Thinking In C++. Volume 2: Practical Programming

Your compiler may not support all the features discussed in this book, especially if you don’t have the newest version of your compiler. Implementing a language like C++ is a Herculean task, and you can expect that the features will appear in pieces rather than all at once. But if you attempt one of the examples in the book and get a lot of errors from the compiler, it’s not necessarily a bug in the code or the compiler—it may simply not be implemented in your particular compiler yet. On the Windows platform we have validated all examples with the C++ compiler found in Microsoft’s Visual Studio .NET 2003; Borland C++ Builder version 6; the GNU projects g++ compiler, version 3.2, running under Cygwin; and the Edison Design Group’s C++ front end using the Dinkumware full C++ library. We have also run all the examples on Mac OS X with Metrowerks C++ version 8. In those instances where a compiler does not support the feature required by a sample program, we have so indicated in comments in the source code^.

Seminars, CD-ROMs & consulting

Bruce Eckel’s company, MindView, Inc., provides public hands-on training seminars based on the material in this book, and also for advanced topics. Selected material from each chapter represents a lesson, which is followed by a monitored exercise period so each student receives personal attention. We also provide on-site training, consulting, mentoring, and design & code walkthroughs. Information and sign-up forms for upcoming seminars and other contact information can be found at http://www.MindView.net^.

Errors

No matter how many tricks a writer uses to detect errors, some always creep in and these often leap off the page for a fresh reader. If you discover anything you believe to be an error, please use the feedback system built into the electronic version of this book, which you will find at http://www.MindView.net. The feedback system uses unique identifiers on the paragraphs in the book, so click on the identifier next to the paragraph that you wish to comment on. Your help is appreciated^.

About the cover

The cover artwork was painted by Larry O’Brien’s wife, Tina Jensen (yes, the Larry O’Brien who was the editor of Software Development Magazine for so many years). Not only are the pictures beautiful, but they are excellent suggestions of polymorphism. The idea for using these images came from Daniel Will-Harris, the cover designer (www.Will-Harris.com), working with Bruce Eckel.

Acknowledgements

Volume 2 of this book languished in a half-completed state for a long time while Bruce got distracted with other things, notably Java, Design Patterns and especially Python (see www.Python.org). If Chuck hadn’t been willing (foolishly, he has sometimes thought) to finish the other half and bring things up-to-date, this book almost certainly wouldn’t have happened. There aren’t that many people whom Bruce would have felt comfortable entrusting this book to. Chuck’s penchant for precision, correctness and clear explanation is what has made this book as good as it is.

Jamie King acted as an intern under Chuck’s direction during the completion of this book. He was instrumental in making sure the book got finished, not only by providing feedback for Chuck, but especially because of his relentless questioning and picking of every single possible nit that he didn’t completely understand. If your questions are answered by this book, it’s probably because Jamie asked them first. Jamie also enhanced a number of the sample programs and created many of the exercises at the end of each chapter.

Eric Crahen of IBM was instrumental in the completion of Chapter 11 (Concurrent Programming). When we were looking for a threads package, we sought out one that was intuitive and easy to use, while being sufficiently robust to do the job. With Eric we got that and then some—he was extremely cooperative and has used our feedback to enhance his library, while we have benefited from his insights as well.

We are grateful to have had Pete Becker as a technical editor. Few people are as articulate and discriminating as Pete, not to mention as expert in C++ and software development in general. We also thank Bjorn Karlsson for his gracious and timely technical assistance as he reviewed the entire manuscript with little notice.