The C++ Standard : Incorporating Technical Corrigendum No. 1

Rating:
Summary: Another reason to avoid this
Review: I agree with the earlier reviewer and I'll add another reason: For $18.00 you can buy an electronic version of the Standard from ANSI as a PDF file. Same content (except the TR which I think is available separately) and no issues about binding. It won't feel like a book but somehow I doubt that Programming Language Standards are read at bedtime with a cup of cocoa at hand...

Rating:
Summary: the content you want, nice paper, poor binding
Review: I'm not going to review the content; if you know what this is (the formal standard for the C++ programming language) you know that standards are written in dense, formal language, but that at times, no other source of information about the language will do; this is the primary source. If you claim to be an expert on C++ and write a lot of code, eventually you will probably have to look something up in the standard.

But after looking at a copy close up, I no longer want to purchase it. Why?

While the paper is acid-free and reasonably thick, the binding is one of the poorest I've ever seen in a hardback book.

I'm not an expert on book-binding, but most of the hardcover books in my professional library (such as Refactoring, Design Patterns, The C++ Programming Language Special Edition, and various other books from Addison-Wesley and other vendors) have a sturdy strip of cloth embedded in the binding and are strongly glued in place.

This book, by comparison, had a thin cover, no cloth in the binding, and flimsy gluing; just flipping through some pages, I was afraid the pages were going to start falling out. A second copy had the same flimsy binding.

For $65.00 we deserve better. Even a solid paperback at this price would have been much more appealing. Steele's Common Lisp: the Language, 2nd edition is a thousand-page paperback, and much, much sturdier. Note to Wiley: just sell a fat paper binding for $50 and leave it at that, charge a few dollars more if you must and give us a book that will last a few years. Don't try to con us with an expensive hardcover which is in reality flimsier than any other programming book on my shelves!

Rating:
Summary: Yes, absolutely
Review: Well, it is The Standard in printed form. You'll probably want to have it. There's nothing to say about the contents itself as you probably know what it is (the $18 version you can buy online is NOT the standard; it's one of the preliminary documents rather [although it's probably good for most of what you'll need]; the real standard IS offered online as well, but you'll pay through the nose for it; I don't remember what it is, but it ain't $18.) And so this book is OK if you need a printed copy (which, even if you're not a compiler writer but still work with C++ a lot, you do.)

Now, about the complaints below about the outrageously inferiour quality of the binding -- I whole-heartedly second them. My copy has already fallen apart, thank you very much (and again, I'm not into compilers.) This is yet another proof of the fact that Wiley is an obnoxious publisher; to me, seeing their imprint on the first page has been a turnoff for a very long time now. Overpriced and mediocre are the two words that immediately pop in mind; quite the opposite from Addison-Wesley, Morgan Kaufmann, or O'Reilly, who in most cases are perfect; even the uneven and frequently disappointing Prentice Hall beats Wiley by a huge margin. Just think of it: how difficult is it to publish a goddamn standard? No writing, no editing, no illustration, no bibliography -- it's a printing job, nothing more; how do you manage to screw *this* up? I pray to god they go out of business.

Still, you probably want it, even though it *will* fall apart. Maybe, have it rebound by someone, I don't know.