Rating: 
Summary: Great first book on MC++
Review: As a Microsoft Press author I can tell you from a point of knowledge that the other review stating that MS wants you to only buy Petzold's book for .NET programming is absolutely wrong. Each MS Press book has its niche. This book, for example, is absolutely the best "from the ground up" managed extensions book available. If you're already experienced with MC++ (as it's often referred), I would recommend Sam Gentile's fine book. But for beginners this is the first book to purchase.I absolutely love the tutorial style used in these books and the authors did a great job of not fluffing things, but keeping the flow going with a continual stream of topics aimed to build one atop the other. This is definitely a recommended buy from someone who normally doesn't recommend books. Tom Archer
Author, Inside C#
Rating: 
Summary: C++
Review: C++ user manual does not come with a Visual C++ software. this book is not good, but you have to buy it as the user's manual. Now you see microsoft's monopoly.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not great
Review: I believe Mr. Maschiach's 03/31/2002 review captures the essence of this text perfectly--it's a "Hello World" primer, but its 626 pages do little more than scratch the surface of VC++ .NET progamming. It's essentially a "Teach Yourself" book that will certainly get you in the door, but as such does little to provide valuable techniques for solving real business problems. Although I'm certainly no VC++ .NET expert, the lackluster instruction left me touting C# as the preferred means to the same end simply because of C#'s abundant reference material. Perhaps MS intends this by design to depolarize the VC++ and VB camps, and is therefore favoring C# overall... Lastly, and indeed surprisingly considering the publisher, the book wants for editorial review due to numerous typographical errors and omissions. This is particularly frustrating when applied to syntactical examples. Perhaps MS Press will release "Microsoft Visual C++ .NET Step by Step Service Pack 1" to correct these deficiencies.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much time on easy topics and too little on harder.
Review: I found this book to be disappointing. Like so many other programming books it supposedly starts off at a pace for a beginner. However, it spends too much time on basic syntax, which I assume most programmers are familiar with, or are familiar with other programming languages and could make the adjustment quickly to basic C++. It does give a few important introductory points on the new managed classes, to its credit. However one-half of the way through the book the author begins to leave C++ and give "glimpses" of the .Net features of C++, which are much too vast to cover even simplistically in such a small space. The topics quickly became so far from what I wanted to learn about C++ that it was hard to believe they were covered in the same book as the simplistic syntax lessons at the beginning. I came away from this book more confused as to what I could do with C++ .Net than before I read it. I don't know who this book is intended for, but it is definitely not for those wanting an tutorial on core .Net C++ without the excessive syntax explanations that fill the first half of so many programming books.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for beginner
Review: I have bought the following C++ books before
Accelerated C++: Practical Programming by Example
by Andrew Koenig, Barbara E. Moo
Desktop Applications for Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 MCSD Training
Distributed Applications for Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 MCSD Training
The first one is sure not for begineer and I was definitely misleaded by the numerous excellent reviews in amazon to buy this one. I even questioned whether developers in the IT fields will write programs in such manner. May be the second and the third one is aimed for certification, it touches everythings in Visual C++ in quite a superficial way. It is difficult to grap the complicated stuffs inside.
But for this one, I have just read the first 8 chapters, it is an excellent book for me. The tutorial format with simple but good and clear enough examples. I can really grap all the concepts easily this time. This book really meets the purpose of Step by Step Series - Learn core programming skills with these hands-on, tutorial-based guides designed to walk any developer through the fundamentals of Microsoft's programming languages in this. And I may buy the Programming series after this one for professional level.
For those who complain this books too light, I think they are wrong, please read the purpose of Step by Step series before making comment. This books really meets the purpose. If they want the more advanced one, they should buy the Programming with Microsoft Visual C++.Net instead which is designed to be the best single-volume explorations of professional-level software tools and technologies, Programming books provide expert guidance and instruction-coupled with a full cache of reusable code and other resources on CD-ROM-to help expedite your productivity. Part of the Microsoft Programming Series. (i.e copy from MSPress)
Rating:
Summary: Extremely poor
Review: I was tempted to give this book 1 star, but it does give a small (if extremely inconsequential) introduction to Managed C++. I get the impression that the author wants to coerce his reader into learning ANSI C++, because so much is left out (or glossed over). Given the choice to use either .NET methods or old-style code, the author goes with the older style -- it's total confusion. In comparison, the Visual C# .NET Step by Step and Visual Basic .NET Step by Step books are a *lot* better.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely poor
Review: I was tempted to give this book 1 star, but it does give a small (if extremely inconsequential) introduction to Managed C++. I get the impression that the author wants to coerce his reader into learning ANSI C++, because so much is left out (or glossed over). Given the choice to use either .NET methods or old-style code, the author goes with the older style -- it's total confusion. In comparison, the Visual C# .NET Step by Step and Visual Basic .NET Step by Step books are a *lot* better.
Rating:
Summary: Inappropriate for beginners
Review: If you're new to C++ and want a self paced instruction from which you plan to teach yourself the language, don't choose this book. Aside from the first chapter sort of tossed in by another author, the real weakness of the book are its exercises and confusing explanations. In other words, they don't give you a foundation for a new principal and then have you test and build your skills be giving an assignment based on the instruction and then showing later how to do it after you've practised the example. Instead it mixes the exercise with the initial explanation in a quick "click here, then type this" method. You'll find yourself moving back through the chapter several times after finishing it to try to piece together what they were really showing you. I know how to program already in 2 other languages, but found the jump to C++ no easier after reading this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Too many errors too early on to be useful
Review: It's kinda scary that a book released by MS press about an MS product can have so many errors... I gave up and returned my copy after I'd read about 40 pages because my confidence dropped like a stone due to missing code, bugs & incorrect instructions (for example, F10 and F11 are not the debug step/into keys, try F8 and Shift F8!). In addition the layout was pretty dire and the subject matter seemed to jump from pillar to post. As a reader and pupil, I was often left wondering why I had been instructed to write some code that now seemed to have no bearing on the rest of a chapter. Perhaps the 2nd edition will fix most of these problems. However until then my advice would be to avoid this book like the plague... It's a shame because there was real potential there; the writing style was pretty easy going and understandable. However, that alone does not a good book make. For this edition: a sad and dismal 1/5 and without doubt the worst .NET book I've read to date.
Rating:
Summary: Don¿t make this the only book you buy
Review: Let just say that the title is right .
If you don't have the book 'Programming Windows With MFC' then after reading this book all you could say is that you know how to start a project in Visual C++ .NET and build a simple Window (SDI) .The book includes a few more things some are GUI related , some are Console related (under the .NET Framework) and some are Web related (Web Services) , but all are the Hello World version of them .
After reading most of the book , the .NET ( at version 1.0 ) didn't add that much to the ANSI C/CPP programmer , on the contrary it looks more like you write an MFC.NET C/CPP version of code , in short hooking C/CPP to be an MFC.NET C/CPP which in syntax looks VERY similar to the C# and VB.NET syntax (except for the dialect) .
Perhaps this is the unofficial way that Microsoft pushes the C# to be the major programming language of the future under windows.
Another problem is that there aren't enough examples of Windows in MFC under .NET (that's why the other book is 'needed') , not only that but most of the examples are .NET related (even console examples) .
In comparison to the previous book 'Programming Visual C++' , I liked more the previous one , buy that one or buy them both and then you get the book I would expect to be the real Microsoft Visual C++ .NET Step by Step .
In short if you want to be a .NET programmer BUY 'Programming Windows(r) with C# (Core Reference)' this is what I think that Microsoft wants you to do .
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