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C++ Programmer’s Guide to the Standard Template Library by Mark Nelson IDG Books Worldwide, December 1995 ISBN 1-56884-314-3 875 pages. List price in the US is $49.99 |
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Availability
| Unfortunately, this book is out of print. However, you can sometimes find used copies available on Amazon.com for reasonable prices. If you use the link posted here, you will be helping me with the costs of keeping this web site up and running. Thanks! |
History
This book was originally published by Programmer’s Press, an imprint of the colossal entity known as IDG Books. Programmer’s Press was supposed to be the antithesis of their wildly successful Dummies line. In other words, advanced books for the technically savvy.
I don’t know any of the details, but Programmer’s Press apparently was absorbed into the main body of IDG Books. During this transition, my book suddenly became an orphan, with no one to keep an eye on it. When the IDG warehouse shipped the last copies of my book, the normal out-of-stock alarm rang, but nobody was listening.
A few months later, I began receiving email from eager readers who were unable to purchase copies of the book. A few more weeks threading my way through the bureaucracy at IDG uncovered the details of the story as I have given it here.
At this point two cold truths became apparent. First, it would take several months before a new printing of the book could be issued. Second, the new ISO C++ standard would soon be ratified, making official a rather large set of differences between the STL described in my book and the one which would soon be the law of the land.
The end result of this was a decision to let the book die a quiet death. There is always a possibility that a new book on the C++ standard library may appear someday, but that is still just talk.
Thanks for your interest, and I’m sorry I have no book to offer!
Recommended Reading
While my books is out of print, there are some other excellent references on the C++ standard library and what used to be the STL. I recommend trying some of the books below. If you purchase after clicking through on the link below, you’ll be helping me to keep this site up and running.
5 users commented in " C++ Programmer’s Guide to the Standard Template Library "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI found this one of the better STL books written. Really goes into the underlying algortihms and how they work — not just a “map has these functions, and list has these” type of book. Great Stuff, and if you can get your hands on a copy, do it!
Hello, Mr. Nelson!
Is there a chance to make IDG give the book away to the community (probably via a petition of some sort or another way)?
From what the reviewers say, the book may be still well relevant for the advanced/interested programmers it was initially written for.
Cheers from St. Petersburg (Russia)
[...] inscrutability of compiler errors in template classes is hardly something new – I was complaining about it all the way back in 1995. And the C++0x committee tried to do something about it. Had the C++0x [...]
I bought this book, even though it’s out of print, because so many people speak well of it. However, I found there are several mistakes in the code but I can’t find an errata page, is there one out there? Most of the errors are simple and easy to correct except one I found on page 37.
The inline function:
inline int BinaryTree::LessThan( const X &t )
{
return strcmp( data, t ) < 0;
}
returns the build error: to few templete-parameter-lists
@AmazonCustomer:
Yes, there were a lot of errors in the source for the book - unfortunately, when it was published a lot of the work was still being done by hand, so code errors were always a problem. The source code from the CD was always the best place to get the error-free source.
As for the problem on page 37, I'm going to guess that it will all be cleared up if you put this in front of the first line of the function:
- Mark
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