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Effective C++ CD is the HTML version of Scott Meyers' previous two works, Effective C++, Second Edition and More Effective C++. Additionally, five supplementary magazine articles appear in the collection. There are also links to relevant material on the Web which that been added to the current edition and which did not appear in the print edition.
Scott Meyers' work is so well known as scarcely to need introduction. Respect for his C++ acumen and pedagogic skills is so widespread that I was prepared to thoroughly detest his work, which I have encountered often but barely deigned to read to date.
On close examination, I find Meyers' books to be superb.
Of the 50 catechismic "Items" in the body of Effective C++, the vast majority are of critical importance to solid C++ programming. Virtually everything Scott Meyers suggests on these subjects is germane and practical. Where one could conceivably differ with Meyers' approach, his is nevertheless an entirely sound approach.
The second volume, More Effective C++, is cast in the same mold as the first volume. Here the discussion of 35 further "Items" tends to devolve somewhat towards matters of style. However, these are still critical issues being raised that the intermediate C++ programmer must confront sooner or later, as presented in Meyers' rich and sympathetic tutorial prose.
The five supplementary magazine articles -- "Exception Handling: A False Sense of Security," by Tom Cargill; "Coping with Exceptions," by Jack W. Reeves; "Exception-Safe Generic Containers," by Herb Sutter; "Counting Objects in C++," by Scott Meyers; and "A First Look at C++ Program Analyzers," by Scott Meyers and Martin Klaus -- serve the dual function of extending the discussion of some important material covered in the text and of introducing the heads-down programmer to some of the intellectual controversy in the world of C++ literati.
If you actively code C++ and have less than five years' full-time on-the-job experience in C++, you probably should obtain this CD-ROM set, which is both inexpensive and exceptionally easy to browse and absorb. It reads smoothly, and is factual. Meyers' examples are elegant and nearly egoless. His advice is invariably helpful.
Let us acknowledge that Scott Meyers has a stylistic instinct and an aesthetic for genuine workplace C++ as fine and flawless as one programmer can admit of another programmer. Let us also acknowledge a great web editing and production job. This is top flight self-instruction technical literature tastefully and professionally redesigned in CD-ROM form with an eye to readability and ease of navigation. A job well done.
-- Jack Woehr
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Explanation of ERCB rating scale: No stars = unacceptable, 1 Star = marginal, 2 Stars = average, 3 Stars = above average, 4 Stars = exceptional.