Essential C++

Written for those C/C++ developers who want to deepen their programming knowledge, Essential C++ provides a short, effective tutorial to some of the most important features of the C++ language, including lessons on generic programming and templates.

Compression is the key in this admirably concise text.

The author explains C++ from the very beginning with basic syntax and language features and always uses some of the best features of today's Standard C++. Perhaps the best thing here is the integration of "generic programming" (meaning the STL library of reusable templates and algorithms for data collections like vectors, linked lists, and maps, which are built into any current C++ compiler).

By focusing on these key features, this tutorial demonstrates C++ in an up-to-the-minute style. (These "advanced" features can help simplify C++ programming from the very beginning.) This tutorial moves quickly, and by the end of the book, the author covers the basics of successful object-oriented design with C++ classes, generic programming, templates, and exception handling. Short examples are the rule here, and each chapter includes exercises for self-study (with solutions provided at the end of the book).

C++ is a very rich and very complicated programming language. Essential C++ cuts to the chase and gives the working programmer a tour of the latest and greatest language features in a compact format. As a quick-start guide to today's C++, this title complements the author's much more massive tutorial, C++ Primer. For anyone who knows a little C/C++ and wants to learn more, especially the newest features of Standard C++, this book certainly deserves a closer look. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: C++ fundamentals, data types and arrays, pointers, flow control, functions, generic programming and STL, generic algorithms, classes, constructors and destructors, polymorphism and inheritance, abstract classes, runtime type identification, templates and template functions, exception handling.