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Object-Oriented Software in C++ by Michael Smith Recommended

ISBN: 0-412-55380-5       Publisher: Chapman Hall       Pages: 324pp       Price: £17-95

Categories:   object oriented     beginner's c++

Reviewed by Ian Cargill in C Vu 6-1 (Nov 1993)

What I particularly like is that within each chapter, the subject is broken down into small, easily digested pieces, without losing the overall cohesion of the chapter. In each subsection, Smith gives a succinct explanation and a short code example to illustrate the point. These short code sections are then typically drawn together at the end of the chapter to show how technique is used in a 'real' application.

Another technique I liked was Smith's use of 'Note:' paragraphs. These are short paragraphs in italics which are inserted in many places. They give supplementary information which is not directly applicable to what he is explaining, but is useful to be aware of at that point.

One conundrum with complex and subtle languages like C++ is how to explain one thing without referring to something else that has not yet been explained. Smith often uses these 'Note:' paragraphs to give forward references. Thus you can accept something at face value for the moment, knowing it will be explained in more detail later.

At the end of each chapter, Smith gives some self-assessment questions and some suggested programming exercises. While both are well thought out, it is the one place where I was a bit disappointed as no solutions are provided to the self-assessment questions. While most can be resolved by reference back to the text, a real novice would have trouble deciding whether their answer to some was correct or not. I think a few pages at the back with brief answers would add greatly to the value of these questions. It would make an excellent book even better.

I don't think this book would be suitable for someone with no previous programming experience at all (is any book?), but if you already know a little bit about programming and want to move on to C++, then I can strongly recommend this book. I believe the price of this book is under twenty pounds. If so, then it is also very good value. You can pay twice as much for books which are only half as good.

(Final note: While there is no code disk, the code for this book is all freely available on the Internet and can be retrieved by ftp from unix.brighton.ac.uk in pub/mas. I contacted Mike, and his publishers have given us permission to distribute the code. Space permitting, it may be on the code disk.)