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While this book does touch on many of the features of C++, it doesn't discuss them in enough detail to make them useful.

Motivation is particularly lacking: even when the book explains a given feature, it doesn't provide much guidance (if any) on why the feature exists or how it's useful. For example, friend classes are mentioned, but the description of why you might want to use such a thing is completely absent. There's just a statement that, "Friend classes are seldom used. They are supported to allow certain special case situations to be handled." That explanation is a poor substitute for a brief statement about why they're seldom used (data encapsulation violation) and when it might be appropriate to use them.

The section on wide character functions is similarly lacking. The book describes what they are and how to manipulate them, but it is completely silent on why wide characters exist and the implications of using an ASCII character array (very poor internationalization). This is almost unforgivable in the era of global software.

The section on the STL is hard to read and skimpy on detail. The templates chapter is likewise thin; after reading through it, I was still unable to do anything useful with templates. The section just left too many questions unanswered.

That said, I refer quite often to the sections on operator overloading and exception handling. For me, those are the shining stars in this book (although, again, motivation for using them is lacking).

My initial impression was that this book had to be a complete reference Just because it's so thick. It does have tons of information but it seems like the chapters were produced with a template. Basically you might look up a library function and it has two pages describing it, But there's no specific or useful information. I feel that entire chapters could be reduced into a couple pages of useful information.

A little background: I've been programming professionally for 3 years now using VB, SQL, HTML, JavaScript, XML and occasional C. I would consider myself at intermediate/journyman level, striving to be Guru level (I'm perhaps there in VB, but not the other languages). Now my job is calling for more usage of C/C++ and thus I am striving to get at more than just a basic level with these languages. This background information is important because different books are appropriate for different experience/proficiency levels and thus someone can gage my review to their needs or to their experience level.
When I was converting to being a programmer, one of my courses was on C. The text was "A Book On C". This was probably the worst programming book I've ever used - it was poorly indexed, gave [junky] examples (for the beginner) and was difficult to read. I now own a copy of K & R's "The C Programming Language", which is much better and regarded by many to be the best C book of all. I like it, but it's not the best learning book, being terse and sometimes a bit confusing in it's explainations. K&R is an authoritative refernece. I've also thumbed through extensively Stroustrups' "The C++ Programming Language" at the bookstore. Again, this is a definetive reference, but not a good learning book. These books are written by and meant for experienced and/or advanced C/C++ programmers.
On the flip side of the coin are the "...For Dummies", "The Complete Idiots guide to..." and "Teach Yourself..." series books, which I've thumbed through the cooresponding C books at the bookstore. These books are good primers and are easy to understand. However, they are incomplete in their coverage of their subject and are of spotty quality.
So where's the happy medium? The answer is simple: "C++: The Complete Reference". This book has extremely thorough coverage of the subject (not as thorough as Stroustrups' book, but thorough nonetheless) and is extremely easy to understand. I love the presentation - it's simple, practical, to the point and quite enjoyable. When I read about a subject, say a function pointer or inheritance, and compile it's example, I have fun doing it and I feel I come away with a solid understanding without risidual confusion (risidual confusion sometimes occurs with K&R or Stroustrup). Also, when I want to look up something that I need to use, say a library function, I can find it immediately in the index, turn to the various pages that are referenced, and be able to use the function immediately and effectively.
I love the Osborne "Complete Reference" format for it's oganizational and presentation styles and I love Herb Schildts writing. He's a C/C++ guru (having been on the ANSI/ISO C++ standardization committee) and posesses excellent communications and teaching skills. He really understands the perspective of someone trying to learn C++ or improve on their C++ skills. There's a very good reason why he's the worlds highest selling C++ author.
This book is great for beginning and intermediate C++ programmers (and even good for C++ gurus as an easy and quick reference). It wouldn't be good for someone brand new to programming (these people should stick with beginning programming books).
Also consider what a tremendous value this book is. Amazon sells it for [price]- compared to [price] for Stroustrup and [price] for the rather small K&R - and it gives/contains so much invaluable information and teaching. And the similarily priced "...For Dummies" and "Teach Yourself..." books don't contain nearly as much as this book. With this book you get an incredible amount of bang for your buck.
I can't rave enough about this book. It's thorough, well organized, easy to understand, enjoyable to read, extremely effective, and an absolute bargain. It's a must have for all levels of C++ programmers.

This is an outstanding C++ reference and is very readable - I read the entire book over the period of just a week. It is also an outstanding C language reference and teaches C as the subset of C++ that it is. This book isn't a textbook, however, and lacks exercises but illustrates the C++ language with good examples throughout. Highly recommended as a reference if not a tutorial. After studying the C++ language almost daily for over a year now I have come to the conclusion that most likely a programmer isn't going to draw his C++ knowledge from just one book - atleast,in my case, I have had to read several books to get it right. I offer this to the reviews/criticisms of a single book falling short in some respect.

Unfortunately, Herb seems to have written this book with another language in mind, perhaps Java, C? I say this because his explanations of topics seem so generic that you'd forget your even reading about .net. That's not good. I've read several other C# books that do a much better job of pulling me into the .net world. Also, Schildt apparently made a blatant decision to not code accoring to the recommended MS standards of camel and pascal case. This is very annoying. Other books even take the time to tell you exactly what these standards are. Herb does not. I get the feeling he just recycled some material from past books and rushed this out the door. If he even wrote any of this book at all, who knows. Look elsewhere folks.

It really helps me keep my basic skills sharp. This book has been a big help

I love this book. Unlike most books that teach only the basics of c++ this goesmuch farther in depth and not only that it tells you new stuff about thestuff you already know. Also It gives you an explantions on why things work they do in c++. I've browsed through several c++ books and this book I found to be the best. It clearly live up to its title