Rating: 
Summary: No prior programming experience is required
Review: Learn To Program With C++ by John Smiley (Computer Science Professor at Penn State University), is a straightforward "reader friendly" introduction especially written for beginners to the art and skill of programming in the C++ language. No prior programming experience is required to quickly grasp these basic, easy-to-understand lessons which are enhanced with questions and exercises. Functions, inheritance, errors and error handling, classes and creating objects, and more are covered in this superbly presented and highly recommended introductory primer.
Rating:
Summary: I think it's a great book
Review: Let me begin by saying that I'm the author, so let's get that out of the way. I'm posting here to point out that the book has a tremendous amount of support materials that have never been advertised. Each of my books has a support page containing a current list of errata, downloadable files (completed exercises from the book), extra links to extra materials I have written and my email address in the event you have problems. I also run a series of online classes so that if you would like to learn with me in a more structured setting, you can do that also. You can access those materials via this link http://www.johnsmiley.com/books.htm I should also say that this book isn't for everyone---and you can read through some of the other reviews posted here to see why and why not. I wrote this book for beginner level programmers, and the book is written in a unique style. You (and I) can thank the now defunct Wrox Publishing house for the style of the book that some people absolutely love and others (primarily hotshot programmers with lots of experience) hate. The book is written as if you are participating in an actual classroom---many people, particularly those learning on their own or in an Independent study setting find comforting. My thanks to the many people who have written to me to tell me how much they've enjoyed my books and how they have helped them achieve their goals of learning to program. John Smiley
Rating:
Summary: Just the right thing for the novice
Review: This book excellently fills its stated purpose: an introductory c++ for somebody with limited or no programming experience. Of course it won't make you Bjarne Stroutrup in three easy lessons (which some people seem to believe is doable! Dream on!) It covers up to exceptions, gently and methodically touching each topic along the way- data, loops, selection structures, functions, objects, inheritance, arrays, pointers and exceptions- in a manner centered around building a 'real' project: a mark book for a university faculty. Each concept is worked into the overarching project context through examples and then insertion into the project itself. Material is presented as a conversion between the author and his students in a workshop/class setting as they work on this project, which can be a bit schmaltzy if not done well. Smiley manages to do this and avoid insipidness, yet remain on track and provide insightful answers. He way could be considered as perhaps labeled FAQ'S posed by a theoreticals student- making it more 'real'. Okay, this isn't a reference book. No does it cover all the basics like Unions and structures, etc. But this is a very introductory book. And a very good one at that. I honestly believe that if you can't make good progress into c++ (enough to want to more onwards and upwards) with this book then perhaps you might want to consider visual basic instead. The hand-holding is effective and not belittling, focused and not driveling on with useless waffle. There is no compiler included with the book but the net is full of free c++ compilers (gnu.org is a great starting place), so download one, get the book and get cracking. c++ awaits and this guy WILL get you on the right track and programming well. The introduction to the SDLC is very light, but a good context for how software needs to be developed in today's world were software hacking is being replaced by software engineering. Altogther: effective, fun and thumbs up. Well worth the price. Hopefully it won't be the last c++ book you buy, but it is a pretty damn good first!
Rating: 
Summary: A good base for C++, but not a lot of usefull content.
Review: This book is simply put, a good base for learning C++, however, you won't walk away from it knowing enough info to start programming.
First, what is good about the book. The book is truly for beginners, and John Smiley has a way with explaining concepts. The book gives a great base for C++ and object oriented programming. The classroom format works well, and all in all it's a great book.
Now for the bad. The thing that was a major dissapointment is that after reading the book, you really don't have enough knowledge to build your own programs. I mean I wasn't expecting to be programming Xbox games, however, I can do hardly anything. This is due to the fact that rather than teaching new coding techniques (building a graphical user interface would of been great), he simply shows better ways of using the same code. This is why I say it is a great base, it shows you a lot of the important concepts in C++, however, it fails to deliver a lot of usefull code.
Another problem is that it tends to go too deep into explanations sometimes. It's great that he explains things, but sometimes he just goes too far. Another problem I had was the choice of topics, like he went into some things that seemed like advaced topics(inheritence for one), and while they may be usefull in the long run, they seem like something a "beginner" would have no need for. Some info on building GUI's would have been a nice replacement, something people will use right away, unlike inheritence which would take time to find uses for. Another thing I didn't like was the huge intro to the Systems Development Life Cycle. It is good to know, but this is a beginner's book, no one will read this book and then do projects that would have any use for the Life Cycle. It seems that the author can't decide if he really wants this to be a beginners book. At times it seems as though this is an introduction to object oriented programming (using C++ as a model language), as opposed to a book on C++
So, what I recommend is to buy this book, as you will learn lots about object oriented programming and the basics of C++, but then immediately buy a more technical book with lots of content, take a course, etc. Just don't read this book and expect to be able to write (even simple) C++ programs, and if you do, they will just be little Command Prompt Programs. (not a whole lot you can do in it)
Now that I want to learn Java, I've decided not to get John Smiley's JAVA book. I'm getting Sam's Java 2 book. It's simply that it looks like Sam's has way more content, and since C++ is similar to Java, I know all the basics of object oriented programming from this book, as well as the main coding techniques, therefor I don't need a book with John Smiley's great explanations and would rather go for a book with lots of content.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible!
Review: This ia an excellent book for both a beginner who wants to understand program, and for a person who has coded in other languages and wants to learn C++. The book goes farther than teaching code and giving code examples. I have studied from books that give examples. John Smiley goes much farther than that and explains why he uses the code that he uses. He teaches the reader to logically think through the process of creating a program, which is much more than simply writing code. I also recommend looking at his book Learn To Program with Visual Basic 6.
Rating:
Summary: Review of Learn to Program with C++
Review: This ia an excellent book for both a beginner who wants to understand program, and for a person who has coded in other languages and wants to learn C++. The book goes farther than teaching code and giving code examples. I have studied from books that give examples. John Smiley goes much farther than that and explains why he uses the code that he uses. He teaches the reader to logically think through the process of creating a program, which is much more than simply writing code. I also recommend looking at his book Learn To Program with Visual Basic 6.
Rating:
Summary: Horrible!
Review: With all the reviews I expected a great book to start programming with. However, after reading the first 50 pages I have learned not one single thing about Programming but I have learned A LOT about the students in his class. This book is a total drag and a big waste of time. It never gets to the point! I returned it and you'll probably do the same. I dont see why everyone is reviewing this book to be so great.
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