Hey everyone my first post here at GD. Background info: I have very little programming experience. I took a C++ course about a year ago which moved very slowly so I am still very inexperienced at this. I have decided to continue learning now that I have some spare time. However I have a few questions. 1. Object-Oriented Programming Using C++, Third edition by Joyce Farrell is the book I currently have. It is the same book from the course I took but would like to find another book to go along with this one. I was looking at C++ Primer Plus 5th edition, by Stephen Prata. From what I have read it seems to be highly recommended but I am wondering if anyone here has any experience with it or for that matter any other references they want to share, don’t worry if they are too advanced for me at the moment that is what bookmarks are for. 2. In the course we used Dev-C++ for and IDE/Compiler, I can’t remember which compiler it uses… Anyways I am looking for some alternatives. I was looking at Microsoft’s Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition. Though I am not used to something… er that fancy I guess and for the life of me I can’t figure out how to simply compile a single .cpp source file. =( 3. 3… 3… I had another question but I have apparently forgotten it at the moment so I will post when I remember, actually I have plenty but I don’t want to over load this one thread. Oh, also any advice is welcome, and I look forward to reading your replies. Thanks every.

Here is a link to the c++ book we used in college. It is pretty big but quite in depth. It will not teach you visual c++ just core c++. Everything you develop will be console based.
CLICK ME

Also as to the compiler I have used Visual studio for all of my programming. Once you learn the interface I found it is easy to build/compile code as well as many other things.

Hope this helps, good luck to you.
XXChester

Thank you for the recommendations. I have started browsing through the books, I am thinking maybe the Deitel book C++ How to program, look interesting and it seems from the reviews on amazon is used in many college courses. I did notice there is a newer edition, Edition 6 which now includes game programming in Chapter 24 using OGRE and OpenAL. Though I have never heard of these it sounds interesting all the same. Does anyone have experience with this new edition.

Thanks again.

Thank you for the reply jasong however, I am trying to stay away from the in so many days and hours books, they remind me of bad infomercials, thank you for your suggestion though I do appreciate it.

I am still looking at books and have come across another two that have caught my eye, wondering again if anyone has experience with either.

Absolute C++, 3/E
http://www.aw-bc.com/catalog/academic/product/0,1144,0321468937,00.html

and,

Starting Out with C++: Early Objects, 6/E
http://www.aw-bc.com/catalog/academic/product/0,1144,0321512383,00.html


Would anyone recommend these to someone with little experience.

Thank you again all.

I would recommended a couple of books. To begin, I found Accelerated C++ (http://tinyurl.com/28hf5f) to be extremely helpful in that it teaches by example, and is very easy to read. It introduces the Standard Template Library (STL) almost immediately, allowing you to jump directly into better coding practices. After completing Accelerated C++, I purchased C++ Primer 4th ed. by Stanley Lippman and Co. (http://tinyurl.com/257yc3) . This book really goes into the finer details of C++, which is great to know after you have a little bit of experience programming. I hope this was helpful.