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r/cpp•
rossryan

Best book on C++/VC++ & Templating?

I am primarily a C# programmer, having started off on C++, but never really spent as much time doing it as I feel I should have. I am now attempting to write some code in C++ to get around some limitations in C#, and need to get up to speed on Templating. The resources I have found on the web seem...incomplete, in my honest opinion. I have some free time coming up, and wouldn't mind sitting down with a good book. So, my C++ gurus, which book, if any, in your opinion, is the best one for a programmer to learn about C++ Templating from?

Many Thanks, rossryan

Posted Dec 14, 2012, 5:48 PM UTC

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king_duck•

I assume by "templating" you mean either generic programming or template meta programming (TMP)?

Either way I would encourage you to learn C++ "correctly" then see where that takes you, this means some templates and other abstractions.

Even if right now VC++ is your only conceivable target, avoid anything thing which locks you into into, concentrate on ISO C++ for now (for getting start I strongly recommend a text editor and command line compiler regardless of platform, although this is a lot more natural on *Nix systems).

There are two books I recommend:

  • Accelerated C++, this is a short fast top down approach to C++ teaching you how to effectively use the standard library. It teaches something that most books fail at and that is good style. Finally this book whilst short easily leads into other books like Effective C++ and Exceptional C++.
  • The C++ Primer (5th edition), I also recommend this book because to the best of my knowledge it's the only good book that covers C++11. That said this book is a bottom up, this makes it 3 times longer that Accelerated C++ and to be blunt unless you get through it ALL, it might not leave you with best practices.

Between the two, I would pick Accelerated C++ then make an effort to pick up the missing C++11 stuff, but both will be great, so long as you read the Primer cover to cover.

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mttd•

I think it's unfair to characterize the "C++ Primer" as a bottom-up book in contrast with the "Accelerated C++" (note, that the bottom-up, C-before-C++ approach is followed by a completely unrelated but similarly entitled book called "C++ Primer Plus" -- perhaps that's a source of confusion). It's no longer true since the fourth edition when Barbara Moo (co-author of "Accelerated C++") joined Stanley Lippman and Josée Lajoie.

Straight from the horse's mouth, here's Andrew Koenig on the differences:

Today's C++ implementations are good enough that we no longer see any excuse for avoiding the Standard Library. Accordingly, the biggest change between the third and fourth editions of the C++ Primer is that the fourth edition places much less emphasis on the "C" parts of C++ and much more emphasis on the "++" parts. Like Accelerated C++, and unlike the third edition, the new C++ Primer teaches the standard vector and string classes early, and covers arrays and C-style strings only to the extent that programmers really need to know about them. Moreover, like Accelerated C++ and unlike the third edition, the new C++ Primer shows how to use notions such as constructors and generic functions before showing how to define them.

As opposed to bottom-up vs top-down (which describes the differences between the "C++ Primer Plus" and the "C++ Primer", respectively), there are two teaching strategies that distinguish "Accelerated C++" from "C++ Primer" (while top-down fits both):

What every C++ programmer needs to know to write useful programs.

What C++ programmers might potentially need to know to handle a wide range of applications.

It's still fair to say that "Accelerated C++" will offer a more, well, accelerated learning experience, but not for the reasons you suggest. For more, see http://www.drdobbs.com/learning-teaching-c-programming/184401918

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king_duck•

Yes, I think you are probably right I probably made the Primer seem a bit more primitive then the credit it's due.

But I stand by my recommendations, AC++ is excellent for the points I mentioned, namely that it's concise and teaches excellent style.

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mttd•

Regarding both Generic Programming (GP) and Template Metaprogramming (TMP; note that C++11 introduces constexpr which may be a cleaner solution for certain cases), see the books mentioned in the answers here:

Regarding Generic Programming (GP) specifically, I can also recommend "Elements of Programming" (EoP) by Alex Stepanov and Paul McJones as a theoretical foundations book; see also the materials mentioned here -- http://www.gamedev.net/topic/630079-book-on-mathematics-of-programming/ -- for some practical companions to EoP.

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