3rd Edition vs Special Edition

[barcaroller]

Can anyone tell me what the difference is between the 3rd Edition and the
Special Edition of Stroustrup's "The C++ Programming Language"?

 

[Victor Bazarov]

Can anyone tell me what the difference is between the 3rd Edition and
the Special Edition of Stroustrup's "The C++ Programming Language"?

From the [..ahem..] horse's mouth:

http://www.research.att.com/~bs/3rd.html

V

 

[Ron House]

Can anyone tell me what the difference is between the 3rd Edition and
the Special Edition of Stroustrup's "The C++ Programming Language"?

From the [..ahem..] horse's mouth:

http://www.research.att.com/~bs/3rd.html

V

This is a big foulup by the publisher. There are two books with
different content and the exact same cover out there (early and newer
"3rd edition").

 

[John Carson]

Can anyone tell me what the difference is between the 3rd Edition
and the Special Edition of Stroustrup's "The C++ Programming
Language"?

From the [..ahem..] horse's mouth:

http://www.research.att.com/~bs/3rd.html

V

This is a big foulup by the publisher. There are two books with
different content and the exact same cover out there (early and newer
"3rd edition").

It is not the same cover. The picture takes up the whole cover on the third
edition, but less than half of the cover on the special edition which has a
predominantly white background. They look very different.

 

[red floyd]

It is not the same cover. The picture takes up the whole cover on the
third edition, but less than half of the cover on the special edition
which has a predominantly white background. They look very different.

I think Ron's referring to the "corrected" Third Edition (softcover).

 

[Ron House]

It is not the same cover. The picture takes up the whole cover on the
third edition, but less than half of the cover on the special edition
which has a predominantly white background. They look very different.

I didn't mention the special edition, I mentioned the "3rd edition",
which, in different printings, has different contents and identical
covers, including the words "3rd edition".

This is a seriously silly (and incomprehensible) thing for a publisher
to do, because we can't write the edition description on a book list and
be sure students will get the right version; we have to add a big verbal
description on how to tell the two apart, which can be trying when you
have computerised book forms and so on that were designed on the
assumption that some short phrase would be sufficient to identify a
specific version of a book.

 

[John Carson]

I didn't mention the special edition, I mentioned the "3rd edition",
which, in different printings, has different contents and identical
covers, including the words "3rd edition".

This is a seriously silly (and incomprehensible) thing for a publisher
to do, because we can't write the edition description on a book list
and be sure students will get the right version; we have to add a big
verbal description on how to tell the two apart, which can be trying
when you have computerised book forms and so on that were designed on
the assumption that some short phrase would be sufficient to identify
a specific version of a book.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that there are now 20
printings of the 3rd edition, with changes each time. To fully identify the
book, you just need to specify both the edition and the printing. The
changes are basically errata, but these errata go beyond typos (there are
some re-wordings for clarity, changed examples etc.).

Assuming I am correct, I don't think you can blame the publisher. Most
publishers would draw the line at an average of 2-3 new editions each year.
Basically Stroustrup didn't get it exactly right the first time and kept on
tinkering.

 

[Christopher Dearlove]

Basically Stroustrup didn't get it exactly right the first time and kept
on
tinkering.

Nobody ever gets it exactly right the first time. Most stop there however.

 

[John Carson]

Nobody ever gets it exactly right the first time. Most stop there
however.

I agree.

 

[Ron House]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that there are now 20
printings of the 3rd edition, with changes each time. To fully identify the
book, you just need to specify both the edition and the printing. The
changes are basically errata, but these errata go beyond typos (there are
some re-wordings for clarity, changed examples etc.).

Okay, you're wrong.

The later printings are identical inside to the "Special edition", but
have a soft cover. That is, they include new (long) appendices.

As teachers are quite likely to require that students have those
appendices, it goes way beyond fixing typos and rewording some examples.
And if teachers are supposed to specify edition _and_ printing, it is
quite a job to find out, short of seeing every printing, which ones
contain what.

 

[John Carson]

Okay, you're wrong.

The later printings are identical inside to the "Special edition", but
have a soft cover. That is, they include new (long) appendices.

I see now. I didn't realise that the appendices from the Special edition
were retrofitted to the 3rd edition in later printings. I agree that such a
major change should have been more clearly signalled.

The appendices are downloadable from Stroustrup's site, which should be some
comfort for those with an earlier version.