Hey Guys,
I was just curious if anybody has a favorite book on C++ for beginners. My son is in College right now for computer programming and finds it a very difficult subject. Many of his classmates are struggling as well. Teacher?? Don't know. Maybe poor delivery methods but I would like to help him out if I can. Online tutorials? Where can you practice? Any websites, simulators? Thanks for your help.

 

C++ by Ivor Horton is a good one.
Check AbeBooks clearing house for deals.
http://www.it-ebooks.info/book/975/
Max.

 

Not a book, but the tutorials and resources over at cplusplus.com are pretty useful.

Get some IDE, like Visual Studio Express C++ (which is free), and go through the resources at the previously linked website.

If you are running Linux, you are probably already set up for compiling programs. On a Mac, who knows?

Learning to program is largely hearing things that go over your head, writing some programs, and realizing what the stuff you heard meant - it takes time before the concepts being to take root.

 

Not a book, but the tutorials and resources over at cplusplus.com are pretty useful.

Get some IDE, like Visual Studio Express C++ (which is free), and go through the resources at the previously linked website.

If you are running Linux, you are probably already set up for compiling programs. On a Mac, who knows?

Learning to program is largely hearing things that go over your head, writing some programs, and realizing what the stuff you heard meant - it takes time before the concepts being to take root.

Mac people have Xcode by Apple. It will do C, C++ and a bunch of other stuff. You must register, but otherwise it is free.
https://developer.apple.com/xcode/downloads/

 

Tell him:

The best way to learn computer programming is to write lots and lots of programs. Start simple and get more complex. Make up your own problems and write programs to solve them.

Lots of online tutorials and references out there and you can bet that none of them will be "the" best. The same with books. Build up a list of references that you go to when trying to figure something out and then use them. Pretty quickly you will have a short-list of favorite sites and will know which one to go to first for various types of questions.

For learning a language, I really like most of the Deitel & Deitel books, but they don't make particularly good references (they are organized for progressive learning so material that should be grouped together in a reference is pretty spread out in the text).

 

Work from the command line at first. Use as few tools as possible. Stay away from windowing. One has to balance the reading with programming.

1. A Book on C by Al Kelley and Ira Pohl
2. The C Programming Language by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie

Both of these are well written and have really good coverage. They are classics. They do cover the object oriented extensions.

3. Thinking in C++ by Bruce Eckel

Best C book with object oriented coverage

4. The Object Oriented Thought Process by Matt Weisfield
5. The Little Book of Object Oriented Programming by Henry F Ledgard

These two are not language specific. This is a good thing, as language specific books explain object oriented in terms of one specific language, which can muddy up the issues.

7. Programming Pearls by Jon Bentley
8. The Armchair Universe by A.K. Dewdney

These two are not language specific either. #7 is about programming in general and #8 has a lot of ideas for programs that one can write, such as fractals.

 

The C++ Primer is best for Beginners, according me...

 

If you really want to be a good C++ programmer i wouldent buy a book for beginners. The reason is that you can find those basics for free online. If I were you I would look at Profesional C++ by Marc Gregoire. It is by far the best C++ book I have read. I talk a little bit about it here. Good luck!

 

caveofprogramming.com offers a very good C++ tutorial at both beginner and advanced level and the tutor, John Purcell, is excellent in delivering the material.

 

I've got a hard copy of Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days. It was supposed to come with a CD, but it was not included.

 

I've got a hard copy of Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days. It was supposed to come with a CD, but it was not included.

I have a number of these "Teach yourself <blank> in 21 Days" books (including this one). I have generally found them to be pretty poor books. Perhaps it's because they are trying to shoehorn material into a contrived marketing framework. If I ever do get around to selling texts, those will be among the first to go.

 

caveofprogramming.com offers a very good C++ tutorial at both beginner and advanced level and the tutor, John Purcell, is excellent in delivering the material.

The OP needed it a year ago.!
Max.

 

The OP needed it a year ago.!
Max.

Hey, everyone was complaining about the mods doing something about necroposts, so....

 

Hey Guys,
I was just curious if anybody has a favorite book on C++ for beginners. My son is in College right now for computer programming and finds it a very difficult subject. Many of his classmates are struggling as well. Teacher?? Don't know. Maybe poor delivery methods but I would like to help him out if I can. Online tutorials? Where can you practice? Any websites, simulators? Thanks for your help.

the best thing to do is to download c++ from Microsoft ( student version @ no charge).
look at: http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/
And let him play play play and let him roll into all different problem holes. that's the only way.
Our professor said once 'I can't lean students nothing!. The only thing I can do is to help them removing the plastic from their brand new brains the way you use it is up to them.

 

I disagree with jumping right into coding without first reading, and here is why. There are SO many parts of C++ that you just won't "run into" while practicing examples, and you'll struggle while you try to figure it out when you hit tricky problems. If you read first and get a good overview before you start coding, your learning will be significantly more efficient.

There are lots of good books, and here is a good starting point. Stroustrup was the original designer of C++:

http://www.stroustrup.com/C++.html

O'Reilly books are usually good as well.

Get the fundamentals down. Understand the various steps that happen when you build (preprocessor, compilation, link, etc..). I've lost count of how many people I've helped that were stuck because they didn't understand what was happening under the hood. The same goes for memory management, compiler optimizations (byte alignment/packing), etc.. Anyway, I recommend some reading before you jump in. Good luck!

PS-> As mentioned above, Microsoft Visual Studio is the best IDE I've used. The debugger is very good, and as mentioned above there is a free for home use version.

 

LOL. Well this thread is a couple days old. I want to thank you for the replies but there has been a development. My son got 1/2 way through and then decided he wanted to be an Aircraft Avionics Engineer so he is taking all his electrical knowledge and applying it to motorized birds
Thanks again.

 

That's what C++ teaching does to people