Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucsd!hub!ucsbcsl!frew
From: frew@hub.ucsb.edu (James Frew)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: disappointed with Pohl's C++ book
Message-ID: <2293@hub.UUCP>
Date: 1 Sep 89 04:12:41 GMT
Sender: frew@hub.UUCP
Reply-To: frew@hub.ucsb.edu (James Frew)
Organization: University of California, Santa Barbara
Lines: 93

I'm 1/3 of the way through "C++ for C Programmers", by Ira Pohl, and
I'm not going to finish it.  Herewith a summary of the problems I've
encountered so far:

p.	what
--	----
10      The example contains an expression of the form "int = int *
	double." This causes a warning message from CC (ATT 2.0).  The
	warning message is not mentioned in the text.

	This problem occurs in several subsequent examples.

16      CC gives a "used but not set" for class instances accessed only
	via their members.  The warning is not mentioned in the text.

16      The output given for the example program is obviously
	incorrect.

17      The use of the same name for a member function and a global
	function is given as an example of "overloading".  Is this
	true?  I sure can't find this in bs's book, and it's not
	analogous to structures, whose members have their own
	namespace.

35      Ever since reading Harbison & Steele, I've been conscious of
	the important distinction between declaration and definition.
	That distinction is muddied here in the section named
	"Declarations", and elsewhere in the text.

37	random() is NOT a "standard library function", it's a BSD-ism.

48-49   an example is given of a program printing out uninitialized
	"new" storage.  The comment in the "dissection" is "The
	programmer is responsible for properly initializing such
	objects".  Why not just leave it out of the example altogther?

51	An example of anonymous unions contains the following code:

		union {
			int	i;
			char	c[4];
		};

		main()
		{
			i = 65;
			cout << form("%c", c[3]) << "\n";
		}

	and it is asserted that the output is the letter "A".
	Obviously not tested on a VAX...  for that matter, obviously
	not tested at all, since CC won't compile it unless the union
	is explicitly static (g++ 1.35.0 won't compile it at all...)

70      A very confusing reference to the fact that structure member
	functions share the same name space as structure member
	variables.

71	A code fragment contains:

		char stack::pop(int n)
		{
			while (n--)
				top--;
			...
		}

	Is there some reason why the loop isn't just "top -= n" ?

71-72   An example contains a both a structure and a member named "s".
	The subsequent text refers to "the variable s": it's not clear
	which one.

By this point, I found myself spending more time looking for mistakes
than trying to understand C++.  I am especially disappointed in the
poor quality of the examples, since I believe the best way learn a new
programming language is to read real programs (and, of course, start
writing your own).  It takes special care to construct useful examples
out of a tutorial subset of a language, but it can be done -- witness
both editions of "The C Answer Book" by Tondo and Gimpel.  This care
simply wasn't taken in "C++ for C Programmers", and as far as I'm
concerned, that torpedos the whole book.  Remember, the intended
audience was people who already knew C, and therefore shouldn't be
afraid of reading non-trivial code.

Sorry to flame a book I'm not going to finish -- any counter-opinions?
I'm still looking for a good intro to C++ for someone who already knows
C.  Would anyone out there who's read Lippman's or Dewhurst's books
care to comment?

#-----------------+-----------------------+-----------------------------
# James Frew      | frew@crseo.ucsb.edu   | Computer Systems Lab., UCSB
# +1 805 961 8413 | frew@ucsbuxa (BITNET) | Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA