Scott Meyers

Newsgroup Posting Announcing Effective C++, Second Edition

On September 19, 1997, Scott Meyers posted the following announcement to the newsgroups comp.std.c++, comp.lang.c++, and comp.lang.c++.moderated.

 
 Subject:  Announcing "Effective C++, Second Edition"
			
 Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the bookstores,
 Addison-Wesley has published a second edition of my book, "Effective
 C++." This posting gives some information about the new edition and
 describes how you can win an autographed copy. If you want to skip the
 propaganda and jump straight to how you can win a copy, search for
 "WINNING AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY" now. 
			
 THE BOOK
			
 Vital Statistics:
	
    Effective C++, Second Edition: 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your
                                   Programs and Designs
    by Scott Meyers
    Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series
    ISBN 0-201-92488-9 * Paperback * 288 pages * 1998
    About US$38
    Details available at http://www.awl.com/cseng/titles/0-201-92488-9/
			
 If you've read the original edition, you may be interested in a summary
 of how the editions differ.  This is from the preface:

    In the six years since I wrote the [original] book, C++ has changed, the
    C++ library has changed (see Item 49), my understanding of C++ has
    changed, and accepted usage of C++ has changed.  That's a lot of change,
    and it was important to me that the technical material in Effective C++
    be revised to reflect those changes.  I'd done what I could by updating
    individual pages between printings, but books and software are
    frighteningly similar -- there comes a time when localized enhancements
    fail to suffice, and the only recourse is a system-wide rewrite. This
    book is the result of that rewrite: Effective C++, Version 2.0. 
				
    Every Item in the book has been reworked. Of the 50 original Items, I
    retained 48, though I tinkered with the wording of a few Item titles (in
    addition to revising the accompanying discussions). The retired Items
    (i.e., those replaced with completely new material) are numbers 32 and
    49, though much of the information that used to be in Item 32 somehow
    found its way into the revamped Item 1. I swapped the order of Items 41
    and 42, because that made it easier to present the revised material they
    contain. Finally, I reversed the direction of my inheritance arrows.
    They now follow the almost-universal convention of pointing from derived
    classes to base classes. This is the same convention I followed in my
    1996 book, More Effective C++.
			  
 If you haven't read the first edition, this text from the back cover
 attempts to convince you that you've missed out on something big:
			
    The first edition of Effective C++ sold nearly 100,000 copies and was
    translated into four languages. It's easy to understand why. Scott
    Meyers' practical approach to C++ described the rules of thumb employed
    by the experts--the things they almost always do or almost always avoid
    doing--to produce clear, correct, efficient code. 
			  
 Highlights of Effective C++, 2nd Edition include:
			
    +  Expert guidance on object-oriented design, class design, and the
       proper use of inheritance
			
    +  An examination of the standard C++ library, including how the
       Standard Template Library and classes like string and vector affect
       the structure of well-written programs
			
    +  Discussions of late-breaking language features like in-class
       constant initializations, namespaces, and member templates
			
    +  Wisdom usually possessed by only the most experienced developers
				 
 For more information, point your browser to
			
  http://www.awl.com/cseng/titles/0-201-92488-9/
			
 There you'll find a table of contents and the complete text of several
 Items from the book, plus some other stuff Addison-Wesley thinks is
 important (like information on how to order the book.)
			
			
 WINNING AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY
		
 Much of what I know about C++ I learned from the Usenix C++ newsgroups,
 and I want to express my thanks to the participants of those newsgroups
 by giving away some autographed copies of the new Effective C++.  If
 you'd like to receive a book, all you have to do is visit my web page at
			
   http://www.aristeia.com/
			
 and click on my email address to send me a request for a book.  The
 deadline for entries is September 30, and please don't play games with
 the email headers to make it look like you got in on time when you
 didn't...
			
 I expect to receive more requests for books than I'll have books to give
 away (I figure I'll have 15-20 books), so in your request, tell me why
 you think you deserve a free book.  After the entry deadline, I'll read
 all the email, and I'll send autographed books to whomever I feel like
 -- based purely on the whim of the moment.  It is thus in your best
 interest to put me in a rather whimsical mood :-)
			
 Good luck.  I look forward to hearing from you, and I hope you like the
 new (and improved!) edition of Effective C++. 
			
 Scott

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