The book can benefit the beginner giving him the outset, good habits. However, it is the programmer through the teachings of this book will, in my opinion, the most promising, since many topics provide answers to common problems. See the solution of a problem that is familiar lasting mark.
At critical that justify to me the star separating it from perfection, despite the revision of the third edition, the book is still quite marked by the C ++ "on dad." Many issues revolve around the management of pointers "naked", encountered more and more rarely in modern C ++ (and certainly very rarely outside of the manufacturers) and whose number of tools stl or boost compensate now the gaps. The use of STL should be ubiquitous and solve many problems; Unfortunately, its use is subject to a separate book (Effective STL), for historical reasons that seem anachronistic in 2011.
In addition, the book includes an unreasonable number of self-referrals. It is not rare that the 55 points raised by the author refers to two, three, four of the 55 points, located either before or after the point addressed. This may annoy.
Finally (and this is not a criticism, just an accuracy), this book is definitely level "pro" or "guru". A C ++ programmer confirmed to learn well (or remind) two to three things, but nothing that will justify the purchase of the book. The series "Exceptional C ++" Sutter, if we compare, is at a much higher level, at all levels. The fact, moreover, it has not aged since 2000 (unlike Effective C ++, now in its third edition) says a lot about the "definitive" next to Sutter's prose.