April 1st, 2026
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The cover of C++: The Programming Language raises questions not answered by the cover

Raymond Chen

The book C++: The Programming Language¹ (Waylon Warren, editor) claims to present “the complex subject of C++ in the most comprehensible and easy to understand language.” A rather overdone book blurb, in my opinion.

Anyway, the book does have an attractive cover, or at least an inoffensive one.

Book cover: C++ The Programming Language, with a picture of code on a computer monitor

But wait, let’s zoom in on the code shown on the computer monitor.

See article text for transcription

function updatePhotoDescription() {
    if (descriptions.length > (page * 9) + (currentImage.substring(⟦ blurry ⟧')) {
        document.getElementById("bigImageDesc").innerHTML + ⟦ blurry ⟧
    }
}

function updateAllImages() {
    var i = 1;
    while (i < 10) {
        var elementId = 'foto' + i;
        var elementIdBig = 'bigImage' + i;
        if (page * 9 + i - 1 < photos.length) {
            document.getElementById( elementId ).src = 'images/⟦ blurry ⟧
            document.getElementById( elementIdBig ).src = 'images/⟦ blurry ⟧
        } else {
            document.getElementById( elementId ).src = '';

This isn’t even C++. It’s JavaScript!

¹ Note that this is not the book The C++ Programming Language by the language inventor Bjarne Stroustrup.

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Raymond Chen

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

17 comments

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  • Andrew Brown

    So this is perhaps one of the times when we should judge a book by its cover.

  • Darren Woodford · Edited

    `if (page * 9 + i – 1 < photos.length)`
    makes me want to vomit

  • Bryan W

    It’s not even a mono space font… barbaric.

  • Frank D

    Almost certainly. Why would the author (or, editor, I guess) be consulted on the book cover? They’re a writer, not a graphic designer. But it’s still a really big screwup for a tech publisher to make.

    • Raymond ChenMicrosoft employee Author

      I was consulted on the cover to my book. In fact, they asked me “What do you want the cover to look like?”

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