Abstract: Illustrates common errors in C++ coding and shows how to recode them in a better style.
Keywords: book review, programming, C++ computer program language, style, inheritance, invariants, virtual functions, overloading, wrappers.

Title: Elements of C++ Programming Style
Author: Tom Cargill
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
Date Published: April 1992
ISBN: 0201563657
LOCN: QA76.73.C153C37 1992
Dewey: 005.13/3 20
Pages: 233
Bibliography: 31
Figures: 17
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REVIEW by Orville R. Weyrich, Jr.

Just as one can listen to someone who is just learning English as a foreign language and make a good guess regarding the speaker's native language, so can one read the code of a recent convert to C++ and make a similar guess regarding the nature of the programmer's first programming language.

I personally found this book to be useful during my own coming of age in the world of C++ programming. I recommend it to any accomplished programmer who has just learned the syntax of C++ and who is seeking to master the new object-oriented idioms of C++. I don't promise that it will make you dream in C++, but it will definitely go a long way towards making you fluent.

As a bonus, the last chapter of the book is a summary of the rules of good program coding and design which were explained in the previous chapters. Many of these rules have made their way onto my personal "Code Review Checklist."

After you have become comfortable with this book, I suggest that you next consider C++ Strategies and Tactics by Robert B. Murray, followed by Effective C++ and More Effective C++ by Scott Meyers.

CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter 0: Introduction

Chapter 1: Abstraction

Chapter 2: Consistency

Chapter 3: Unnecessary Inheritance

Chapter 4: Virtual Functions

Chapter 5: Operator Overloading

Chapter 6: Wrappers

Chapter 7: Efficiency

Chapter 8: A Case Study

Chapter 9: Multiple Inheritance

Chapter 10: Summary of Rules

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS DATA

Author:        Cargill, Tom.
Title:         C++ programming style / Tom Cargill.
Published:     Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., c1992.
Description:   xi, 233 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Series:        Addison-Wesley professional computing series
LC Call No.:   QA76.73.C153C37 1992
Dewey No.:     005.13/3 20
ISBN:          0201563657
Notes:         Includes bibliographical references and index.
Subjects:      C++ (Computer program language)
Other titles:  C plus plus programming style.
Control No.:   92015026 

     

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