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The Old New Thing

Why do Microsoft job levels start in the high 50's instead of starting at a sane number like 1? - The Old New Thing Why didn't Read­Directory­ChangesW provide a way to correlate the two sides of a rename operation? - The Old New Thing How can I remove the Close button from my window caption? - The Old New Thing Why is the x86 undefined instruction called ud2? Why 2? - The Old New Thing What algorithm did Windows XP use to choose your initial user picture? - The Old New Thing A sample use of the winstart.bat file in Windows 95 - The Old New Thing Why don't we allow stacks to be sparse, instead of forcing them to be contiguous? - The Old New Thing What happens if you change a window class's GCL_CB­WND­EXTRA? - The Old New Thing The case of the progress callback that never got called when progress happened - The Old New Thing The perils of binding to value types in XAML - The Old New Thing Microspeak: Funded / unfunded - The Old New Thing AWE does not require PAE, though PAE makes it much more useful - The Old New Thing On forcing all derived classes to implement a specific non-virtual method, part 2 - The Old New Thing On forcing all derived classes to implement a specific non-virtual method, part 1 - The Old New Thing In the product end game, every change carries significant risk, episode 2 - The Old New Thing Why didn't the Windows Entertainment Pack just run the MS-DOS version inside an emulator? - The Old New Thing Comparing the two holograms on the Windows 95 box - The Old New Thing Reducing C++ template bloat by factoring out the type-dependent portions of the function, practical exam - The Old New Thing Reducing C++ template bloat by factoring out the type-dependent portions of the function - The Old New Thing On wrapping a callable in a lambda that just calls it with the same parameters - The Old New Thing Why did the Microsoft Entertainment Pack for Windows have a special sticker announcing that it also had Tetris? - The Old New Thing How do functions like alloca allocate memory from the stack? - The Old New Thing How do functions like alloca allocate memory from the stack? - The Old New Thing Forcing an ARM64X executable to run as a specific architecture - The Old New Thing A little helper class for managing LPPROC_THREAD_ATTRIBUTE_LISTs - The Old New Thing The comments that go into code versus those that go into the pull request description - The Old New Thing The little-known winstart.bat batch file - The Old New Thing How can I perform a Copy­File&shy in unbuffered mode? - The Old New Thing Creating a fake agile wrapper that is technically agile but is not useful outside its home apartment, part 5 - The Old New Thing Creating a fake agile wrapper that is technically agile but is not useful outside its home apartment, part 4 - The Old New Thing
The back cover of C++: The Programming Language also rais...
Raymond Chen · 2026-06-05 · via The Old New Thing

A little while ago, we considered how the cover of the book C++: The Programming Language raises questions not answered by the cover, since the cover illustration for a book putatively about the C++ programming language shows code written in JavaScript.¹ But there’s also a question raised by the back cover.

According to the blurb for the book,

The topics included in it are of utmost significance and are bound to provide incredible insights to students. Some of the diverse topics covered in this text address the varied branches that fall under this category. Those in search of information to further their knowledge will be greatly assisted by this textbook.

This sounds like a book report written by a student who didn’t read the book! Those sentences could be used to describe pretty much any textbook.

Indeed, I found nearly identical sentences in the blurb for Casting Handbook (Hannah Wells, editor).

The topics included in this book on casting are of utmost significance and bound to provide incredible insights to readers. Some of the diverse topics covered in this book address the varied branches that fall under this category. It will serve as a valuable source of reference for graduate and post graduate students.

And in Food Industry: Processes and Technologies (Kaden Hunt, editor):

This book is compiled in such a manner, that it will provide in-depth knowledge about the theory and practice of the workings of food industry. Some of the diverse topics covered in this text address the varied branches that fall under this category. This textbook, with its detailed analyses and data, will prove immensely beneficial to professionals and students involved in this area at various levels.

And in Nutrition and Metabolism: Processes and Technologies (Kaden Hunt, editor):

This book provides comprehensive insights into the field of nutrition and metabolism. It provides deep insights about this field. Some of the diverse topics covered in this text address the varied branches that fall under this category. Such selected concepts that redefine this subject have been presented in it. This book aims to shed light on some of the unexplored aspects of this field. It is meant for students who are looking for an elaborate reference text on nutrition and metabolism.

One more example: Material Science and Engineering (Emilio McMahon, editor)

The book aims to shed light on some of the unexplored aspects of materials science and engineering. It describes in detail the various concepts and theories of this field. The topics included in it are of utmost significance and bound to provide incredible insights to students. Some of the diverse topics covered in this book address the varied branches that fall under this category. This textbook is an essential guide for both graduates and post-graduates in this discipline.

The common thread is that all of these books are published by Larson and Keller. I guess they can’t be bothered to spend time crafting a blurb that suits the book, so they just use the same blurb template for all of their books.

¹ Rory Jaffe found that the book cover image it is an Alamy stock photo from 2013 with the title “Program code on a monitor.”

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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.