Download PDF How Not to Program in C++: 111 Broken Programs and 3 Working Ones, or Why Does by Steve Oualline

Sinopsis

Before the days of ATMs you had to go to the bank and manually make a deposit. Usually you would use one of the preprinted deposit slips found in the back of your checkbook. These came with your account number written in magnetic ink on the bottom of the slip. If you ran out of slips, the bank would provide you with one. It had no number written at the bottom, so when it was processed using the bank's automatic machinery, so the machine kicked it out and a clerk manually entered the account number. A crook printed up his own version of the "generic" deposit slip. It looked like the normal "generic" deposit slip, except that the crook's account number was printed in magnetic ink at the bottom. He then went to the bank and slipped these slips into the bins holding the "generic" slips. The scam worked this way: A customer entered the bank to make a deposit and got one of the doctored slips.
 

He filled it out and made a deposit. Since the slip contains an account number, the computer automatically processed it and made a deposit into the account written on the bottom. Ignored was the handwritten account number on the slip. In other words, our crook was hijacking deposits. A detective assigned to the case was baffled. Deposits were disappearing and no one knew how. He narrowed it down to deposits made in the bank. He decided to try and make a large number of deposits and see what would happen. Since he was using his own money, the deposits would have to be very small. Very very small. In fact they were for 6¢ each. The detective spent a week making deposits. He would go to the bank, fill out a slip, get in line, make a deposit for 6¢, fill out a new slip, get in line, make a deposit for 6¢, and so on. The clerks thought he was crazy. One day, one of his deposits disappeared. So he had the bank search its records to see if anyone else had made a 6¢ deposit that day. Someone had, and the crook was caught.

Content

1. Chapter 1 - In the Beginning
2. Chapter 2 - Starting Out on the Wrong Foot
3. Chapter 3 - One Character Wonders
4. Chapter 4 - Everyday Problems
5. Chapter 5 - C Code, C Code Break
6. Chapter 6 - Premature Breakage
7. Chapter 7 - Classes with No Class
8. Chapter 8 - Expert Confusion
9. Chapter 9 - Portage to Hell
10. Chapter 10 - A Few Working Programs
11. Chapter 11 - Threaded, Embedded — Dreaded

 

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