Effective C++: 55 Specific Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs

So... I read alot 1 or 2 star reviews for this book and many mention that Meyers either doesn't go into enough detail or he explains things that are rather obvious to most C++ programmers.I'll tell you a bit of my background and why this book is a goldmine for someone like me:I have a degree in electrical engineering. I did some C++ programming in college but never got to the OOP stuff when I was in school. As I changed jobs over the years eventually I landed in a position where I needed to manage an existing C++ system. I learned the basics of OOP just by doing some reading online and picked it up over the years as most engineers are able to do. I got to the point where I was very familiar with the system and for the most part I could do pretty much everything I needed do for my job.But my only formal training on C++ barely even scratched the surface of its capabilities, so I thought I should read a book on some "good practices" in C++.This book was exactly what I was looking for. Coming in at under 300 pages, and with Meyers listing 55 specific items, this only leaves approximately 5 pages per item. This of course means that this book is not the definitive C++ reference guide. That said, this is not a book for beginners. I would say that you should be practicing OOP within C++ for at least a year before reading this book. (But it probably also isn't a book for experts either, because experts probably already know mostly everything in this book.)Many of the items in this book are structured like this:1) Meyers shows some snippet of code that looks innocent at first glance.2) He explains how this could result in disaster if the exact wrong series of events happen (and provides a basic example of how this might unfold).3) Then he explains how to modify the code to avoid this behavior. (Although, there are some dark corners of C++ that unfortunately can't be completely prevented from happening, even with proper class design. For these, Meyers explains how to minimize these chances of happening.)This structure is very easy to understand and effective for retaining the information in this book.In conclusion, I would recommend this book to anyone who understands the rules/syntax of C++ and has been using it for a few years, but maybe needs some guidance in taming the C++ beast.

It's quite difficult to find a good book that assumes your familiarity with programming as well as your obliviousness of the language in question. This book happens to be in that rare minority.The importance of the above assumption cannot be disregarded. This book assumes that you have little to no experience of the language. Every Item goes very deep into explanations of the concepts by giving clear (and realistic) examples of the pros and cons of a certain design. The code examples are especially good as they are not fragmented, yet very easy to understand as well as being relatable (if you are already familiar with programming).The structure of the book is what stands out the most to me. Not only that this will forever remain as a great reference-book, if you're new to C++ like myself, and there is a concept that troubles you, this structure gives you a place to jump into and explore that concept, and from there, expand into other Items of concepts and ideas you may not even have considered in the first place. Another added bonus is the decomposition of each Item. Each Item is concise enough to be read in one go, yet all of them provide details in-length of the matter at hand. On top of that, the Items are not extremely dependent on other Items, making them easy to read as well as referencing.

I'm a C++ developer and should have read this book a long time ago. It was very helpful in improving my C++ knowledge. I knew I didn't know everything about C++ and needed to learn more and this book and a couple of others (mentioned below) got me on my way to learning more. Of course I still don't know everything about C++, and probably never will, but I've definitely increased my C++ knowledge with this book and the others that I've recently read.First, I recommend starting with some FREE books you can find on the Internet - called "Thinking in C++" by Bruce Eckel. There are 2 volumes and I recommend both. You can buy the print versions but I used the electronic versions.I then read this book - Effective C++. Of course there is some repetition, but I like it as it helps 'drive stuff into my head'.The next book I'll read is Effective STL: 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your Use of the Standard Template Library.I bought Effective C++ Third Edition in May 2013 from Amazon as the seller, and received the thirteenth printing (March 2013)While some of this stuff seems dated in 2013, I think 98% of it is still quite relevant, though I do wish they would keep the books a bit more updated (no more than 4 or 5 years old).I do plan on looking into a book on C++11 in the near future.Bottom line for this book is that I found it well worth the price. It's much easier and cheaper to learn the stuff in this book by reading it instead of having to 'learn it the hard way'.

Outdated, (you won't have a private inheritance of uncopyable class anymore, etc).This is among the books that we all begin from though.

Leggevo online diverse recensioni che indicavano il libro come obsoleto. L'ho trovato invece pieno di spunti interessanti, e negli ultimi capitoli c'è un introduzione ottima al razionale che c'è dietro al meta programming con i template.Ovviamente non sono un esperto di C++ quindi è possibile che uno sviluppatore senior possa trovarlo datato, ma se state imparando da poco il linguaggio, questo libro vi sarà utilissimo.

Fantastic book, filled with many pointers (I'm sorry) on writing efficient and maintainable code. It's also small which makes it handy for carrying around and it's straight to the point which makes it awesome for when you're doing a project, you just go to the index and find what you want, read it and you have an exact understanding of what's going on and how to implement it in your own projects.

Reçu en parfait en état.Très bon livre, je recommande fortement à tout développeur souhaitant se perfectionner en orienté objet.Se lit très facilement.

I know it is pretty old book in computer field. However, nearly all of the books published after this book repeats what Scott Meyers explained in this particular book with unnecessary volumn. Scott Meyers explained 'must know' knowledge for intermediate C++ programmers with plane English.