ISBN:0139774300Amazon.com
Written in an exceptionally clear style that doesn't skimp on technical detail, Steve Heller's guide offers several high-performance search and data-compression algorithms, which are all you need to add speed to C++. Early sections of the book address the advantages of optimizing C++, which the author considers something of a lost art. Instead of just investing in faster hardware, the author makes the case that optimizing code can result in faster, more useful programs.
The heart of Optimizing C++ consists of several case studies of database problems that show various searching and compression algorithms, the author's source code, and careful explanation of the solutions. The author users hash coding, caching, Radix40, and binary-coded decimal (BCD) data representation in a supermarket price-lookup database. Distribution-counting sort algorithms and bitmaps that store data efficiently are both used to help build a mailing-list system. In some of the most useful sections of this book, the author looks at Huffman coding and dynamic hashing.
In every case, the author takes care to explain the details of each algorithm and its advantages and disadvantages for your own code. The book closes with a handy listing of all the algorithms presented and a thorough glossary for the terms used in the text. In all, Optimizing C++ presents some excellent C++ expertise, explained with enough clarity for even beginning or intermediate programmers. --Richard Dragan/p>
Reviews From AMAZON.COM
Beginner's book on practical optimization
Steve Heller tries to teach about optimizing by giving specific examples and leaving it to the reader to find the generalizations. This is contrary to the normal method which would give general rules for optimizing, possibly with examples of specific techniques and let the reader find the uses. This book really consists of about six specific techniques which are good if they are applicable to your project but otherwise too narrow. Most of the space is one long technique (in excruciating detail) that Mr. Heller is particularly proud of.
Steve Heller is noted for a clear and simple style (but be aware that one of ways he attains that is by belaboring simple points). His section pointing out the importance of measurement to optimizing (necessary to validate that an optimization that should speed up a program actually does result in improvement, rather than unexpectedly causing the reverse) is excellent and crucial.
This is not an advanced book on optimization and is firmly grounded in a few specific techniques. This book can be of use to practical beginners but is of less value to experienced programmers.
An Important Book
An important book if you want to make the leap from 'programmer' to 'craftsman'. Steve Heller has written an advanced course in computer science using C++. By including some 'C' code, he shows that sometimes the best way to optimize C++ is to use a little 'C' (a bitter pill for many C++ purists).
In an effort to eliminate 'code bloat' and 'CPU bottlenecks', the author has put the responsibility of program efficiency squarely on the shoulders of the programmer (where it belongs). With chapters on sorting, hashing, caching, compression and variable length records, he teaches the 'why's, not just the 'how's, of many important topics and algorithms.
More then just an 'update' to his "Efficient C/C++ Programming", "Optimizing C++" is an 'Upgrade'. Full of useful code, diagrams and figures, you'll find many insights that can be translated into any language or project.
Anyone can call a third-party library routine, this book shows you what you'll need to know to write the routines yourself. A must for serious programmers.