I do lot of my development in C++. It’s not the most user-friendly of languages but it’s very powerful. Learning it can be a bear, however.
If you’re really a glutton for punishment, you could start with The C++ Programming Language, by the creator of the language – Bjarne Stroustrup. This is a very dense book and while it contains a lot of really important information it leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to learning to program with the language. I’d recommend this as the third book you pick up after you’ve learned some of the basics.
A great place to start would be Bruce Eckel’s Thinking in C++. If you like learning from a book, you can pick it up at places like Amazon or B&N. Bruce has been kind enough, however, to make the book available for download for free at the book’s website. (He also has an excellent book on Java, appropriately named Thinking in Java.)
Another good online tutorial can be found at cplusplus.com. It’s not quite as user friendly as Eckel’s book, nor does it go into the same level of detail. It does provide a nice high level overview though.
Once you get started you might have some questions. The C++ FAQ (lite) is a good place to start. This is the online version of the much larger print version. I haven’t read the print version but it doesn’t get very good reviews. The latest print edition was last published in 1998 so I have no doubt it’s missing a lot of useful information. Some more useful books along these line are Scott Meyer’s Effective C++ , More Effective C++ , and Effective STL books.
A good online reference guide can be found at cppreference.com, which provide help on syntax and some example code. It’s especially nice in that each example shows which include(s) is needed for the method in question.
That’s it for now. If I come across any more useful C++ links / books, I’ll be sure to forward them along. Until then, happy programming!
Code, Tech, Methodologies 