C++ Without Fear

Brian Overland published his first article in a professional math journal at age 14.

After graduating from Yale, he began working on large commercial projects in C and Basic, including an irrigation-control system used all over the world. He also tutored students in math, computer programming, and writing, as well as lecturing to classes at Microsoft and at the community-college level. On the side, he found an outlet for his lifelong love of writing by publishing film and drama reviews in local newspapers. His qualifications as an author of technical books are nearly unique because they involve so much real programming and teaching experience, as well as writing.

In his 10 years at Microsoft, he was a tester, author, programmer, and manager. As a technical writer, he became an expert on advanced utilities, such as the linker and assembler, and was the "go-to" guy for writing about new technology. His biggest achievement was probably organizing the entire documentation set for Visual Basic 1.0 and having a leading role in teaching the "object-based" way of programming that was so new at the time. He was also a member of the Visual C++ 1.0 team.

Since then, he has been involved with the formation of new start-up companies (sometimes as CEO). He is currently working on a novel.