Lots of people here are citing code complete. I am also a big fan of this book. In it, McConnell mentions a defense department survey where they found that variable names were most readable when they were in the neighborhood of 10-20 characters. He was mostly campaigning against short names, but long names are also difficult to read (and can be the source of hard-to-find bugs when character 75 should have been capitalized but wasnt).
Writing 20-character names to avoid using a comment makes sense. If avoiding a comment means using an 80-character name, bite the bullet and use the comment.
State will probably be looking among the people that are biased against MS. (No shortage of them -- state may have to beat them away with a stick.) Lawyers frequently get buried by esoteric documents of various sorts and have to make a case out of it. They will manage, although it would be every bit as difficult as you suggest.
That having been said, something tells me that MSFT will get around this.
If you are writing a book to assist people in getting certified *PLEASE* make an effort to match the material and particularly the sample tests that you are offering to the test that your author is trying to get his readers to pass. The disconnect between what these $50-70 exam books offer and what is actually tested is absolutely shameful. Publishers are simply PREYING on inexperienced people trying to get into our profession.
We can (and should) debate the value of certification itself at another time, but given the current state of things, it is a valid submarket for a publisher to serve. Nevertheless, I am simply astonished that the amount of competition that pursues this market is not resulting in better quality work.
Beyond that, I share the group preference for smaller books (O'Reilly size) that come with an electronic format of some sort (personally, I am fond of.chm files). I praise most publishers for maintinaing a very good (better than most other fields, actually) errata list on their website, although it should never be a substitute for good editing. All example code published should be pasted (not retyped) into a module and compiled. Beginners books should be *ultra-careful* about not using new terms before they have been defined (this is a giant failing of beginner computer books in my experience), and I second the complaints about the incomplete back-of-the-book indexes being incomplete.
The majority of American slaves in the south were skilled only in agriculture and continued their existence after slavery as sharecroppers. As such, they continued to be under the economic thumb of their former employers, who rigged the game so that they could continue to exploit their former slaves to their own advantage. Many of these former slaves recall going to school only when it rained.
By the time the amendment was passed to free the slaves, the world had matured past the point where slavery could be tolerated. THe South was consdiered by most to be an anachronistic throwback. In reality, it took a worldwide drop in cotton prices (in 1920) to truly free the slaves. (Nicholas Leamanns book "Promised Land" tells this story well)
The book Healing Back Pain, by a doctor named Sarno was very helpful to me.
I have found medical doctors are NOT very effective in treating back pain. They instantly diagnose disk damage, even without so much as an x-ray. Unfortunately, since doctors are not effective, an entire industry of quacks has sprung up to fill the void.
Sarno is somewhat contraversial, but at $10 his book is a good place to start. It helped me a great deal.
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Lots of people here are citing code complete. I am also a big fan of this book. In it, McConnell mentions a defense department survey where they found that variable names were most readable when they were in the neighborhood of 10-20 characters. He was mostly campaigning against short names, but long names are also difficult to read (and can be the source of hard-to-find bugs when character 75 should have been capitalized but wasnt).
Writing 20-character names to avoid using a comment makes sense. If avoiding a comment means using an 80-character name, bite the bullet and use the comment.
That having been said, something tells me that MSFT will get around this.
... don't thumbnail Mickey Mouse.
Copyright law is pretty loose until someone fucks with Mickey.
If you are writing a book to assist people in getting certified *PLEASE* make an effort to match the material and particularly the sample tests that you are offering to the test that your author is trying to get his readers to pass. The disconnect between what these $50-70 exam books offer and what is actually tested is absolutely shameful. Publishers are simply PREYING on inexperienced people trying to get into our profession.
.chm files). I praise most publishers for maintinaing a very good (better than most other fields, actually) errata list on their website, although it should never be a substitute for good editing. All example code published should be pasted (not retyped) into a module and compiled. Beginners books should be *ultra-careful* about not using new terms before they have been defined (this is a giant failing of beginner computer books in my experience), and I second the complaints about the incomplete back-of-the-book indexes being incomplete.
We can (and should) debate the value of certification itself at another time, but given the current state of things, it is a valid submarket for a publisher to serve. Nevertheless, I am simply astonished that the amount of competition that pursues this market is not resulting in better quality work.
Beyond that, I share the group preference for smaller books (O'Reilly size) that come with an electronic format of some sort (personally, I am fond of
The majority of American slaves in the south were skilled only in agriculture and continued their existence after slavery as sharecroppers. As such, they continued to be under the economic thumb of their former employers, who rigged the game so that they could continue to exploit their former slaves to their own advantage. Many of these former slaves recall going to school only when it rained.
By the time the amendment was passed to free the slaves, the world had matured past the point where slavery could be tolerated. THe South was consdiered by most to be an anachronistic throwback. In reality, it took a worldwide drop in cotton prices (in 1920) to truly free the slaves. (Nicholas Leamanns book "Promised Land" tells this story well)
They are judging your work not your medium. If your work truly moves people, they will not walk away saying "too bad it wasn't on a canvas".
Communication is what matters.
I have found medical doctors are NOT very effective in treating back pain. They instantly diagnose disk damage, even without so much as an x-ray. Unfortunately, since doctors are not effective, an entire industry of quacks has sprung up to fill the void.
Sarno is somewhat contraversial, but at $10 his book is a good place to start. It helped me a great deal.