Professional C++

I've needed a good C++ reference book and I was looking for a sort of $20 "C++ in a Nutshell" and of course there is no such thing. I started looking at the $40+ books and I'm really glad I found this one. I've got a lot of C/C++ programming experience but I'm not up to date and I don't have a C++ reference book where I amI have bought two of Stroustrup's big books and i found that his forte is not writing and teaching (at least in his big books). This book (Pro C++) is so well written that I can't put it down! The writing is clear, he covers topics several ways, just like a good teacher, and he's got a sense of humor- there were several places where he laughed at how strange some of syntax can look (like pointers to references or const pointers or many other things).I'm currently putting a program together with classes actually doing something and I needed to create objects and pass them around and I've been kind of guessing how to do it. My program will work and then I'll make a small change and it crashes, probably with a funky pointer to an object. I spent yesterday reading several chapters about new stuff (to me) in C++ and specifically about objects and when I looked back at my program, I saw that I was actually using objects in a pretty simple (and almost correct) way and that should be fun and easy to rearchitect it a little and get it to work (famous last words :).I give this book an A++ for book to learn from and an A++ as a future reference book. He write on pg 5 "Since this a book about C++, this book uses modules everywhere. .. If your compiler does not yet support modules, simply replace the "import" declarations with the proper #include preprocessor directives, discussed in the next session". Since my compiler seems to barf on C++20 things now, I'm still able to write up-to-date programs and in the future I can use C++20 things.

As a professional C++ programmer working for Microsoft I'd highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn C++. I even recommend it to my colleagues since there is always space to learn and brush up on parts of C++ that you don't use that often - this book delves deep and delivers on it's promises.Unlike most other books that deal with basic syntax/concepts this book covers basic syntax and concepts in the first chapter and then move on to tackle the more advanced aspects that you'll need to be a professional C++ programmer. Additionally, this book introduces you to Software Engineering practices like unit testing, writing portable/efficient code, software architecture and design patterns that I'd say separates the professionals from beginning to intermediate programmers - you can't out program an awful software design. Finally the book even covers technical interviews if you consider applying for a C++ programming job.I should point out that no book can be an exhaustive reference of the field of C++ but this book would definitely take you very far along that line so you have the background to help/educate yourself even futher.

This is my 3rd printed copy of Professional c++. I have been writing c++ since the '90s. This book will teach you modern c++20 to help you write better modern c++, because Marc is an expert in the c++ community. Many other books teach c++ in a very old style that can mislead and teach bad habits. You can find Marc teaching classes at conferences like cppcon which are recorded and are on youtube. What makes this book stand out from beginner books is that this book is like having a conversation with an expert, which makes it very readable. At the end of the first chapter you will understand the power of modern c++, and if you have done any programming in javascript, java or earlier version of c++, then you will be ready to write modern c++ programs that are memory safe and efficient. The book continues with many chapters on design, use of standard libraries and examples of code to solidify your understanding. Thanks Marc for an updated book that is a joy to read! (ps I do not know Marc other than his books and videos)