This is The C++ Programming Language 3ed with all the errata merged in and two new appendices ( Locales and Standard Library Exception Safety ). It is printed on quality paper with a robust hardcover binding and two bookmarkers. I only mention such trivia to make it clear that this is the edition aimed at taking a permanent place near your computer. It is worth noting that it lies comfortably open on my desk at whatever page I choose, and I do not expect it to fall apart any time soon despite the probability that I will refer to it frequently .

Almost a decade ago I was sitting in a Monastery Beer Garden outside Munich enjoying a pleasant drink with the author and a couple of other C++ experts (Frank Buschmann and Josee Lajoie) when I commented on the hardships of book reviewing. The case in point was a book that had just landed on my doorstep for some version of Borland C++. It had a page count of more than 1500, Bjarne looked aghast and stated that it was not possible to write a book of more than 1000 pages. Well he has now, and the actual content is considerably more than those earlier 1500 pages. And the error rate is several orders of magnitude smaller whilst the density of useful information is much higher.

C++ deserves a durable and authoritative reference book, it will take years for most people to master the language and a great advantage of this edition is that it is likely to survive those years of study.

When your current copy of The C++ Programming Language 3ed (you do have your copy do you not?) falls to pieces (it will if you are doing your studies assiduously) replace it with a copy of this edition.