First off...the reviewer who criticized the editor for having the wrong book is the one who is wrong:this is C++, not C#. So that reviewer`s dismissal should be dismissed. Second, as the editor pointed out, some reviews were for the wrong edition: they too should be dismissed. However... I do not recommend this book for beginners. A lot of its teaching is done by cookiecutter programming: find this line of code in the program...don`t worry about what it actually means...now type these things under it...now compile. The reader gets working programs without fully understanding what x, y, and z mean. And the authors don`t know how to teach stepbystep, despite the book`s title. It`s as if they can`t decide what their target audience is. Are they writing a stepbystep book (as the title implies) that gradually walks beginners through from beginning to end, holding their hands and easing them along? Sometimes. Or are they writing a book for people who already know C++ and just need to learn how to apply it to .NET? Sometimes. The worst part is that while it is possible to do both in one book, I don`t feel the authors managed to do either. Beginners will be confused by the disorganized introduction of material (pointers and classes in chapter 2) and lack of explanations, while alreadyproficientinC++ programmers won`t learn enough new stuff to make the book worthwhile (unless they are new to programming .NET with C++: then the later chapters will give them new stuff). Here are some details, looked at from a newbie`s perspective.
