mike@ai.etl.army.mil (Mike McDonnell) (09/23/88)
I have mixed feelings about this book. It takes a measured and intelligent pace in introducing the C programmer to C++. The examples are interesting and relevant and the writing is clear and to the point. Berry also is careful to point out features of C++ that can cause problems and reasonable techniques you can use to minimize difficulties. But. The code is so full of errors that it is a rare example that does not have something wrong with it. Kernighan and Ritchie state in the preface to The C Programming Language that "All examples have been tested directly from the text, which is in machine-readable form." This was done over 10 years ago and produced a classic. I still remember being awed at the sheer correctness of the programs in K&R since it was not then the norm to find this. Nowadays this should be expected by the reader. Stroustrup used this technique too, of course, even testing his code on several different systems. From the book being reviewed, the publisher's page says "..every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book." I do not agree. That being said, I have to admit that I enjoyed finding as many errors as I could, and I was forced to learn the gdb+ debugger (I use the GNU "g++" compiler) which was not a bad thing to do. I guess I know enough C and am used to debugging enough so that the process of working my way through the book was actually made more enjoyable by the errors. This would be a disaster for a beginner though. Unfortunately, Stroustrup's book is not a good book to learn from either, despite its correctness. Bjarne has too complicated a mind to make a simple exposition, the strength of Berry's book. If the errors are corrected, I think that Berry's book can be a good book for beginners while Stroustrup will remain best for more advanced students. One final thing; the examples are excessively dependent on System V Unix. The string function strtok() is used in several examples and is not on my system (4.3BSD on a VAX). Also the final chapter "Using C++ on a Unix System", which was written by a different author, William Leggett, only made me wish that I had the rich suite of IPC and synchronizing capabilities that System V has. But I couldn't run the code. Are you listening, Berkeley? -- Mike McDonnell at the U.S. Army Engineer Topographic Laboratories, Bldg. 2592 Fort Belvoir, VA 22060-5546 TEL:(202)355-2724 ARPA: mike@ai.etl.army.mil
henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (09/25/88)
In article <185@ai.etl.army.mil> mike@ai.etl.army.mil. (Mike McDonnell) writes: >One final thing; the examples are excessively dependent on System V >Unix. The string function strtok() is used in several examples and is >not on my system (4.3BSD on a VAX)... Have you tried compiling the code? I've been told that the System V string functions are there but undocumented. If not, it's a bug (and even if so, the lack of documentation is a bug), since a public-domain implementation existed well before 4.3 was packaged up. -- NASA is into artificial | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology stupidity. - Jerry Pournelle | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
chet@pirate.CWRU.EDU (Chet Ramey) (09/27/88)
In article <1988Sep24.205501.26347@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes: >In article <185@ai.etl.army.mil> mike@ai.etl.army.mil. (Mike McDonnell) writes: >>The string function strtok() is used in several examples and is >>not on my system (4.3BSD on a VAX)... >Have you tried compiling the code? I've been told that the System V string >functions are there but undocumented. If not, it's a bug (and even if so, >the lack of documentation is a bug), since a public-domain implementation >existed well before 4.3 was packaged up. They are there; if they're not in your libc.a (they are by default, but...) look in /usr/src/lib/libc/compat-sys5. Chet Ramey chet@pirate.CWRU.EDU | Chet Ramey chet@cwjcc.CWRU.EDU chet@alpha.CES.CWRU.EDU | | Just another jerk takin' pride in his work...
isaac@goanna.oz (Isaac Balbin) (09/29/88)
I may have missed this, but I don't think so ... can someone please mail me the details of the book ... publisher, title etc Thanks ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Isaac Balbin Department of Computer Science, ACSnet: isaac@goanna.oz RMIT, GPO BOX 2476 V, ARPA:isaac%goanna.oz.au@uunet.uu.net Melbourne, 3001 CSNET: isaac%goanna.oz.au@australia AUSTRALIA UUCP: ...!uunet!goanna.oz.au!isaac
wfp@dasys1.UUCP (William Phillips) (10/03/88)
If anyone has a copy of the original review would they kindly forward it
to me? Our news system has had the 'flu for a few weeks, and it never
arrived here.
Thanks.
--
William Phillips {allegra,philabs,cmcl2}!phri\
BEC Public Excess Unix {bellcore,cmcl2}!cucard!dasys1!wfp
New York, NY, USA !!! JUST SAY "NO" TO OS/2 !!!