This has been on the cards for months, but I wasn’t able to talk about it until the book was actually out. Consummate software writers the Dietels have just released a new edition of C++ How To Program, published by Prentice Hall, and this time one of the additions is a sizeable chapter on using OGRE and CaseyB’s OgreAL to make a simple game. The C++ How To Program series is very popular, selling over a quarter of a million copies, which is reflected in the fact that this is the sixth edition of the book. I understand that it is often used to teach C++ programming in educational establishments, which is reflected in the pedagogical way it is written and the fact that it has lots of exercises. It’s a monster too, clocking in at a desk-straining 1200 pages.
The publishers approached me quite a few months ago asking if I would be a reviewer on the book, which I agreed to, so I’ve already read the chapter a couple of times. Whilst it by no means displays the power of OGRE, being as it is a relatively small introduction to making a Pong game, it is very good at introducing the basics and is aligned well for the target audience. I must admit when they said they were going to take the user through to a complete game using OGRE and OgreAL in a single chapter, I was skeptical. Even though it’s a very simple game, and quite a large chapter, I was still impressed by how much they managed to cover, and this is down to the Dietel’s writing style - they’re clearly very experienced at this and they managed to get a lot of information across very quickly without it becoming an unmanageable flood.
I know that if I ever come to write a technical book (one of my ’someday/maybe’ projects in GTD-speak :)), I can learn a lot from how professional writers like this go about it. My other ‘gold standard’ writer reference is Scott Meyers, who is targetting a more advanced audience and somehow manages to make deep technical issues very enjoyable to read - I often wish that he’d written Modern C++ Design, because whilst it’s a great book subject-wise, I can’t help thinking Meyers would have made it much more fun. Some day 
In many ways I treat writing on this blog regularly as training of a sort - a place where I can keep my writing skills at least semi-polished, and if people find the blog interesting / useful then perhaps a book might work sometime too.
I got my complimentary copy through the post today anyway, thanks guys! It was fun being involved - this is the second time I’ve been involved (as reviewer) in the process of getting a book to print and I enjoy doing it. It was also interesting to see how each publisher operates slightly differently in terms of the process - and although the projects are always really pressed for time, my experiences with both Apress (Pro Ogre 3D Programming) and Prentice Hall have been very positive. If you ever get approached to do a technical review for a book, I strongly recommend doing it. It doesn’t pay very well compared to the amount of time you need to put in, but I wouldn’t judge it from that point of view, as a ‘job’; but just as a good bit of experience to get.
August 20th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Awesome! In college, our teacher used Deitel & Deitel’s books instead of the text the college recommended. It was VERY easy to learn from, and covered a LOT. I will definitely be picking up this version of the book.
Wanna provide an Amazon referal link to scrounge a bit more money from this, Steve?
August 20th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Er, sorry, double post… Is that a referal link in the post that you’ll get credit for?
August 20th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Yeah, I always post sponsored links whenever I can
Glad to hear from someone who liked the series.
August 20th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Gulp! At $106.00 US it better make me a C++ Jedi master.
I suppose once you factor in it’s size and quality it’s worth it. Certainly I could waste my money on a stack of other inferior books. However, I did find the Prata, Lafore and Herb Schildt Nuts and Bolts books to be pretty good at the time.
August 20th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
I would guess the education sector gets significant discounts on that price.
It feels like I learned C++ so long ago that the best resource must have been stacks of scrolls hand-penned by Benadictine monks.
I can’t even remember where I learned it from, although I think my first C book which was ‘Teach Yourself C’ by someone I don’t remember. This was before they tacked on ‘in 21 Days!’ or ‘In 120 seconds!!!!!’ on to the end of titles like that as a matter of course. It was published in the late 80’s and I don’t think it’s the same stuff as the ‘Teach Yourself…’ range now.
August 20th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
The Deitel and Deitel series of books are my favorite entry-level programming books. They are well laid out and in color which makes reading the code a lot less painful.
I read through the Ogre chapter a while ago and thought it was a pretty good read., gj guys!
August 20th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Ah, very good news! You must be proud that Ogre has been chosen as a well-implemented library to be used by other to-be-well-implemented applications. Congrats!
August 20th, 2007 at 11:40 pm
Thats pretty impressive. Kudos!!
August 21st, 2007 at 3:23 am
@Steve: I was just wondering why you do not write your own Ogre3d book? I’d defiantly buy it.
August 21st, 2007 at 8:43 am
Thanks guys
@Andrew: originally it was time - that’s why when Apress asked me I passed the opportunity onto Greg and just acted as a reviewer, just to make sure it got done. I could probably find the time to do one now, but given that Greg’s has been out for a little less than 12 months there’s not such an urgency.
I’ve been considering starting to write one of my own, following on from Greg’s work, and publishing it progressively online, funded by ads and maybe eventually putting it into print. Haven’t got past the concept thinking yet though! Mostly that’s because I’m still finding my feet working for myself so again time has been short.
August 21st, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Late to the party as always, just wanted to say, you rock Steve! Always a pleasure to read this blog and about your awesome achievements.
August 21st, 2007 at 8:24 pm
WooHoo!
Time to replace my trusty Deitel C++ book!
IMO the best entry level C++ bible there is. I still have it near my desk.
August 21st, 2007 at 11:57 pm
That’s pretty exciting — I think this deserves a mention on ogre3d.org’s news. My only experience with Deitel is a Visual Basic .NET book, which I wasn’t very impressed with, but I don’t think it’s possible to be impressed with anything associated with Visual Basic, really. The C++ book sounds pretty good from your description and those of the commenters.
If you ever do decide to write your own book but want to make it available online, you should still consider talking to publishers to see if they’re interested — Apress seems especially good about publishing books that are also available free on the web: Practical Common Lisp and The Django Book (not yet published) are two examples that spring to mind. And there’s O’Reilly too, of course. I assume the advance and royalties are less if an author insists on publishing this way, but they’re still probably more than ad revenue alone.
August 24th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
I always enjoy reading your blog too, and would happily read a book if you do write one. The book looks good and I wonder if it would be a good buy for me to get back into c++ after not using it for quite a long while.