaining; and (4) it is new and compliant with the latest standards, which is more than I can say for books written, say, pre-1998. Do yourself a favor -- if you have no programming experience and want to learn a cutting edge OOP language like C++ or java, start here, then use that knowledge to branch out to more advanced material. Personally, I'm supplementing this reading with Horton's Beginning C++ and Beginning Java 2 (JDK 1.3 Version), and Bruce Eckel's highly praised Thinking in Java. Good luck!
Rating:
Summary: Good...but not great.
Review: There are good and bad things about this book. I will start with the good. As the title says, the book is good for people who don't know anything and barely know how to work a computer. There are better books for those who have had a little programming expirience or those who are smart enough to not need a whole page and a half explaining what an integer is.
I also agree with others that the little chunks of programs are very annoying.
ok, so this is my suggestion:
1. People who can barely use a computer: buy this book, and also buy "Sam's teach yourself c++ in 21 days." Use this book for hard to understand concepts and use Sam's for actual uses and programs.
2. People who know a little programming or think they are not a dummy: "Sam's teach yourself c++ in 21 days" is perfect.
3. Expert programmers: Why are you reading this?
Rating: 
Summary: Simply horrendous
Review: Why is this book so bad? 1 - Snippets are used instead of complete code, often snippets without any kind of output to confirm it works.
2 - The code, what little there is, and the snippets are for very boring programs. The only complete program listed thus far, (I'm not quite halfway through the book), is made to convert Fahrenheit numbers to celsius. The rest of the snippets simply manipulate numbers which the author didn't even bother to give a real purpose.
3 - The worst case of rambling off on tangents I've ever encountered. No I really don't think it was necessary to include a 3 page treatise on various number systems throughout history culminating with a lecture on how the Roman numeral system's inablity to be easily multiplied, (complete with examples), held back the progress of civilization in order to teach us the AND and OR operators.
4 - The important information is poorly presented. I cite the "Taking a first look at pointers" chapter as a prime example. The author begins by giving a brief, (for him), definition of what a memory address is. So far, so good. Then he goes on to talk about the number of bits worth of memory each kind of variable uses, and how to calculate it. Is this important? Hard to tell. He doesn't provide any examples to demonstrate that it's important, and it seems like it might be, but at this early stage in the book most beginners are still wondering when we're going to write a 2nd program, one more useful than the temperature conversion one, rather then focusing on bit-level memory optimization. If that does become important later, by then I'll have forgotten what he wrote about it initially and will have to scan the whole book to find which highly illogical chapter he decided to include it in again. In summary, this book is terible because it's boring, hides the important information within all kinds of unimportant tangents, gives poor examples of code to support it's lessons, and often presents those lessons at poorly chosen times for the readers.
Rating:
Summary: NOT Great
Review: This book is ONLY okay, just above two stars. The most annoying thing is the code snippets. You would think they could include complete code w/ output statements so you could type it in and see what's going on. It's not written clearly, but does explain some things well. There is just no way to teach yourself C/C++ from one book. I'm using three at the same time. They all help, none are great. This one is a little worse than most.
Rating: 
Summary: I must be a super-dummy
Review: Up to about page 200 things were going pretty well. Mr. Davis keeps things simple. From then on, things change. Its as if, up to this point he assumed I was an idiot, and then someone whispered in this ear that it was Stephen Hawking learning C++. He starts throwing around 'pointers' like confetti and then just when you are begging to end a chapter, he throws in a 3 page program. This is my second reading of the book, by the way. Apsrt from that, he insists is using 'she' every time he refers to someone. This really grates - as do the jokes, second time around.
Rating:
Summary: not a good book
Review: I was extremely disappointed in this book. I do not recommend it to ANY ONE who is trying to learn C++. It is confusing, poorly written and extremely difficult to follow the authors thoughts and examples. If you have any desire to learn C++, please, purchase another book, just not this one!
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