No I wasn't being flippant, I do know what C++ is. If you had difficulty answering my question it only indicated that you lacked a real purpose for working with those books.
Your last response is still is a step in the right direction. Now,
So how do you expect that C++ will help you write better programs?
Hint when you activate the book that's the information you'll be looking for.
Fastest way to activate any book is to know your outcome... if you have a specific project that you want to apply C++ to then that's your purpose, What you need to know to write that program is what you will be looking for when you activate. As you are already a programmer you know you can expect some of the information to be similar to other languages you're now familar with. Therefore you want to get to the stuff that is most useful to you at this time.
So purpose, how are you going to apply what you learnt. What do you need to know? What do you need the program to do? (the one you're planning to apply c++ to).
Alex
[This message has been edited by Alex K. Viefhaus (edited May 28, 2004).]