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Borland C++ Handbook (Second Edition) by C Pappas & W. Murray

ISBN: 0-07-881779-X       Publisher: McGraw-Hill       Pages: (Osborne) 937pp       Price: £24-95

Categories:   borland     advanced c++

Reviewed by Francis Glassborow in C Vu 4-5 (Jul 1992)

Putting that problem to one side and concentrating on the book as written raises another serious difficulty; is it about C or C++? Many authors seem to get trapped by the use of C++ compilers to compile C. They spend a large amount of time dealing with the C aspect. Either the reader can already program in C and does not need this aspect or s/he does not and needs that limited introduction to the language that will improve their understanding and use of C++.

A classic example of the different approaches of C and C++ can be seen with i/o. If you are to make sense of C source code you will need to know a little about the C approach but details do not belong in the main text of a book on C++. Unfortunately Pappas & Murray make the, to my mind, serious mistake of trying to cover C and C++ in the same book. This is a pity because there is much good material in the book and many programmers could get benefit from working through their C++ examples.

I would suggest that a sharp pruning knife be taken to the text when they are preparing their, inevitable, third edition. Examples of C and C programs should be weeded out. The minimal knowledge of C required by a C++ programmer should be placed in an appendix and differences between C and C++ should be retired to footnotes. Finally they should look at the priorities for good, safe programming in C++ and cover them as early as possible. For example, it is quite possible to lay down a mechanistic approach to overloading the i/o operators early on and give a forward reference to overloading operators for those who want an early explanation.

Not a bad book but room for improvement and there are better books available.

Pappas
Application Programming for Windows NT by William H Murray & Chris H Pappas  (Reviewed Jan 1994)
Borland C++ Handbook by William H. Murray & Chris H. Pappas  (Reviewed Nov 1991)
C/C++ Programmer's Guide by William Murray & Chris Pappas  (Reviewed Nov 1996)
Complete Reference Visual C++ 5, The by William Murray & Chris Pappas [Recommended]  (Reviewed Sep 1998)
Microsoft C/C++, the Complete Reference by Murray & Pappas  (Reviewed Sep 1993)
Turbo C++ Professional Handbook by William H Murray & Chris Pappas  (Reviewed Mar 1991)
Visual C++ Handbook, The by Murray & Pappas  (Reviewed Jul 1995)
Visual C++ Templates by William Murray & Chris Pappas  (Reviewed Sep 2000)