[.ca] C++ Templates: The Complete Guide (ISBN 0201734842)

Book is good but:
This book is great & gives you the insight of "C++ templates" but for beginners even advanced C++ programmer who want to start templates please DO NOT buy this book at first sight...go for STL Programming by Herbert Schildt. This book assumes you already KNOW templates VERY WELL.

A great guide for template writers:
This book is a great guide for C++ developers interested in writing generic (C++ templates) code. It is definitely NOT FOR BEGINNERS. Readers should already have some experience in C++ development. An experience using template libraries such as STL, ATL, WTL, collectioin classes in MFC or other will be very helpful. The book contains a concize guide on C++ template basics in the first part with a detailed reference guide in the following parts. I have found on the authors' website that the book is also available in Russian and Polish languages.

A worthy reference:
A very good reference book on the subject. It made many things more clear to me that I had been uncertain about. The only weakness lies in Part IV: Advanced Applications, chapter Smart Pointers, and chapter on Function Objects abd Callbacks, which do not exploit their subject to the full extent. I recommend the book Andrei Alexandrescu: Modern C++ Design for more discussion on these.

Too much to say about templates with not enough good reference materials on the topic!:
Before this book, most C++ textbook were at most devoting one chapter on templates which clearly is not enough to cover a topic as complex as the C++ templates. The C++ Templates book is filling this void nicely and one of the coauthor of the book is the author of my favorite STL book 'The C++ Standard Library'. The book has 4 parts: The basics, templates in depth, templates and design and finally advanced applications. Personnally, I found the 2 last parts good but less interesting because I think that other books such as Modern C++ Design do a better job to cover templates applications. Where this book really shines is the first part that covers the C++ templates syntax very well. With a capricious syntax like the templates one, a good reference is essential. One example that come to my mind is when I was trying to declare a friend template function from a class template. That sounds like a simple thing to do but it is not. The syntax rules for this declaration are, to my opinion, far to be intuitive and hard to find in regular textbooks. With the help of this book I have finally been able to fix my friend template function declaration and make my compiler happy.

A Good Book:
The book is extremely well organized and explained. But there is a but and is not about the book. Is about who's going to follow it and learn something from it. I am suffocated by Spaghetti Oriented Code for the last 15 years or so.