RE: What's up with C++ (books)?

Publishers print books for what they perceive the market to be. Authors want
to write books that they perceive the market to be. That is mostly
iPhone/iPad, .NET and Open Source. Also, with the Internet consuming our
lives, more and more information is available for free online, and with more
up to date information than a book can provide, there are fewer books on any
topic being published. I look at the computer section at my local Barnes &
Noble and it is about half the size it was five years ago.

 

Craig

 

From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
Of Michael Schuerig
Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2011 1:06 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [pragprog] What's up with C++ (books)?

 

  


I haven't been using C++ since about 2005 and it's even longer that I've 
worked with it seriously. Recently, I had an idea for a personal project 
where C++ would be a good choice. I knew that things around C++ had 
changed in the meantime. First and foremost from a practical point of 
view, the Boost libraries have taken a prominent place. Then, of course, 
there's the impending new standard ("C++0x" or rather "C++11").

As I usually do when I'm interested in anything, I look around for 
promising books. After trawling the web, that is. Doing the latter, I 
noticed a lively community around Boost. And taking the Tiobe Index[*] 
for what little it is worth, there must still be a whole lot of 
discussion going on about C++, or it wouldn't be ranked third. Also, I 
take it that C++ is still widely used in industry.

Then, why do I hardly notice anything of it? Am I suffering from a 
severe case of selection bias? That would account for the 
disproportionate amount of Ruby-related things I see, while that 
language appears to be used by hardly anyone. Still, judging from my 
inbound news channels, all the world is using node.js, Erlang or 
Haskell, and some NoSQL store. C++? Ah, well, there's something going on 
with the standard.

Curiously, I get a confirming impression when looking at book 
publications. Around 2005 seems to mark the end of interest in C++. 
Since then there has been the odd introduction (e.g. Stroustrup; more an 
intro to programming than C++, I gather) and a few platform-specific 
books (Windows, Qt). Yes, three books on Boost do exist, two of them 
already pretty old. On the more advanced side there's Stepanov's 
"Elements of Programming", if that counts as a C++ book. Very recently 
there are Reddy's "API Design for C++" (recommended) and Williams's "C++ 
Concurrency in Action" (beta ebook, paper forthcoming). And that's about 
all, as far as I can tell.

Perhaps my expectations are skewed, but for a major programming language 
I was expecting much more. Announcements of new editions of classics by 
Stroustrup and Meyers, several new books on libraries and programming 
style. Something noteworthy.

I have a lurking suspicion that C++ just isn't cool anymore. But is that 
all there is to it?

Michael

[*] http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html

-- 
Michael Schuerig
mailto:[email protected] <mailto:michael%40schuerig.de> 
http://www.schuerig.de/michael/