C++ Book Reviews

C For Dummies vol 1 and 2
Dan Gookin

This is the book that started it all off. The book that got me into programming and taught me most of the skills I used later in my degree. The C for Dummies Series was immensly easy to use and interesting. They are they only 2 development books I have ever read cover to cover. Altough they are only basic introductions to the C Language, it was my first journey into programming in DOS, (which is what I wanted to learn at the time). All the basics of procedural programming defined in a fun and easy way to to learn.

Rating: 8/10

C++ for Dummies, 2nd Edition
Stephen R Davis

Not as good as its counterpart above, but a good resource none the less. This book helps me whenever I forget about things like polymorphism and other OO concepts (I learned OO methods in Java, not C++) and this book will be by my side when I start coding in C++ again very soon.

Rating: 6/10

Beginning Game Programming
Jonathan Harbour

This is one of my more recent books I have purchased and is the one responsible for my investigation into games development. Its a really great book to read and helps a lot with the theory or game development as well as giving you tons of code to work through - altough all source code is supplied on the accompanying cd.

Rating: 8/10

Beginning Game Programming
Micahel Morrison

Yes another Beginning Game Programming Book, but without DirectX. This book is radically different to that of J Harbours (above). I havn't yet read much of this book, due to the fact that I have only had it a few days (03/07/05) and have also purchased the book below yesterday and have been more interested in that one. Dont worry this one will get a review soon!

Strategy Game Programming with DirectX 9.0
Todd Barron

Ok, this has to be, without a doubt, the most engrossing development book I have EVER read (so far). I have only had it a day so far and have already read the first quarter. The book doesnt just go over source code, it also goes over possible development cycles and project planning which a lot of beginner books tend to leave out. This book has me literally itching to get coding, but coming up with ideas is possibly the toughest part of development I have always found.

The book doesnt come accompanied with a CD like the previous two, but the source code is available online. Also to save space, the book does not contain complete source code listings for projects, but it does detail the important functions and everything you need to know. A lot of time I get frustrated when people dont include the full source listing but i'll let that slip in this case as the book explains everything.

As I said I have only been reading this book for the space of a day, (well a morning really), but so far I have to give it the highest score on this page...

Rating: 9/10