Re: Lunacy++

From: James Kanze (james.kanze_at_free.fr)
Date: 11/14/04 

Date: 14 Nov 2004 02:20:54 +0100

"AlexV" <alexV@comcast.net> writes:

|> "Jacques Guy" <jguy@alphalink.com.au> wrote in message
|> news:41934721.3E37@alphalink.com.au...
|> > Out of a small book "Programming in C++"
|> > by Mark Greenway and Julian Kelsey, in
|> > the beginner's section, the beginner is
|> > introduced to "The simplest C++ Program:
|> > Hello world!". Six lines (the last one
|> > just "}"), and here is the second line:

|> > #include <iostream>

    [...]
|> I think you have an exuberance problem, though. This post is not
|> funny at all and you do not understand it. What you quoted is a
|> professional text not for a common man. If you are looking for
|> styles you should not read C++.

I have more than a few collegues who would disagree with you. And in
fact, with a bit of discipline, it is possible to write elegant programs
in C++. (I don't think that is what you meant, but that is what it
seems to say.)

|> I am writing this post out of my sense of a fair play. What you are
|> doing is unfair. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this text at
|> all. I am familiar with C++ and have read and written many programs
|> myself. Every single word in this text for beginners is in place.

I am considered an expert in C++ myself, and I would certainly disagree.

Technical books can be well written. Consider something like "C++
Templates, The Complete Guide" (Vandevoorde and Josuttis) -- it covers a
very advanced and very difficult topic, and is never the less very well
written.

To this day, I'm convinced that the main reason C became as popular as
it did is because Kernighan was such a skilled writer -- it certainly
isn't because of any quality in the language itself. 

-- 
James Kanze
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                         Beratung in objektorientierter Datenverarbeitung
9 place Pierre Sémard, 78210 St.-Cyr-l'École, France +33 (0)1 30 23 00 34

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