C++ Without Fear: A Beginner's Guide that Makes You Feel Smart Book

C++ Without Fear by Brian Overland teaches programming in the language known as C++. Now, I never took a single course in programming, but this book assumes very little in what the reader knows. Basically, it starts out with a lot of hand-holding, but this is good for me. Although I have tried to learn to program, for some reason the basic ideas don't lead me to have excellent advanced ideas. I can do it as a hobby since I don't think that I will be able to be employed as a programmer.

The book starts with the most basic ideas of programming; the ideas of proper syntax. Computers are not magical machines that can do anything and everything you demand of them. As the old adage goes, Garbage in, Garbage out. To be more specific, the computer can only do the things that you tell it to do: no more, no less. In that sense, there has to be a lot of peculiar rules and systems in place so that the computer understands you. Computers all over the world speak the same language, that of binary digits or bits. The book begins by explaining this. C++ is much like the C programming language, but it allows you to use Object-Oriented Programming. The book is kind enough to explain what that is.

Once you are ready to make your first program, the book talks about different compilers and which ones to use. You get to make the basic print output program and so on. Now if you are sufficiently advanced in programming, you could certainly skip a few chapters. This is something the author wholeheartedly recommends. Then again, the book states that it is a book for beginners, so you know how that goes. While I say that, the book does cover up to Polymorphism, so I don't really know if that is super advanced or not.

With plenty of examples and practice programs, this book is quite excellent. It even contains some explanations of the programs line by line. If you are starting out, this book is probably pretty good for you. It also covers C++0x and some of the new features included in there, but the book is copyright 2011 so I don't know if there has been a massive paradigm shift in programming since then. Now this book lends itself better to people that participate in the activities, but I am not that kind of guy. This is mainly because my setup is a bit awkward, and I don't like cracking the spine of the book for no reason. Also, I am not a perfect touch typist.