C++ Crash Course is a comprehensive guide for intermediate to seasoned programmers, covering the core language and C++ libraries and frameworks. The book is well-structured, with detailed explanations and examples, but some sections could benefit from more clarity and up-to-date references.
C++ Crash Course is a highly recommended book for those looking to deepen their understanding of C++. It is structured into two main parts: The Core Language and C++ Libraries and Frameworks. The first part covers fundamental concepts, types, reference types, object life cycle, runtime polymorphism, compile-time polymorphism, expressions, statements, and functions. Each chapter is detailed and includes examples that help illustrate the concepts. The second part delves into testing, smart pointers, utilities, containers, iterators, strings, streams, filesystems, algorithms, concurrency, and network programming. The book uses the Catch2 TDD framework for many examples, providing a practical approach to learning. While the book is comprehensive, some sections could be clearer, and references to x64 resources would be more relevant than x86. Overall, it is a valuable resource for programmers looking to master C++.
Quick quotes
The book is intended for intermediate to seasoned programmers, so time will tell.
I think that the examples should have been introduced with the proviso ‘You are not intended to understand this… yet’.
The author recommends “As a general rule, use auto always” — which I believe is a bit extreme.