Rating: 
Summary: Totally agree with bscis99's review.
Review: ...P>--This is NOT a book to learn basic computer programming on.
If you have never written any program before STAYAWAY! C++ itself is already a poor choice the 1st language to learn. If you never programmed before, try a book that holds your hand more and this book is NOT it. --This is NOT a book to learn C++ on.
Even though 1/2 of this book looks like its trying to teach C++ the bare bone language it does not do so. The author tires to teach C++ and the addition/deletion Microsoft made to C++ to make VC++. Too bad the language can't be taught in 263 pages, without sounding like a rush and thats what the 1st 1/2 reads like. If you are a C programmer this might be perfect for you, but you are still gonna find part of the sample code the book just doesn't explain at all like bscis99's review pointed out. If you are a C++ programmer already like myself the 1st half of the book will be mostly useless except for a little here and there about the difference between Unix C++ and Microsoft C++. But it is too little of here and there and I too find myself being asked to type codes that I like to be explained to a bit more. Unix programmers will find the 2nd 1/2 of the book the be perfect and exact thing they were hopping to find: "How the hell do I make GUI and make consumer software instead of corp/school software?" --On to the good parts. The page layout are very clean and easy on the eye. Code font is easy to tell apart from book text font which a lot of famous books fails to do. The idea of introducing the whole language using console programming and old-school C++ thats universal through all platforms before introducing Microsoft only C++ and techniques is a very GOOD IDEA! A very well orgainized book that fell on its face due to lack of detail or allowed size by publisher. The 1st half to a beginner it looks like it's for an expert. For and expert it looks like a poorly written beginners book without much use. 2nd half of the book is good but only for those who understood the topics covered in the 1st half.. ...
Rating: 
Summary: Stupified
Review: Being an intermediate C++ programmer myself, I decided to take the venture into the new .NET technology. So, I read through this book expecting quite a bit, but unfortunately was very displeased. In the first few chapters there were two conspicuous errors. The author takes much time to emphasize the case-sensitivty of the C++ language, but himself, makes an error on page 35 on the Reference section.. int x = 10;
int& y=x;
Y = 4; // come on Julian and Andy! This is rediculous. And on page 28, there is a very noticable error. The author takes time to write a program utilizing C++ streams, and in the output the strings are blank! I'm extremely disappointed. I've written better technical articles over the language myself.
Rating: 
Summary: Don?t waste your money. Don?t buy this book.
Review: Don't waste your money. Don't buy this book. It is full of mistakes and erroneous presentations. It looks like they never checked the examples against authentic Visual Studio .NET results.
Rating:
Summary: Don¿t waste your money. Don¿t buy this book.
Review: Don't waste your money. Don't buy this book. It is full of mistakes and erroneous presentations. It looks like they never checked the examples against authentic Visual Studio .NET results.
Rating:
Summary: What's the target audience?
Review: First off...the reviewer who criticized the editor for having the wrong book is the one who is wrong:this is C++, not C#. So that reviewer's dismissal should be dismissed. Second, as the editor pointed out, some reviews were for the wrong edition: they too should be dismissed. However... I do not recommend this book for beginners. A lot of its "teaching" is done by cookie-cutter programming: find this line of code in the program...don't worry about what it actually means...now type these things under it...now compile. The reader gets working programs without fully understanding what x, y, and z mean. And the authors don't know how to teach step-by-step, despite the book's title. It's as if they can't decide what their target audience is. Are they writing a step-by-step book (as the title implies) that gradually walks beginners through from beginning to end, holding their hands and easing them along? Sometimes. Or are they writing a book for people who already know C++ and just need to learn how to apply it to .NET? Sometimes. The worst part is that while it is possible to do both in one book, I don't feel the authors managed to do either. Beginners will be confused by the disorganized introduction of material (pointers and classes in chapter 2) and lack of explanations, while already-proficient-in-C++ programmers won't learn enough new stuff to make the book worthwhile (unless they are new to programming .NET with C++: then the later chapters will give them new stuff). Here are some details, looked at from a newbie's perspective. *********************************
"... (the endl stream manipulation operator inserts a new-line character in the stream.)" (p5)
********************************* What the heck is a 'stream', an 'operator', and a 'new-line', and what in the world does it mean for an operator to manipulate a stream? A newbie could be confused already...only 4 pages into the book. ********************************
"How does the compiler know which function should be called first? ... The rule is that the compiler will always generate code that looks for a function named main. If you omit the main function, the compiler reports an error and doesn't create a finished executable program." (p6)
******************************** That alone is not a problem. The problem arises when the rest of the book violates the rule just provided, without explaining why! Only the first program in the book - the trivial "Hello World!" program -- uses Standard C++ (iostream, cout, etc.). The second and subsequent programs don't include a main() function! The book has the reader "blindly" begin typing the second program on page 20, and that program contains several non-Standard C++ entries and omits several of the most common Standard C++ elements. (1) The program does not have a main() function but does have a _tmain(). What exactly is a _tmain() function anyway? The book doesn't say. (2) The program does not have the typical #include directive but does have #include "stdafx.h". So what exactly is the "stdafx.h" anyway? The book doesn't say. And why is this one surrounded by double quotes instead of by angle brackets? The book doesn't explain that either.(3) The program does not have the typical using namespace std; statement but does have #using . What exactly is the ? The book doesn't say. And why is the typical using statement (such as using namespace std;) not prepended with a pound sign while the program's #using is? The book doesn't say.(4) Related to the above, the program has a using namespace System; statement. So what exactly is the System namespace? The book doesn't say. Here's another newbie-stumper. ***************************
"To access the member variables and functions, you have to dereference the pointer in one of two ways. You can use the dereferencing operator, an asterisk (*) followed by the dot notation - for example, (*cat).legs. " (p23)
*************************** Dereferencing a pointer? What the heck is a pointer? What the heck is dereferencing? The book hasn't explained either yet. And why in the world is the book already talking about classes? Functions haven't even been covered, nor have variable types, looping, selection, scope, pointers, etc. ***************************
"The lifetime of an object instantiated from the class will be managed by the .NET Framework's garbage collector. When the object falls out of scope, the memory used by the object will be garbage-collected and no explicit calls to delete will have to be made." (p22)
**************************** What the heck does "fall out of scope" mean? A newbie wouldn't know from reading the book. What the heck is delete? And should the book really be discussing topics like dynamic memory allocation on the heap and memory management when less than 2 dozen pages in? Now note the difference between these two. ****************************
Console.WriteLine("Animal 1"); (p25)
**************************** and *****************************
Console::WriteLine(S"Welcome to your friendly Investment Planner"); (p49)
***************************** Why does the second one prepend a capital 'S' to the string while the first doesn't? The book doesn't say. So far I've been disappointed with several of the Microsoft Press books I have purchased. It is almost as if MS is just pumping books out one after another...each one quickly thrown together...just to get presence on the shelf (or to flood the shelves with their books): knowing that people are more likely to by an authentic Microsoft book on Microsoft products.
Rating: 
Summary: Visual C# .NET Step-by-Step is a good book
Review: For some reason Amazon seems to think that two different titles: Visual C++ .Net: Step by Step: Version 2003 and Visual C# .Net: Step by Step are two different editions of the same book. Some of the reviews you will read for this book refer to the other "edition". I really like the C# book, but I've never even seen the C++ edition. If you are developing a new .NET application with forms, I can't think of any reason to use Visual-C++. If you have a lot of legacy C++ code that you'd like to port to .NET, then you might want to use Managed C++. The book I bought is Visual C# .Net Step by Step Version 2003 by John Sharp and Jon Jagger. It seems like a really good introduction to programming Windows Forms with Visual C# in Visual Studio 2003.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Guidebook
Review: Granted, it probably helps if you're migrating from another language (like I was - from VB), but it's an excellent text which gives you plenty of background & extra information, then takes you into step-by-step exercises to reinforce what you just read. This methodology really worked for me, and I highly recommend this book. Initially, I was concerned that it was going to be literally just step-by-step instructions on how to use C# and Visual Studio .NET, but the information between the exercises, plus additional notes and best practices really helped me out with learning the language and some potential gotchas.
Rating:
Summary: So Many Errors ...
Review: I am using the first edition of this book and there are so many errors that by the time I was half-way through the book I no longer felt comfortable with any of the sample code. At times I wasn't sure whether I was having a hard time grasping the subject or I just couldn't make sense of it because there were so many errors. ...
Rating:
Summary: Useful Book
Review: I find this book does a great job to teach me C#. This book clearly explains some of the concepts like boxing and unboxing by using useful diagrams. The chapters are very short and concise (around 15 pages per chapter) but provide enough details to cover the topics and explain them with small pieces of sample codes. There is also a complete sample program at the end of each chapter.
One thing I didn't know before buying this book was this book requires Visual Studio .NET 2003 to run the sample codes and if you have previous version of Visual Studio .NET you will not be able to open the samples. I will recommend this book to anyone who wants to know the basic of C#.
Rating:
Summary: A good book
Review: I have just found this book from a Closing Down Bookshop .. for only 24$ AU ... First, I am a C++ programmer who want to learn .NET (I use GCC before and never touch MFC or Visual C++ before). I think this book provide everything I need to know about how to use VS.NET and C++ itself. It is clearly explained and easy to follow.
I have compare this book with several book (C++.NET book)...and I found this book is good enough. The other book about C++.NET I found usefull is Visual C++.NET by Deitell (but too expensive than this book lol)
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