could this be the best intermediate C++ book?
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Yep, this is perilously close to supplanting Scott Meyers and Herb Sutter as the definitive book for propelling a neophyte C++ programmer towards competence.
On the face of it, this is yet another book on 'intermediate' C++, of which there have been many since the early 1990s. The book consists of a few dozen short pieces on how wrestle some complexity of C++ into behaving itself, such as the use of const, how to implement copy constructors and the assignment operator. Do we really need yet another one of these?
But this manages to stand out from the crowd. It covers more basic material such as references and the new cast operators. There's a very nice section on pointers to members. It's also very handy for people coming from other languages, such as Java, particularly as it highlights areas where C++ differs from Java, e.g. name lookup and hiding rules. However, some material assumes knowledge of the handle/pimpl idiom which is normally covered in other intermediate books.
There's also an emphasis on higher level abstractions, general object oriented design principles, like the Hollywood principle, and separate items on design patterns (command, template, prototype).
And nearly half the book is on templates. And it's a very thorough and systematic coverage, including traits, policies and some metaprogramming (e.g. SFINAE). I was very impressed with this part of the book, it is very effective at demystifying a part of the language that even the better introductory books can fail to enlighten fully.
The only negative of this book is that, subjectwise, there is a fair amount of overlap with the author's previous book, C++ Gotchas. If you've already got that, you may find yourself skimming the first half of this one (and it's not a huge book). However, the excellent template section is all new. Nonetheless, you might want to knock a star and a half off my rating.
In short, this is an excellent, well-organised book with clear coverage of beginners topics all the way up to OO principles like those found in Robert C. Martin's Agile Software Development.
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Highly Recommended
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I've been using C++ professionally on-and-off since Microsoft C/C++ 7 came out (whenever that was...) but for the last couple of years had been using C# exclusively.
When an offer of a job interview came up for somewhere that used C++, I bought this along with C++ Gotchas following a friend's recommendation. About half-way through reading this, I decided not to go for the interview, but the book was so well-written and interesting that I carried on reading it anyway.
I particularly love the non-'...for Dummies' approach. It's great to read something where the author doesn't treat you like an idiot.
If, like me, you've taken a break from C++ for a while and need to get back into it again, I can't recommend this book highly enough.
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Good but intermediate it aint
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I bought this book recently, as I will be teaching a course on C++ in the not too distant future. So I thought it might provide good ways of explaining C++ concepts. I've been using C++ for many years now and have read many many C++ books - from Imperfect C++, More/Exceptional C++, More/Essential C++ and so forth. This book in many ways is good, and carrys along the theme of the point driven style, which most modern C++ books seem to follow. Its well written. And I did learn some C++ esoteria from reading it which was nice. The difficulty of the subject matter varies. Some being pretty basic C++ ideas. Others aren't though and there were some sections that were so involved that I think the idea that it's 'intermediate' is pretty laughable. So in summary - its pretty good. But if you really are an intermediate C++ programmer, you may find it a bit hardcore in places.
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