Programmer Musings

Review of C++ Common Knowledge

C++ Common Knowledge
Stephen C. Dewhurst
Addison-Wesley, 2005

The subtitle of this book sums it up nicely, Essential Intermediate Programming. If someone has not mastered, or at least understood, the material in this book, he or she is still a junior C++ programmer. Although this material is necessary, it is not sufficient to make someone an intermediate-level C++ programmer.

As explained in the preface, Dewhurst wrote this book partially to save himself from explaining these same topics every time he deals with a new set of programmers. He also explains that he has not covered every important topic in the book. In order to make the book more usable, it has been reduced to 63 core points that are either central to your understanding of the C++ programming language or often misunderstood.

Although he does not go into extreme depth on every one of these subjects, Dewhurst does capture enough of the details to help you understand why the point matters and why it works the way it does. I have read almost all of these items in other books, sometimes in more detail. But, there were still a few points that I feel I understand better after his explanations.

Dewhurst begins with some topics that any one who programs in C++ should be at least somewhat familiar with: "Data Abstraction", "Polymorphism", etc. and works up through "Template Argument Deduction" and "Generic Algorithms". None of these chapters can be considered the definitive, be-all-end-all explanation of its topic. However, each is concise and covers the minimum you need to understand about that topic.

The only reason I found this book to be less useful than many of the books I've read recently is because I already understand most of the topics well. There are a few of the template chapters that I felt extended my understanding a bit, but the rest were covered in more detail elsewhere. That being said, I can see this book being of real use to any junior or intermediate level C++ programmer. If you are a senior level programmer, you might find this book useful as a reference for the more junior programmers you work with. I also think this book helps a more senior programmer recognize some of the points where a junior programmer is likely to have problems.