C++ GUI Toolkist and Books

WinterWolf · 02-23-2003, 01:17 PM

Hello,

I'm a beggining C++ programmer, in fact I have just started reading a programming book three days ago. It's called Sam's Teach Yourself C++ Second Edition. I don't think the book is all that great though.

I am reading it more as an introduction to the basic concepts, I plan on reading a more comprehensive book after I'm done.

I checked Amazon.com for C++ books, but I can't find one that clearly lots of people have tried and liked.

Do any of you have recommendations for introductory and advanced C++ books?

Second of all once I learn C++ I will start GUI programming and I'm not sure which toolkit to use.

I have done quite some research and it looks like the best one is Qt 3.1 for numerous reasons. One being that it is the toolkit one of my favore Desktop Enviroments is made from (KDE) and there are many great applications like Qt Designer which make designing interfaces simple. It is also multi-platform, uses the native look n feel of the OS you are using. In addition it is easy to use and very efficent.

http://www.trolltech.com/products/qt/index.htm

I'm not sure if you need this information to find a good toolkit for me, but I use Kdevelop as my IDE.

joe_bruin · 02-24-2003, 06:02 PM

a good c++ book, in my opinion, is "C++: The Complete Reference" by Herbert Schildt. it features good coverage of the language and is a great reference book. the author's style is very easy to understand, and has lots of code examples. the book also covers the old c-style io functions as well as the c++ ones. stl coverage is a bit weak (from my recollection).

amazon link

WinterWolf · 02-24-2003, 07:03 PM

a more begginner oriented book by the same author. Would you recommend this one isntead?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...767623-6363216

palin · 02-24-2003, 07:07 PM

http://www.codecuts.com/mainpage.asp?WebPageID=315
here is one you can check out for free I haven't looked at it myself as of yet.

joe_bruin · 02-24-2003, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by WinterWolf
a more begginner oriented book by the same author. Would you recommend this one isntead?

never looked at it, but i really like the author (i have a C and java2 book by him as well), and looking through the sample pages on amazon they look okay (although they jump to chapter 10, which looks pretty confusing if you don't know what you're looking at). i usually go down to a book store and try reading a book before buying.

WinterWolf · 03-01-2003, 11:23 PM

I have narrowed down my list to the following books (not in any particular order):

C++ from the Ground Up, Third Edition
by Herb Schildt
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books

Absolute C++
by Walter J. Savitch
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books

Starting Out with C++ (3rd Edition)
by Tony Gaddis
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books

The C++ Programming Language (Special 3rd Edition)
by Bjarne Stroustrup
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books

C++ How to Program (4th Edition)
by Harvey M. Deitel, Paul J. Deitel
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books

C++: A Dialog: Programming with the C++ Standard Library
by Steve Heller, Chrysalis Software Corp.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books

Learn to Program with C++
by John Smiley, Bruce Neiger
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books

Accelerated C++: Practical Programming by Example
by Andrew Koenig, Barbara E. Moo
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books

In addition I have also decided to go with the Qt toolkit from trolltech. It is by far the simplest and most portable toolkit. It also has excellent documentation and organization.

crebralfix · 03-11-2003, 04:55 PM

hi all,

one of the best books i have seen is Thinking in C++ by Bruce Eckel. Best of all, it's freely downloadable from www.bruceeckel.com.

The C++ Programming Language, 3rd edition, by Bjarn Stroustrup is not for beginners. It is an excellent book though.

Forget the Deital and Deital books. They're terrible as a reference manual ( cannot find anything ) and they get lost in the examples.

devin · 03-11-2003, 07:48 PM

If you are just beginning C++ the

The C++ Programming Language (Special 3rd Edition)
by Bjarne Stroustrup

is really not a good book to begin with. I don't have the 3rd edition but I do have the first and it is poorly organized. It's really more of a reference manual for intermediate C++ programmers.

The Deital series of books is used at my university for an intermediate course on C++ data structures. It's probably a good book (although some professors get the worst books). Personally I've been put off buying any Deital book because they are $$$ (you could get 2 good C++ books for the same price).

joe_bruin · 03-11-2003, 08:01 PM

dude, do NOT get the Deital & Deital book, it is total crap.
Bjarne Stroustrup might know a thing or two about c++, though :)

ntws01 · 03-17-2003, 01:49 PM

Hiya WinterWolf, I've seen some of your contributions to kde-look.org and their nice. Anyway back to your question, I'm also thinking of learning C++, I was previously learning Java (since 2001 in fact) but I found java to be useles so I decided to switch to C++. Some of the books that have been suggested to me were 'Thinking in C++' by Bruce Eckel, I am also looking at one called 'Learn to Program in C++' and its by Prof. John Smiley. I Read one of Prof. Smiley's books on Java and it was a very good introductery book but I think you'll find that his books are more orented towards Windows, I e-mailed him not to long ago about this and he said that the code should be Linux compatible but the chapter(s) on compiling won't be any good in Linux. The problem with the chapters on compiling shouldn't be a problem, just google yourself a tutorial on G++ and you should be off to a good start.

BTW. 'Learn to Program in C++' is available for free online, just go to http://www.bruceeckel.com click on books and then find you way to the section where you can download the book(s) for free.

Oh, one more thing, I would appreciate people's opinions on the books I suggested to, I'm going to be placing an order on them soon if they are good, but I have no real way of knowing for sure before ordering them, which is why I asked for opinions.

Valmont · 03-17-2003, 05:12 PM

I also would reccomend the free e-books "thinking in C++".
There are two of them and very readable IF the student did a simple course first.

I think Winterwolf is lucky within this scope. He should finish the "sam" book and then re-learn all with Eckel's books.

Oh, for all the Qt lovers, here is another one

.
Hello

.

- Val -

WinterWolf · 04-05-2003, 10:09 PM

Thanks for all your help. I decided to start with the Deitel book, my brother used it in his first C++ class. He has not tried any other book except Teach yourself C++ in 21 Days, but he said it was fine but became harder to understand starting from Chapter 6.

I've already quickly read the Teach Yourself C++ in 24 Hours book, I didn't think it was too good though, it missed a lot of important things and was not too easy to understand. In fact I did not understand most of it, but it's probably because I was not reading everything, just glancing over each page quickly.

Now I am finishing up the exercises on chapter 2, I have done almost all the exercises the Deitels threw at me. I like the book so far, it is very detailed has plenty of exercises and I like its tips though they are two crowded.

I am hoping to read & understand Deitels book up to at least Chapter 5 if not entirely.

After I get a solid C foundation i want to read Bruce Eckel's book which my Dad printed out for me. I heard many good things about his book at Amazon.

I might also read another book, before or after Bruce's but I am not sure which. I am always open to suggestions though.

Anyway after I learn C/C++ well Qt 4.x.x will definitely be released and I am hoping to adopt it as my first GUI toolkit. I've heard nothing but good thing about it! I also want to program for all platforms and qt achieves that well. Only thing that heard bothered some people about it, is not about the product, but rather its license and price.

I plan on using the following programs:

KDevelop (3 is coming out in less than 6 months and it is looking fantastic, better than MS's)
Cervisia (great CVS front end integrated into Konqueror)
Kbugbuster (will soon have support for all standard Bugzillas, its a very nice program)
Kompare (diff/patch frontend)
Umbrello + dia (awesome UML modeler), unknown to many people http://uml.sourceforge.net/index.php)
QtDesigner (4.x.x will be out by the time I start programming in qt)
Qt Linguist (4.x.x will also be out by then)
Kdbg (debugger)
QSA (scripting toolkit)

If you have suggestions for any other useful software to use for programmers or you know better counterparts to the software I mentioned, please tell me. Preferably free, and for Linux.

ntws01 · 04-06-2003, 11:14 AM

What is cervisia for anyway?
All I know so far is that it was a real pain in Mandrake, every time I would be using Konqueror it would get in the way of things by popping up prompts and modifying the way Konqueror worked.

WinterWolf · 04-06-2003, 07:48 PM

if you tell it to. Konqueror has different view modes. If you select CVS view mode in a non CVS location than Cervista will bother you.

aiyiku · 04-07-2003, 01:16 PM

i've read C++ by dissection. It's by far the best c++ book to read if you are a beginner