C Books - Page 2

The C++ Standard Library: A Tutorial and Reference

Nicolai M. Josuttis

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 94 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

If you use the STL, you need this book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Still the best book on the STL. Buy this and Josuttis' templates book and you'll be set to learn the intricacies of C++ programming. There are very few genuinely useful C++ books; Josuttis' books are certainly among them... to the point where I almost never bother consulting any others. If I can't understand it from reading Josuttis, I delve into the header files themselves.

Editorial Review:

The C++ Standard Library provides a set of common classes and interfaces that greatly extend the core C++ language. Josuttis' book not only provides comprehensive documentation of each library component, it also offers clearly written explanations of complex concepts, describes the practical programming details needed for effective use, and gives example after example of working code. This thoroughly up-to-date book reflects the newest elements of the C++ standard library incorporated into the full ANSI/ISO C++ language standard. In particular, the text focuses on the Standard Template Library (STL), examining containers, iterators, function objects, and STL algorithms.

Regular Expression Pocket Reference: Regular Expressions for Perl, Ruby, PHP, Python, C, Java and .NET (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly))

Tony Stubblebine

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This handy little book offers programmers a complete overview of the syntax and semantics of regular expressions that are at the heart of every text-processing application. Ideal as a quick reference, Regular Expression Pocket Reference covers the regular expression APIs for Perl 5.8, Ruby (including some upcoming 1.9 features), Java, PHP, .NET and C#, Python, vi, JavaScript, and the PCRE regular expression libraries.

This concise and easy-to-use reference puts a very powerful tool for manipulating text and data right at your fingertips. Composed of a mixture of symbols and text, regular expressions can be an outlet for creativity, for brilliant programming, and for the elegant solution. Regular Expression Pocket Reference offers an introduction to regular expressions, pattern matching, metacharacters, modes and constructs, and then provides separate sections for each of the language APIs, with complete regex listings including:

• Supported metacharacters for each language API
• Regular expression classes and interfaces for Ruby, Java, .NET, and C#
• Regular expression operators for Perl 5.8
• Regular expression module objects and functions for Python
• Pattern-matching functions for PHP and the vi editor
• Pattern-matching methods and objects for JavaScript
• Unicode Support for each of the languages

With plenty of examples and other resources, Regular Expression Pocket Reference summarizes the complex rules for performing this critical text-processing function, and presents this often-confusing topic in a friendly and well-organized format. This guide makes an ideal on-the-job companion.

Ivor Horton's Beginning Visual C++ 2008

Ivor Horton

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

C++ showing its age 4 out of 5 stars.
15 of 17 people found this review helpful.

Just read an interview with Bjarne Stroustrup, the inventor of C++, where he studiously avoided talking about C# as much as possible. Understandable, perhaps - in my opinion most (not all, but most) programming projects for Windows systems would benefit greatly from using C# instead of C++.

Not that the above observation has anything to do with "Ivor Horton's Beginning Visual C++ 2008"; I just felt the urge to pass along that opinion in case the reader of this review has not yet decided whether to start learning C++ or C#.

For those who are interested in learning C++ for use with Windows, I can recommend this book. It is well written and covers everything you need to know to get started. In fact, at 1356 pages (not 1392, as currently listed at Amazon) it covers much more than most people need to know.

In Visual Studio 2005, and continuing in Visual Studio 2008, Microsoft introduced a new dialect of C++ called C++/CLI. The great advantage of C++/CLI is that it allows you to integrate "managed" programming (programs that run on the .Net Framework) and "unmanaged" or "native" programming. This is a unique ability of C++/CLI, and for this kind of programs C++/CLI can run circles around C#.

Ivor Horton's book provides a good introduction to C++/CLI, with most chapters being divided into two parts; the first part about classical (ANSI/ISO) C++ and the second part about C++/CLI. However, as a beginner's book, it does not get into the really exciting managed/unmanaged "interop" parts of C++/CLI. For that you will need a more advanced book, for example Expert Visual C++/CLI: .NET for Visual C++ Programmers (Expert's Voice in .Net) - and some experience in creating both managed and unmanaged programs.

On the other hand, if C++/CLI is of no interest to you, then you can easily ignore those parts of the book.

Turning to more general comments, this book is well written and does a good job of describing all of the (sometimes messy) details about C++. There are many programming examples, all meticulously explained. The source code for the examples is available on the publisher's web site. There is even an online service - at one point I mistakenly thought I'd found a bug in one of the examples and I reported it as errata. In response I received a kind message from Mr. Horton himself telling me why I was wrong.

I liked the occasionally humorous tone of the book too, and was especially intrigued by Mr. Horton's reference to a book called "Paneless Programming" from 1981.

There are no major negative aspects, but I did find the fairly large number of typos somewhat irritating. Another surprising experience was that the index, although huge at 38 pages, was missing obvious entries such as "enum" and "typedef". Occasionally material was presented in a slightly illogical way, being (prematurely?) mentioned briefly in one chapter and then finally described properly in a later chapter.

As mentioned by other reviewers, in order to do the MFC parts of the book you need to have access to one of the non-free versions of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008.

This is a very good introductory book about C++ and C++/CLI for Visual Studio 2008.

Rennie Petersen

Editorial Review:

Proudly presenting the latest edition of one of the all-time bestselling books on the C++ language, successful author Ivor Horton repeats the formula that has made each previous edition so popular by teaching you both the standard C++ language and C++/CLI as well as Visual C++ 2008. Thoroughly updated for the 2008 release, this book shows you how to build real-world applications using Visual C++ and guides you through the ins and outs of C++ development. With this book by your side, you are well on your way to becoming a successful C++ programmer.

An Introduction to Systems Biology: Design Principles of Biological Circuits (Chapman & Hall/Crc Mathematical and Computational Biology)

Uri Alon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great Job 5 out of 5 stars.
20 of 26 people found this review helpful.

A superb intro to the field. The math is moderate and helpful. Network concepts and their ties to examples and theory are clearly and succinctly presented. This is a textbook but reads easily like a book. Covers key elements while connecting them by at least mention to up-to-date further research. The basics and the grandeur of systems biology. I am trying to remember now anything on the negative side and cannot.

Editorial Review:

Thorough and accessible, this book presents the design principles of biological systems, and highlights the recurring circuit elements that make up biological networks. It provides a simple mathematical framework which can be used to understand and even design biological circuits. The textavoids specialist terms, focusing instead on several well-studied biological systems that concisely demonstrate key principles.

An Introduction to Systems Biology: Design Principles of Biological Circuits builds a solid foundation for the intuitive understanding of general principles. It encourages the reader to ask why a system is designed in a particular way and then proceeds to answer with simplified models.

Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C, Second Edition

Bruce Schneier

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 99 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

". . .the best introduction to cryptography I've ever seen. . . . The book the National Security Agency wanted never to be published. . . ." -Wired Magazine

". . .monumental . . . fascinating . . . comprehensive . . . the definitive work on cryptography for computer programmers . . ." -Dr. Dobb's Journal

". . .easily ranks as one of the most authoritative in its field." -PC Magazine

". . .the bible of code hackers." -The Millennium Whole Earth Catalog

This new edition of the cryptography classic provides you with a comprehensive survey of modern cryptography. The book details how programmers and electronic communications professionals can use cryptography-the technique of enciphering and deciphering messages-to maintain the privacy of computer data. It describes dozens of cryptography algorithms, gives practical advice on how to implement them into cryptographic software, and shows how they can be used to solve security problems. Covering the latest developments in practical cryptographic techniques, this new edition shows programmers who design computer applications, networks, and storage systems how they can build security into their software and systems.

What's new in the Second Edition?
* New information on the Clipper Chip, including ways to defeat the key escrow mechanism
* New encryption algorithms, including algorithms from the former Soviet Union and South Africa, and the RC4 stream cipher
* The latest protocols for digital signatures, authentication, secure elections, digital cash, and more
* More detailed information on key management and cryptographic implementations

Programming C#

Jesse Liberty

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 206 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

C# is designed from the ground up for development on Microsoft's new .NET framework. As such, it's a high-performance language that's simple, safe, object-oriented, and Internet-centric. Programming C# teaches this new language in a way that experienced programmers will appreciate--by grounding its applications firmly in the context of Microsoft's .NET platform and the development of desktop and Internet applications.

The first part of this book introduces C# fundamentals, then goes on to explain:

• Classes and objects
• Inheritance and polymorphism
• Operator overloading
• Structs and interfaces
• Arrays, indexers, and collections
• String objects and regular expressions
• Exceptions and bug handling
• Delegates and events

Part two of Programming C# focuses on development of desktop and Internet applications, including Windows Forms, ADO.NET and ASP.NET. ASP.NET includes Web Forms, for rapid development of web applications, and Web Services for creating objects without user interfaces, to provide services over the Internet.

Part three gets to the heart of the .NET Framework, focusing on attributes and reflection, remoting, threads and synchronization, and streams. Part three also illustrates how to interoperate with COM objects.

In much the way that you can see the features and personality of the parents and grandparents in young children, you can easily see the influence of Java, C++, Visual Basic, and other languages in C#. The level of information in Programming C# allows you to become productive quickly with C# and to rely on it as a powerful addition to your family of mastered programming languages.

Accelerated C++: Practical Programming by Example (C++ In-Depth Series)

Andrew Koenig, Barbara E. Moo

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 79 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Mostly disappointed with the book. 2 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

First of all, I'll say what's good with the book. The author's way of writing demands that you learn C++ terminology quickly. This, infact, annoyed me because the terminology does not interest me, and I was more interested in the concepts, but by forcing me to follow the wankish terms, I am better able to understand other programmers. The book is also good at not dwelling on the same subject endlessly for the most part. However, I think some of the concepts should have been explained more while others were needlessly over explained, but that may not be the case for a different reader with different strengths and weaknesses.

Now comes the bad. The student grading project, which is changed throughout many of the chapters is horribly boring. It is harder to focus on what you're reading when what's being explained is so incredibly trivial and unimpressive. The biggest beef I have with the book is the exercises. Ofiten times the hardest part with the exercise is figuring out what the exercise actually wants you to do. Also, some of the exercises require knowledge not yet covered in the book, and sometimes even things never covered in the book at all. To top it all, the authors provide no answer sheet to the exercises to even check your solutions. The exercises are simply not thought out and are poorly explained.

I got the book to learn from, and if the exercises demand I learn stuff outside it then it's not being useful. The book is the first in its series, and the first few chapters of the book are aimed at complete beginners, so the expectation of prior knowledge is a little absurd.

As far as the criticism from some of these surprisinginly positive reviews go about not knowing what input to give the student grading program: By the time you enter all the code, you were explained how all of it worked part by boring part. If you truly knew how it worked then you should know what input it expects. Pretty obvious, really.

Editorial Review:

Why is Accelerated C++ so effective? Because it

*Starts with the most useful concepts rather than the most primitive ones: You can begin writing programs immediately.
*Describes real problems and solutions, not just language features: You see not only what each feature is, but also how to use it.
*Covers the language and standard library together: You can use the library right from the start.

The authors proved this approach in their professional-education course at Stanford University, where students learned how to write substantial programs on their first day in the classroom.

Windows via C/C++ (Pro - Developer)

Jeffrey M. Richter, Christophe Nasarre

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

All you always wanted to know about Windows functionning 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Excellent choice of topics (kernel objects, processes, threads, jobs, fibers, memory management, DLL et SEH)and a good compromise between the depth of analysis and an easy reading.
The book is very attractive visually; the bold fonts are really used at right places and numerous examples (as a matter of fact quite serious in itself) are very, very readable.
A must for a serious programmer.

Editorial Review:

Get the preeminent guide to programming application for Windows with C++. Programming Applications for Microsoft Windows is a classic book (formerly titled Advanced Windows, Third Edition) and is now fully updated for Windows Vista, including the latest information about Windows XP. In-depth and comprehensive, this essential reference covers the Windows operating system and how to program at the API level. Recognized experts provide an inside view of how Windows works and how to use its features in Visual C++ development tasks. Topics covered include processes, thread pooling, virtual memory, DLLs, file I/O, and message crackers. For systems-level programmers, this is a must-have title. Includes code samples in Visual C++.

Features coverage of classic topics such as thread pooling, heaps, and advanced DLL techniques

Provides expert guidance fully updated for Windows Vista

Provides extensive sample code in Visual C++ 2005

The Art of Debugging with GDB, DDD, and Eclipse

Norman Matloff, Peter Jay Salzman

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Editorial Review:

Debugging is crucial to successful software development, but even many experienced programmers find it challenging. Sophisticated debugging tools are available, yet it may be difficult to determine which features are useful in which situations. The Art of Debugging is your guide to making the debugging process more efficient and effective.

The Art of Debugging illustrates the use three of the most popular debugging tools on Linux/Unix platforms: GDB, DDD, and Eclipse. The text-command based GDB (the GNU Project Debugger) is included with most distributions. DDD is a popular GUI front end for GDB, while Eclipse provides a complete integrated development environment.

In addition to offering specific advice for debugging with each tool, authors Norm Matloff and Pete Salzman cover general strategies for improving the process of finding and fixing coding errors, including how to:

• Inspect variables and data structures
• Understand segmentation faults and core dumps
• Know why your program crashes or throws exceptions
• Use features like catchpoints, convenience variables, and artificial arrays
• Avoid common debugging pitfalls

Real world examples of coding errors help to clarify the authors' guiding principles, and coverage of complex topics like thread, client-server, GUI, and parallel programming debugging will make you even more proficient. You'll also learn how to prevent errors in the first place with text editors, compilers, error reporting, and static code checkers.

Whether you dread the thought of debugging your programs or simply want to improve your current debugging efforts, you'll find a valuable ally in The Art of Debugging.

Objective-C Pocket Reference

Andrew Duncan

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Objective-C is an exciting and dynamic approach to ibased object-oriented programming; it's the approach adopted by Apple as the foundation for programming under Mac OS X, a Unix-based operating system gaining wide acceptance among programmers and other technologists. Objective-C is easy to learn and has a simple elegance that is a welcome breath of fresh air after the abstruse and confusing C++. To help you master the fundamentals of this language, you'll want to keep the "Objective-C Pocket Reference" close at hand. This small book contains a wealth of valuable information to speed you over the learning curve.

In this pocket reference, author Andrew Duncan provides a quick and concise introduction to Objective-C for the experienced programmer. In addition to covering the essentials of Objective-C syntax, Andrew also covers important faces of the language such as memory management, the Objective-C runtime, dynamic loading, distributed objects, and exception handling.

O'Reilly's Pocket References have become a favorite among programmers everywhere. By providing important details in a succinct, well-organized format, these handy books deliver just what you need to complete the task at hand. When you've reached a sticking point in your work and need to get to a solution quickly, the new "Objective-C Pocket Reference" is the book you'll want to have.