Not counting the fact that the book is old, i would generally not recommend it. The contents and topics have not changed that much but the book is just rather h

Not counting the fact that the book is old, i would generally not recommend it. The contents and topics have not changed that much but the book is just rather horrible to read. For whatever reason the author decided to ramble on for way to many pages instead of getting a point across in a concise manner. The whole thing should have been done in 300 pages instead of 900+. You will just start flipping pages without reading them and then put that gargantuan behemoth of endless words and sentences on the shelf (or return it to the library, delete the ebook or whatever). That code does not look overly hideous (apart from the split magic string) just reformat it into a couple of lines.