Detecting the World

Capturing Physical Measurements with C++

Chapter 1 Overview

Chapter 2 Measuring Speed

Chapter 3 Measuring Voltage, Current, and Resistance

Chapter 4 Software Calibration and Analysis
(I developed a very good Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) Class in here,  that I should have broken out as a seperate chapter -  Signal Processing.)

Chapter 5 Measuring Temperature

Chapter 6 Measuring Force and Pressure

Appendix A Units Reference Guide

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Spin-Offs

I need to port this to Linux! The DOS code still works. The Windows code works on 9X Windows variants: (95, 98, Millenium). The parallel port software isn't compatible with WinNT variants: (NT, 2000, XP). Also, I want to do control.

• stepper motors
• servo motors
• solonoids
• etc. ...

A follow-on book might be titled: 'Controlling the World'! I will do an online version first. ALL feedback on the book has been positive from the people who have emailed me. Please write and give me your ideas.

Rebuttal of Chris Hills review of my book.

I am not going to provide a link to the review. I have asked Chris if he would revisit the review, as it is out of character with all of the feedback from readers. (A statistical outlier, which must be rejected.)  I have no idea what action he took in response to my request.

Chris is certainly qualified to review the book.
He is an EE and a knowledgeable C,C++ programmer, who sits on standards committees.
But his personal preferences cloud his judgement.
He is in Great Britain, and I guess they don't know about Radio Shack. 
My target audience was primarily American, though others should be able to take a 120 Volt primary and understand that you need to substitute a 220 Volt one where required.  That's all!

I'm also dinged for a simplistic power supply design, but that was the point of the book, to be simple, but complete in all of what it means to acquire analog data.

What I find especially ironic is that there is no critical review of the code or the circuits!  So as a review of Chris' review, I find it both biased and incomplete. I do not recommend it.

It was a difficult book to write, having a target audience of either C++ programmers - wanting to get into interfacing or EEs - wanting to do programming.  I would have given up if it weren't for the encouragement of Bernie Williams and Robert Ward. 

Perhaps it was too broad an audience, but the people who have emailed me about the book have all found it interesting and useful. The reviews on Amazon.com are good.

Chris also mentions that source code belongs on the disk; not in the book. I heartily disagree with this. C coders often glibly remark that the documentation is in the source. And so it is, for a programmer. Well commented source code is important and useful information, and it should be in the book.  I would never buy a book on programming without source code listings. A lot of them.

Chris rightly recommends uc/OS by Jean Labrosse, though Jean also includes more source listings than my book. Two of the reviews on Amazon are not really reviews but requests for the source disk!  I think that buttresses my point quite nicely.  (Though a kind of an odd venue for requesting a disk!)

I just emailed Chris again to ask if he had ever written a book. His answer was no. I would like to review his book if he ever writes one:)  (UPDATE, Chris has Co-Authored and edited a book on Automotive Controls.)

Can I as an author learn anything from what Chris wrote?  I'm still thinking about that one.  I would have to agree more with his review, which I think was sloppy, biased and unfair.