Codeguru.com Visual C++ Goodies

Rating:
Summary: This book rocks!
Review: ...This book actually features tons of the best articles on the accompanying web sitem, and what more, it's been edited and optimzied, in terms of explanation and documentation.

You will not, and never will, regret after paying small bucks for this book. Use this book whether you're a newbie or advance programmer. For newbies, there's tons of free controls in the book with free source code(royalty free) whereby you can use and learn.
For intermmediate folks, you can always use the concise examples in the book as a reference if you're stuck somewhere, or better still, modify the code to suit your needs.
For advanced programmers, the code can give you some valuable insight and save you time. After all, there's no such thing as one programmer "who knows all". There's always something to learn.

This book is best used as a companion book to a thorough-programming book you have, like Jeff Prosise's "Programming Windows with MFC" etc.

Rating:
Summary: A bit dated, but not bad
Review: I agree with the other reviewers that this book is a bit dated. They should have included some info on VS 7.0. But the biggest surprize to me was to see several articles attributed to me. Yes, I did contribute to Codeguru but I wasn't even aware that book had been published until a ran across the book on Amazon while looking for something else.

I wish they would have contacted me when considering the articles for inclusion. At least one of the article attributed to me has several annoying errors do to problems codeguru had early on when dealing with source code and html (I had tried several times to get the typos fixed on codeguru with no success). I would have happily given them corrections. Oh well.

So pages 119-128 have code several typos in the code (substitute -> for - in several places in the code).

Other than that it's a good addition to my programming bookshelf.

Rating:
Summary: Great coverage of the C++ scene circa year 2000
Review: I got a box of free books today (Amazon partner stuff) and while taking a break from code work, read a bunch of sections from Codeguru.com Visual C++ Goodies. Now, CodeGuru is one awesome site for C++ based Windows programmers and they do have .NET content there but you wouldn't know it from this book. The book is "aimed at the intermediate to advanced level programmer and I have assumed that readers have at least a working knowledge of Visual C++ 6.0 and MFC." There's that vile acronym-). You open this book, and it's like you are back in 1998 again! You have VC++ 6.0 and MFC all throughout. Now I am not naive to think that MFC does not have its uses (WinForms in V1 still doesn't have many of things that MFC has) but a whole 600 page book that does not mention that .NET word and came out yesterday? There is a lot of great C++ and MC++ stuff, for ,NET, on CodeGuru, so its somewhat suprising that the editor chose to focus on MFC with a smattering of ATL. The climax, if you will is COM Apartment articles, circa September 25, 2000 . Yikes! Even if one did want to focus on unmanaged stuff, couldn't they have least choose stuff using VS.NET's VC++ and ATL 7, etc?

Rating:
Summary: Great coverage of the C++ scene circa year 2000
Review: I got a box of free books today (Amazon partner stuff) and while taking a break from code work, read a bunch of sections from Codeguru.com Visual C++ Goodies. Now, CodeGuru is one awesome site for C++ based Windows programmers and they do have .NET content there but you wouldn't know it from this book. The book is "aimed at the intermediate to advanced level programmer and I have assumed that readers have at least a working knowledge of Visual C++ 6.0 and MFC." There's that vile acronym-). You open this book, and it's like you are back in 1998 again! You have VC++ 6.0 and MFC all throughout. Now I am not naive to think that MFC does not have its uses (WinForms in V1 still doesn't have many of things that MFC has) but a whole 600 page book that does not mention that .NET word and came out yesterday? There is a lot of great C++ and MC++ stuff, for ,NET, on CodeGuru, so its somewhat suprising that the editor chose to focus on MFC with a smattering of ATL. The climax, if you will is COM Apartment articles, circa September 25, 2000 . Yikes! Even if one did want to focus on unmanaged stuff, couldn't they have least choose stuff using VS.NET's VC++ and ATL 7, etc?

Rating:
Summary: Very good collection of articles
Review: Of course since I was one of the original people that ran CodeGuru before it was sold, it probably comes as little surprise that I would like this book :) However, regardless of my past ties, I do believe this is a fine addition to anyone's tech library as it provides a fine collection of articles/code in a very well organized format. I also like how the editors selected and categorized the articles they selected which could not have been an easy task as CG contains over literally thousands of articles.

I do agree with Keith Rule (a valuable contributor to CG over the years) that I wish they had contacted me regarding my own articles that appear in the book as I have more current versions of my code that are not on their site. If anyone wishes to access the updated code, please contact me through my web site at:

www . ArcherConsultingGroup . com

Rating:
Summary: Perfect for the Visual C++ programmer
Review: This book covers all the bases and is ideal for both beginners and experienced programmers. I found a lot of neat articles in the book, most I'd not seen when visiting the web site.

The organization of the book is well thought out and very easy to navigate. Anyone that is serious about Visual C++ or MFC programming needs this book. You would have to look very hard to find the equivalent to what is in this book

As well as superb articles, the smattering of forum excerpts and comments make reading each article very informative. I have been programming for many years and have learned a lot just by reading this book. I'll keep it close by from now on.

I strongly recommend this book - at any price!