In Volume 1 of this book, you learn the fundamentals of C and C++. In this volume, we look at more advanced features, with an eye towards developing techniques and ideas that produce robust C++ programs.

Thus, in this volume we are assuming that you are familiar with the material developed in Volume 1^.

Our goals in this book are to:^.

1. Present the material a simple step at a time, so the reader can easily digest each concept before moving on.

2. Teach «practical programming» techniques that you can use on a day-to-day basis.

3. Give you what we think is important for you to understand about the language, rather than everything we know. We believe there is an «information importance hierarchy,» and there are some facts that 95% of programmers will never need to know, but that would just confuse people and add to their perception of the complexity of the language. To take an example from C, if you memorize the operator precedence table (we never did) you can write clever code. But if you have to think about it, it will confuse the reader/maintainer of that code. So forget about precedence, and use parentheses when things aren’t clear. This same attitude will be taken with some information in the C++ language, which is more important for compiler writers than for programmers.

4. Keep each section focused enough so the lecture time—and the time between exercise periods—is small. Not only does this keep the audience’ minds more active and involved during a hands-on seminar, but it gives the reader a greater sense of accomplishment.