Month: February 2021

Review of The Fisherman

The Fisherman by Brigid Malloy is a children’s book that is remarkably fun, contains some really amazing art, and also teaches a lesson. Our society is based on the concept that winning is everything and that failure is always awful. I’ve talked about this issue before in my Defining the Benefits of Failure post. However, this book takes an entirely different twist on the topic by viewing a failure as a success. I thought it was a pretty amazing lesson to teach younger people who are used to hearing that they must be first in absolutely everything. In fact, I’d recommend more than a few adults read this book too.

I read this story to my 9 year old grandniece and she was quite taken with it. She thought the fisherman was quite funny and kept pointing out various elements of the art that weren’t immediately apparent to me (mostly because I was reading the text). She remained engaged for the entire story, which says a lot for a child that is sometimes distracted by absolutely everything. Most important of all, she got it! The story helped her understand that success isn’t everything and she liked the idea that the fisherman was happy and comfortable at the end.

Is this a good book? Yes, it’s a great book! This is one of the few times I find myself at a loss to say anything whatsoever negative about a book except that it’s not available for sale on Amazon. You must currently go to the author/illustrator’s website to buy a copy (see link in the first paragraph).

C++ All-in-One for Dummies Errata on Page 188

There is a mistake on page 188 of C++ All-in-One for Dummies, 4th Edition that is based on a supposed April Fool’s prank that was actually initiated on March 26, 2018 (see https://www.modernescpp.com/index.php/no-new-new) and spread throughout the Internet to sites such as: https://www.fluentcpp.com/2018/04/01/cpp-will-no-longer-have-pointers/.  The problem with pranks, especially pranks that linger because the people who perpetuate them haven’t removed them, is that other people tend to believe them, as in this post: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/59820879/are-new-and-delete-getting-deprecated-in-c#. Later, much later, as in the note on the Fluent C++ site, people admit that it was a joke, but still leave the errant material in place.

 After I had discovered that this information was a joke, I had meant to remove two sentences from the book, but somehow they stayed intact.  The two sentences in question appear in the “Understanding the Changes in Pointers for C++ 20” section:

Readers who already know something about pointers need to be aware of the changes in pointers for C++ 20, which is why it appears first. The essential thing to remember as you move to C++ 20 (where new is deprecated) and then to C++ 23 (where new is removed) is that pointers are going to change.

If you find any other references in the book that state that new is deprecated or removed, they too will be modified or eliminated during the next printing. I apologize for any problems that the error has caused, especially to readers who are new to C++, and have submitted an errata to the publisher so that the error is fixed during the next printing. If you have any questions at all about the book, please contact me at [email protected].

Completed! Book Drawing for C++ All-in-One for Dummies, 4th Edition

Five people now have a copy of C++ All-in-One for Dummies, 4th Edition coming their way. Please wait four to six weeks for delivery and let me know when you receive your book. These people are:

  • Eva Beattie
  • Thomas McQuillan
  • Michael Flores
  • Syam Poolla
  • Tom Taylor

I hope that each of you enjoys the book and will provide a review of it on Amazon. Thank you for your support, it’s really important to me. Your reviews will help other readers as well. If you have any questions at all about the book, please contact me at [email protected].

Book Drawing for C++ All-in-One for Dummies, 4th Edition

I’ve just released a new book, C++ All-in-One for Dummies, 4th Edition, and I’d love to give five people in the US a chance to read it for free (I can’t accept requests from other countries due to the amount of postage required to send a book to you). There’s only one catch. In exchange for the free book, I’d appreciate your review of it on Amazon.com. Your reviews are important because they give other people some idea of what the book is like outside of my opinion of it.

This new edition contains an amazing amount of changes from the 3rd Edition, many of which you requested. Of course, I started by updating everything, so you see the latest version of Code::Blocks used in this book. Working with Code::Blocks makes C++ coding a lot easier, but Code::Blocks tends not to hide the details or add any odd background code like some IDEs do. In addition to the updates, you can expect to see these changes:

  • Instructions on how to use your mobile device to write C++ code.
  • Updates on how to work with for loops.
  • Using functional programming techniques.
  • Employing new operators, such as the spaceship operator.
  • Understanding modifications to the Standard Library.

This new edition of the book comes in at a whopping 912 pages, so there is no expectation that you’ll read it cover-to-cover. What I would appreciate is your honest viewpoint on the topics that appeal to you most. If you’d like to participate in this drawing, please contact me at [email protected] by 8 March 2021 by email with a subject of “C++ Book Drawing”. I need your name and address. I’ll post the winners of the contest (sans email addresses) in a future blog post.