I am a third year computer science major at university, I would say I'm a very junior C++ programmer with a solid math background. I certainly meet all your suggested Box2d prerequisites. I bought the book. downloaded all the source code. Read through all the math and got to the demo in Ch 3. The demo would be more understandable if I could try compiling the actual code, but you don't actually talk about installing Box2D until chapter 5. So, in ch 5 you give extremely brief instructions on setting up Box2D with Visual Studio. I followed your instructions, Installed Directx11, (I had to research what you meant by "add dev folder to VS include directories"). I tried running the 'pool end' demo and it does not compile. Missing headers. I've tried just about every Box2d tutorial out there, they all have an exponential learning curve, within 3 minutes they delve into complexities that a novice would not understand. You say your book is different, but you skim right over the most basic step, getting Box2D up and running!

As I understand it, you do not need Box2D until chapter 5, as you will write everything from scratch in the chapters before. So there shouldn't be any need to install Box2D earlier? I have not read the book though. Would be nice to read an answer from Ian or get some updates from you, how you solved your problems.