Effective C++: 55 Specific Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs (Professional Computing) (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series)

As a programmer returning to C++ from the lovely safe sand box of C# and the CLR I bought this book on the recommendation of a forum post. And it has been one of the best reads on the C++ language I have ever had. Each item is given cleanly and with good examples (maybe only items 50 and 51 are a bit sketchy - but they could almost be one single item). The book gives a grounding, with reference to C# and VB.Net of problems the average C++ programmer comes across, and then gives great insight into how C++ should [officially should get around the problems at hand]. The items range in topic from simple basic coding standards, to using of standard library elements and then down to the nitty gritty nuts and bolts of C++ as a functional tool for achieving a software goal. The real only draw back of this book is that you want to constantly refer back to its pages to put its teaching into practice, and it is only a soft cover, so wears out far too quickly... hehe! A must have for anyone who thinks they know how to program in C++. A must have for anyone new to STD and STD::TR1. A must have for anyone fighting with memory leaks in C++! A must have for anyone returning to C++ from a managed CLR driven language like C#.

I've been programming professionally in C++ for a few years now. At the beginning when I was learning the basics of C++ I picked up this book: The C++ Programming Language, Special Edition . This book from Bjarne Stroustrup is a great place to begin with C++ ( probably the the best, since Stroustrup is the creator of the language). Now this book Effective C++: 55 Specific Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series) has great C++ content and it's very well written, making it a very pleasant read. This book isn't trying to teach C++, the author assumes that the reader already has some C++ exposure. I'd say that in order to enjoy Scott Meyers' book you'll need at least to understand the basics of C++ (inheritance, OOP, templates, constness, references, etc.). If you've been working for at least one or two years with C++ you'll find this book very interesting, it's full of tips and useful suggestions to improve the quality of the programs you write. I very much liked this book and now I'm thinking of buying the following book from the same author More Effective C++: 35 New Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs (Professional Computing)

I am working in C++ since last couple of years and I purchased this book few months back. I found this book very useful as it contains most of the do's and don'ts in C++. This book does not waste any time in making you the basics understand it just directly hits the target by talking about how you can make your program more efficient. So a prior good knowledge of C++ is must for this book. I recommend that this book is for every C++ programmer as it will tell you the things that you should not be doing and explains why also so it does not leaves you wondering why I should not be doing this way. On top of all this book is written in a very simple way so its very easy to understand.

A great book and should be compulsory reading by all C++ engineers before being let loose on a keyboard. Unfortunately the most important effective item/tip for C++ is missing Added below for the author Item 0: "Keep it simple and document your code in a consistent (and useful manner)! Being clever in your code will lead to maintenance problems - good code is simple and obvious, even to an novice programer." That said, the book is easy to understand and broken down into bite size bits prfect for a 5 min tea break (coffee break if you are not English), and may well prevent you from learning by trial and error (punishment). However not all the 'Ways to improve' I would consider good practice, but you can make up your own mind based on the information given and (please please)remember Item 0 above! Not a cookbook on C++ but an intelligent well written, easy to digest set of ideas, some to be used, others not. Would also recommend 'More effective C++' by the same author.

There are very few technical books that I have read more than once. I can count on one hand the number that I have read three times. Scott Meyers' Effective C++ is one that I have not only read more than once, but have bought three separate editions and read them all more than once. This latest edition is not just a minor updating of previous editions. It contains far more information than earlier editions, and even goes beyond what libraries provided with common compilers currently deliver, making use of the tr1 (Technical Report 1) stuff that will be the future. That's not to say it cannot be used right now - learn from Meyers and use the Boost library (downloadable free) until tr1 becomes commonly available. In my opinion this third edition is no longer suitable for people new to C++, but once developers have some C++ experience under their belt this becomes a must have. That's not just because most interviewers get their technical questions from Meyers' books (they really do!), but because the content is genuinely useful.

great book

Excellent book. Every C++ developer should have a copy of this. The author presents the material in a very logical manner. I enjoyed reading every page of this book. I was a Java programmer moving the C++ when I bought this book. I had basic familiarity with C++ syntax. With that foundation, this booked helped me a lot to get a deeper and solid understanding of C++.

So... I read alot 1 or 2 star reviews for this book and many mention that Meyers either doesn't go into enough detail or he explains things that are rather obvious to most C++ programmers. I'll tell you a bit of my background and why this book is a goldmine for someone like me: I have a degree in electrical engineering. I did some C++ programming in college but never got to the OOP stuff when I was in school. As I changed jobs over the years eventually I landed in a position where I needed to manage an existing C++ system. I learned the basics of OOP just by doing some reading online and picked it up over the years as most engineers are able to do. I got to the point where I was very familiar with the system and for the most part I could do pretty much everything I needed do for my job. But my only formal training on C++ barely even scratched the surface of its capabilities, so I thought I should read a book on some "good practices" in C++. This book was exactly what I was looking for. Coming in at under 300 pages, and with Meyers listing 55 specific items, this only leaves approximately 5 pages per item. This of course means that this book is not the definitive C++ reference guide. That said, this is not a book for beginners. I would say that you should be practicing OOP within C++ for at least a year before reading this book. (But it probably also isn't a book for experts either, because experts probably already know mostly everything in this book.) Many of the items in this book are structured like this: 1) Meyers shows some snippet of code that looks innocent at first glance. 2) He explains how this could result in disaster if the exact wrong series of events happen (and provides a basic example of how this might unfold). 3) Then he explains how to modify the code to avoid this behavior. (Although, there are some dark corners of C++ that unfortunately can't be completely prevented from happening, even with proper class design. For these, Meyers explains how to minimize these chances of happening.) This structure is very easy to understand and effective for retaining the information in this book. In conclusion, I would recommend this book to anyone who understands the rules/syntax of C++ and has been using it for a few years, but maybe needs some guidance in taming the C++ beast.

Excelente livro pra quem está procurando melhorar o seu "c++ programming skills". Livro bem organizado, com excelente dicas e indicado pra quem já tem fluência na linguagem

This is a must read book for C++ developers. Sometimes we don't know all aspects of a C++ concepts. This will explain every topic in details with recommendation for good practice. Also this must simpler than Stroustrup's C++ book, which is must more philosophical. Maybe after this book one can go for Stroustrup.

C++を実際に使う上で知っているべきノウハウや避けるべき「落とし穴」が、ほどよい分量によくまとめられていると思います。英語も読みやすく、大事なことは「Things to Remember」に要約されていますので、まだ十分に習得していない部分を見直すときにも便利です。

Este libro es tal cual lo esperaba. En alguna web leía que otros como Stroustroup se ocupan de la legalidad (qué se puede hacer con el lenguaje), y Meyers más bien se centra en la moralidad (qué se debe o no hacer). Sobre la primera parte leí hace mucho, la puse en práctica y ahí se quedó. Ahora tengo un contacto más cercano con el lenguaje, y para ir más allá de escribir programas que compilen, este libro es realmente útil. Más allá de los consejos, la explicación de por qué hacer algo de cierto modo es bueno o malo da lugar a una mejora en la calidad de lo que se escribe. Lo único que hace falta es tiempo para ir asimilando el contenido. Una cosa es admirar la explicación y otra llevarla a la práctica.