I bought this book a few years ago when I was
feeling gung-ho about learning C++. I read some
chapters off and on, my favorite being Chapter
17: Debugging and Optimization. Now I am on
downtime, so I picked up the book and started
reading it again. This book and another C++
tutorial by Marshall Brain are the only ones I was
able to understand when it came to explaining the
purpose of classes. The length of the chapters were
long enough to hold my attention span. Not to mention
the flow. I would rather read something that reads
like a story than something formal and sterile.

On the flip side, I found some exercises to be
unclear and incomplete. In the real world you can
ask someone to get clarification about the specs.
Not so, here. One example was 12-1 where a list
of names and address were to be sorted and printed
as a set of mailing labels. Questions should fully
reinforce what the chapter was all about. Where the
author got the idea of sorting was left to be
desired. That has since changed in the errata and
newer editions.

I would still recommend this book to be used as
one of the ones to study from. This book alone
cannot make a C++ programmer. I think that the
overall goal of this book is to get started. Don't
worry if the entire language is not included. I am
halfway through the book. I already know that once
I finish it, I can pick up another C++ book of a
higher level of difficulty and be able to comprehend
it rather than read the book superficially.

Finally, it have be would nice if the author had
provided an e-mail address.