Re: What's up with C++ (books)?

So, for someone just picking up C++ but not necessarily new to programming, what would be a good, up to date yet comprehensive C++ book? Is there "the" book like there is for Ruby and Perl? 

I think it gets harder to find a quality book on a technology that's been established, as they tend to be either geared for a complete newcomer or only cover recent changes. 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Schuerig" <[email protected]> 
To: [email protected] 
Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2011 3:06:02 PM 
Subject: [pragprog] What's up with C++ (books)? 







I haven't been using C++ since about 2005 and it's even longer that I've 
worked with it seriously. Recently, I had an idea for a personal project 
where C++ would be a good choice. I knew that things around C++ had 
changed in the meantime. First and foremost from a practical point of 
view, the Boost libraries have taken a prominent place. Then, of course, 
there's the impending new standard ("C++0x" or rather "C++11"). 

As I usually do when I'm interested in anything, I look around for 
promising books. After trawling the web, that is. Doing the latter, I 
noticed a lively community around Boost. And taking the Tiobe Index[*] 
for what little it is worth, there must still be a whole lot of 
discussion going on about C++, or it wouldn't be ranked third. Also, I 
take it that C++ is still widely used in industry. 

Then, why do I hardly notice anything of it? Am I suffering from a 
severe case of selection bias? That would account for the 
disproportionate amount of Ruby-related things I see, while that 
language appears to be used by hardly anyone. Still, judging from my 
inbound news channels, all the world is using node.js, Erlang or 
Haskell, and some NoSQL store. C++? Ah, well, there's something going on 
with the standard. 

Curiously, I get a confirming impression when looking at book 
publications. Around 2005 seems to mark the end of interest in C++. 
Since then there has been the odd introduction (e.g. Stroustrup; more an 
intro to programming than C++, I gather) and a few platform-specific 
books (Windows, Qt). Yes, three books on Boost do exist, two of them 
already pretty old. On the more advanced side there's Stepanov's 
"Elements of Programming", if that counts as a C++ book. Very recently 
there are Reddy's "API Design for C++" (recommended) and Williams's "C++ 
Concurrency in Action" (beta ebook, paper forthcoming). And that's about 
all, as far as I can tell. 

Perhaps my expectations are skewed, but for a major programming language 
I was expecting much more. Announcements of new editions of classics by 
Stroustrup and Meyers, several new books on libraries and programming 
style. Something noteworthy. 

I have a lurking suspicion that C++ just isn't cool anymore. But is that 
all there is to it? 

Michael 

[*] http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html 

-- 
Michael Schuerig 
mailto: [email protected] 
http://www.schuerig.de/michael/