Preface To Second Edition

Things have changed a lot since I wrote the first edition of this book, about a decade ago. That time C++ was the new kid on the block. Today it is a mature, powerful and a popular choice for programmer’s community. I wanted to reflect this change in this new edition. So I took each program in the book, checked whether it works with popular compilers of today like Visual Studio and gcc, modified them when they didn’t and finally I am presenting them to you. The text too has been modified to accommodate the changes made in the programs.

One of the biggest hurdles faced by programmers learning C++ is that they are most of the time doing C programming with a C++ Compiler. This is one aspect that I wanted to change, because if this is not done you would never be able to exploit the real power that C++ lays at your door-steps. Hence, in the very first chapter itself I have discussed how one should think about any problem in C++ way. I am hopeful you would appreciate this approach and benefit from it.

For a novice it is difficult to decide which development environment to choose, how to obtain it, install it and start using it. Towards this end, I have dedicated one full chapter (Chapter 2). I am sure if you go through this chapter you would be up and running quickly rather than spending hours on end figuring out the installation and compilation procedure yourselves.

All in all, I would say that this is a Ct+ book written to help you learn this wonderful language with latest development tools in the right perspective. All the best and I hope you would enjoy reading it.