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Author Topic: FREE Programming eBooks! (and a C++ book for C# devs)  (Read 10570 times)

Renegade

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FREE Programming eBooks! (and a C++ book for C# devs)
« on: September 08, 2012, 01:15 AM »
I just came across this:

https://www.syncfusi...resources/techportal

They have a bunch of free ebooks on programming topics, including a C++ one geared towards C# developers.

From the intro to that book:

Free forever

Syncfusion will be working to produce books on several topics. The books will always be free. Any updates we publish will also be free.

Free? What is the catch?

There is no catch here. Syncfusion has a vested interest in this effort.

As a component vendor, our unique claim has always been that we offer deeper and broader frameworks than anyone else on the market. Developer education greatly helps us market and sell against competing vendors who promise to “enable AJAX support with one click,” or “turn the moon to cheese!”

Gotta say, hats off to them for the super attitude that seems all to rare now. They've definitely earned a big, massive, huge +1 in my (e)books~! ;D

Anyways, thought I'd pass that along. Hope it's useful for someone.
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Paul Keith

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Re: FREE Programming eBooks! (and a C++ book for C# devs)
« Reply #1 on: September 08, 2012, 01:23 AM »
Can you give a review of their quality? Maybe it's just the age we are in but I've grown skeptical of "login required to download but nope, there is no catch" especially when it comes to several singular separate downloads.

TaoPhoenix

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Re: FREE Programming eBooks! (and a C++ book for C# devs)
« Reply #2 on: September 08, 2012, 03:38 AM »
When I see those kinds of forms, I put "Name = User, Company = None, my special "Catch email", and 800-555-5555 for an email. Here's the table of contents. It's your guess about actual real quality, but it's 123 pages and not "fake".

PREFACE ...11
Trademarks, etc. ...11
Program Entry Point ...11
Arguments and Parameters ...........................................................................................13
Syntax Highlighting ...13
Samples ...13
C++11 ...14
CHAPTER 1 TYPES ...15
Fundamental Types ...15
Enumerations ...16
std::wcout, std::wcerr, std::wcin .....................................................................................19
Classes and Structures .................................................................................................20
Unions ...21
typedef ...23
CHAPTER 2 NAMESPACES ...25
The Global Namespace .................................................................................................25
The Scope Resolution Operator ‘::’ ................................................................................26
Defining Namespaces ...................................................................................................26
The using namespace Directive.....................................................................................27
CHAPTER 3 FUNCTIONS AND CLASSES ..............................................................................28
Declaration vs. Definition ...............................................................................................28
Functions ...30
Simple Class ...31
Member Functions ...35
Inline Member Functions ...............................................................................................35
Protection Levels and Access Specifiers .......................................................................37
Inheritance ...38
Abstract Classes ...46
Precompiled Header Files .............................................................................................48
Forward Declarations ...49
CHAPTER 4 STORAGE DURATION .......................................................................................52
Overview ...52
Static Duration ...52
Automatic Duration ...52
Dynamic Duration ...53
Thread Duration ...53
Choosing the Right Storage Duration ............................................................................54
Storage Duration Sample ..............................................................................................54
CHAPTER 5 CONSTRUCTORS, DESTRUCTORS, AND OPERATORS .................................62
Overview ...62
5
Default Constructor...62
Default Arguments in Function Declarations ..................................................................63
Parameterized Constructors ..........................................................................................63
Conversion Constructors ...............................................................................................63
Initialization of Data and Base Classes ..........................................................................65
Delegating Constructor ..................................................................................................70
Copy Constructor ...71
Copy Assignment Operator ...........................................................................................72
Move Constructor ...72
std::move ...73
Move Assignment Operator ...........................................................................................73
Removing Copy or Move Semantics ..............................................................................73
Destructors and Virtual Destructors ...............................................................................73
Operator Overloading ...73
CHAPTER 6 RESOURCE ACQUISITION IS INITIALIZATION .................................................81
What Is RAII? ...81
How Does RAII Work? ...................................................................................................81
How Do I Use RAII? ...82
std::unique_ptr ...82
std::shared_ptr ...83
std::make_shared ...85
ComPtr in WRL for Metro-Style Apps ............................................................................85
Exceptions in C++ ...86
C++ Standard Library Exceptions ..................................................................................86
CHAPTER 7 POINTERS, REFERENCES, AND CONST-CORRECTNESS .............................93
Pointer Overview ...93
Const Pointer ...93
Pointer to Const ...93
Const Pointer to Const ..................................................................................................94
Const-correctness and Const Member Functions ..........................................................94
The * & and -> Operators ..............................................................................................94
L-values and R-values ...................................................................................................95
References ...95
Pointer and Reference Sample ......................................................................................95
Volatile ...98
CHAPTER 8 CASTING IN C++ .............................................................................................. 100
Overview ... 100
const_cast ... 100
static_cast ... 100
dynamic_cast ... 101
reinterpret_cast ... 101
C-style cast ... 101
Sample ... 101
CHAPTER 9 STRINGS ... 102
6
Introduction ... 102
char* Strings ... 102
wchar_t* Strings ... 102
std::string and std::wstring Strings ............................................................................... 102
std::wstringstream Strings ........................................................................................... 103
CHAPTER 10 C++ LANGUAGE USAGES AND IDIOMS ....................................................... 105
Overview ... 105
Incrementing and Decrementing .................................................................................. 105
Concerning Null – Use nullptr ...................................................................................... 106
Strange-Looking Boolean Equality Checks .................................................................. 107
throw() and noexcept(bool expression) ........................................................................ 107
Pimpl (Pointer to Implementation) ................................................................................ 109
CHAPTER 11 TEMPLATES ................................................................................................... 113
Overview ... 113
Template functions ... 113
Template classes ... 113
CHAPTER 12 LAMBDA EXPRESSIONS ............................................................................... 116
No-Capture Lambdas .................................................................................................. 116
Lambdas with Parameters ........................................................................................... 116
Specifying a Lambda’s Return Type ............................................................................ 116
Capturing Outside Variables ........................................................................................ 116
Lambdas in Class-Member Functions.......................................................................... 118
CHAPTER 13 C++ STANDARD LIBRARY ............................................................................ 119
Introduction ... 119
Iterators ... 119
Range-Based for Loops ............................................................................................... 119
std::vector and other containers................................................................................... 120
The <algorithm> header .............................................................................................. 120
The C Run-Time Library (CRT).................................................................................... 120
CHAPTER 14 VISUAL STUDIO AND C++ ............................................................................. 121
IntelliSense ... 121
Code snippets ... 121
Including libraries ... 121
Generating assembly code files ................................................................................... 121
Terrifying build errors ................................................................................................... 122

wraith808

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Re: FREE Programming eBooks! (and a C++ book for C# devs)
« Reply #3 on: September 08, 2012, 09:25 AM »
Gotta say, hats off to them for the super attitude that seems all to rare now. They've definitely earned a big, massive, huge +1 in my (e)books~! ;D

Anyways, thought I'd pass that along. Hope it's useful for someone.

It was sketchy at first- we'd been looking at their component suite at work, and though we decided not to go with them, I signed up for their list and saw these (and other things that they've released free, ie metro studio and smart git- smart git isn't apparently free to all, but metro studio still is at http://www.syncfusio...ownloads/metrostudio)

They kept calling me at the number - thankfully I'd given them my google voice number, so it kept going to voicemail, but it was annoying.  I called them to say so, and they stopped calling... but that left a bit of a bitter taste, so I never recommended them...

Renegade

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Re: FREE Programming eBooks! (and a C++ book for C# devs)
« Reply #4 on: September 08, 2012, 10:54 AM »
It was sketchy at first- we'd been looking at their component suite at work, and though we decided not to go with them, I signed up for their list and saw these (and other things that they've released free, ie metro studio and smart git- smart git isn't apparently free to all, but metro studio still is at http://www.syncfusio...ownloads/metrostudio)

They kept calling me at the number - thankfully I'd given them my google voice number, so it kept going to voicemail, but it was annoying.  I called them to say so, and they stopped calling... but that left a bit of a bitter taste, so I never recommended them...

Yeah... I know what you mean. They're just trying damn hard to drum up business, but it's bloody annoying. Had a few of those calls myself.

Still, I have to give them credit for the free ebooks.
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

wraith808

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Re: FREE Programming eBooks! (and a C++ book for C# devs)
« Reply #5 on: September 08, 2012, 03:43 PM »
Yeah... I know what you mean. They're just trying damn hard to drum up business, but it's bloody annoying. Had a few of those calls myself.

Still, I have to give them credit for the free ebooks.

Oh.. I do too.  Especially after reading them.. and the fact that they continued to put them out.  The git one really helped me out.  And Smartgit looks pretty cool.

TaoPhoenix

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Re: FREE Programming eBooks! (and a C++ book for C# devs)
« Reply #6 on: September 08, 2012, 03:47 PM »
Emails and Phone Calls are different levels of things. I have a sandboxed email for precisely this stuff. But the minute I saw "give us your phone" I just blasted it with a fake one. To me, that crosses a line.

On a related note, one of the "third tier" life insurance companies called me. I'd ignored a lot of their cross-departmental follow up emails for a few weeks now. When they finally caught up with me, I shut their rep down before he could go into his whole "but our company is wonderful" speech. (Red Herring.) I jumped in and said, "Sure, I already know your company is wonderful. But do you offer a salary?" "No, but ..." "Well, there you go then." I hung up after a couple more minutes basically saying I suk at commission sales and not to call me unless he had a salary position to talk about.


Shades

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Re: FREE Programming eBooks! (and a C++ book for C# devs)
« Reply #7 on: September 08, 2012, 05:00 PM »
Where I lived there was a pharmacy store with help desk about 70 meters away that had a telephone number with the exact digits as mine except one digit swapped position between them (500508 and 508500 to be precise).

Guess what number I always fill in nowadays when sites ask me for my telephone number...

wraith808

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Re: FREE Programming eBooks! (and a C++ book for C# devs)
« Reply #8 on: September 08, 2012, 06:11 PM »
Emails and Phone Calls are different levels of things. I have a sandboxed email for precisely this stuff. But the minute I saw "give us your phone" I just blasted it with a fake one. To me, that crosses a line.

There are certain things where you're going to have cold calls and sales reps in addition to/instead of e-mail.  They're a high end component company, so I can understand the whole phone call thing.  But not to have an opt-in was what annoyed me.

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app103

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Re: FREE Programming eBooks! (and a C++ book for C# devs)
« Reply #10 on: October 20, 2012, 01:34 PM »
And don't forget my free programming ebooks directory. Lots of good stuff there.

Just a sampling from the C based languages:

There are plenty more categories. Quickest way to browse the entire site is the Table of Contents.



Renegade

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Re: FREE Programming eBooks! (and a C++ book for C# devs)
« Reply #11 on: November 02, 2012, 08:31 AM »
They have a new one out!

F# Succinctly

https://www.syncfusi...portal/ebooks/fsharp

I've got to admit, while I don't do much functional programming, I really like the functional approach. There's something "sexy" about it in a "mathy" sort of way. :D

The last functional languages I used were Erlang and XSLT. I really liked XSLT. Some very, seriously cool stuff to it. (It's a declarative functional language, so a bit different than others -- I just sort of 'clicked' with it.)
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker