What is more arrogant? To make statements based on long and deep familiarity with a given subject, or to dismiss those statements because one doesn't understand them? The latter implies that, you are SO smart, that if you can't immediately grasp the basis of their complaint, it is groundless.
Let's see, you have flat tables with a defined primary key and you form relations between these flat tables.
No, you don't! This is not a statement that would be made by a person who understands the relational model. Tables aren't flat. Relations aren't between tables.
You probably do have some familiarity with products that call themselves "relational" but they aren't true to the model, and that is probably the source of your misunderstanding, and that is Date's gripe.
A snit crassly dismisses several millenia of literature because it is unstructured.
No he didn't. Literature has structure. Chapters, paragraphs, sentences, words. Themes, story arcs, scenes, settings. Etc, etc.
Can you honestly claim that XML is "unstructured" information? Does it not have organizing priciples? Date is saying that to claim that XML is useful for "unstructured" information is nonsense, because there is no such thing.
I use both Java and VB (and other things) and find it odd to hear that you can't find the information you need for VB, because I've always thought that MS's online docs were well-organized and complete. Usually when people complain about them they haven't explored what's available. It's usually possible to get a very specific answer to a given problem, often with sample code.
Try msdn.microsoft.com. Don't mess with their site navigation, just do a full text search.
As for books, quantity is not as important as quality. How many books on VB do you need to read?
VB does make it easy to write horrificly bad code. But in the hands of someone who knows the tool, it also makes it easy to write elegant software. For that matter, I've seen some awful Java code, too.
And because this one idiot was an MCSE therefore all MCSEs are idiots?
Maybe you should review your basic set theory before you start feeling too superior...
Second that. I can't speak to the claims about the quality of GPL code, but i can say that Code Complete and Rapid Development are both excellent books by a former MS employee, Stevel McConnell.
Both books are language and platform neutral, and Code Complete in particular should be required reading for every starting programmer.
These are also great books for a library because both newbies and old timers will get something from them.
It has been mentioned, but just to be clear, the MSDN documentation is still free, and requires no login. This is fact, and you can verify it by simply going to the MSDN website.
It seems highly unlikely that MS would start to charge for this documentation because Microsoft has always succeeded based on their ability to evangelize their products to developers and internal IT shops who then build applications that run on Windows.
The downloads that are now secured by Passport are typically things that you would normally have to pay money for if you were not a subscriber, or they are pre-release versions not made available to the general community. Obviously, if you are Microsoft, you have to secure this stuff somehow. May as well have a single logon for people that come to your domain. Hell, if you go to Oracle.com or Sun.com, you'll find similar systems. They just aren't called Passport. Would it make anybody feel better if MS gave it a different name?
By the way, nobody gives a rat's ass about operating systems or development tools except nerds. It's the availability of useful and well-marketed applications that drive the success of a given platform. Unfortunately, an application can be a buggy pile of garbage that runs on a rusty shitbox of an OS and still succeed: if it does something users need, and they can learn how to make it work well enough, then it can be sold.
The open source community would do well to stop this intellectual masturbation contest of trying to outdo each other's self-righteous indignation. Insulting and alienating developers, companies and users who currently rely on Microsoft products is not a good way to make converts. The message you send to your potential supporters and customers is "w3'r3 700 1337 4 u!" To which I say, "Fuck off and get a clue, nerd boy. You're completely missing the point."
So, bash Microsoft all you like, until your head starts to bleed from banging it against a wall. Your energy is better spent developing and evangelizing better solutions. Not necessarily technically better, but better in the eyes of business customers, who often have concerns that might seem pretty alien to nerds, like: "Is this vendor large enough for us to sue if something goes wrong?"
I don't see MS as evil. They are ruthless, arrogant, satisfied with nothing but complete victory, and unparticular about the means they use to achieve it. But they aren't eating babies or pushing elderly old ladies in front of oncoming traffic. (As far as we know.)
I'd love to see someone give Microsoft a good fight. I fear that the naive idealism and inbred nerd culture of the open-source movement will limit its success.
Slashdot Mirror
*golf clap*
FEWER! FEWER! FEWER!
It's FEWER Visual Basic Programmers. You can't have LESS of something that is measured in atomic units!!!!
(Sigh. This is a losing battle.)
I use both Java and VB (and other things) and find it odd to hear that you can't find the information you need for VB, because I've always thought that MS's online docs were well-organized and complete. Usually when people complain about them they haven't explored what's available. It's usually possible to get a very specific answer to a given problem, often with sample code.
Try msdn.microsoft.com. Don't mess with their site navigation, just do a full text search.
As for books, quantity is not as important as quality. How many books on VB do you need to read?
VB does make it easy to write horrificly bad code. But in the hands of someone who knows the tool, it also makes it easy to write elegant software. For that matter, I've seen some awful Java code, too.
And because this one idiot was an MCSE therefore all MCSEs are idiots? Maybe you should review your basic set theory before you start feeling too superior...
Actually, the whole thing is a steaming mound.
But what irks me most is that the reason most viruses target Windows is simple: MOST COMPUTERS RUN WINDOWS!
Any platform is susceptible to viruses. Anybody who wants their virus to spread successfully should logically write it for the most common host.
Do Anti-Microsoft Zealots lose part of their brain function when they are recruited into the fold?
Second that. I can't speak to the claims about the quality of GPL code, but i can say that Code Complete and Rapid Development are both excellent books by a former MS employee, Stevel McConnell. Both books are language and platform neutral, and Code Complete in particular should be required reading for every starting programmer. These are also great books for a library because both newbies and old timers will get something from them.
I don't even do any significant work with crytopgraphy, but I'd recommend Schneier's book just 'cuz it's a fun read.
It has been mentioned, but just to be clear, the MSDN documentation is still free, and requires no login. This is fact, and you can verify it by simply going to the MSDN website.
It seems highly unlikely that MS would start to charge for this documentation because Microsoft has always succeeded based on their ability to evangelize their products to developers and internal IT shops who then build applications that run on Windows.
The downloads that are now secured by Passport are typically things that you would normally have to pay money for if you were not a subscriber, or they are pre-release versions not made available to the general community. Obviously, if you are Microsoft, you have to secure this stuff somehow. May as well have a single logon for people that come to your domain. Hell, if you go to Oracle.com or Sun.com, you'll find similar systems. They just aren't called Passport. Would it make anybody feel better if MS gave it a different name?
By the way, nobody gives a rat's ass about operating systems or development tools except nerds. It's the availability of useful and well-marketed applications that drive the success of a given platform. Unfortunately, an application can be a buggy pile of garbage that runs on a rusty shitbox of an OS and still succeed: if it does something users need, and they can learn how to make it work well enough, then it can be sold.
The open source community would do well to stop this intellectual masturbation contest of trying to outdo each other's self-righteous indignation. Insulting and alienating developers, companies and users who currently rely on Microsoft products is not a good way to make converts. The message you send to your potential supporters and customers is "w3'r3 700 1337 4 u!" To which I say, "Fuck off and get a clue, nerd boy. You're completely missing the point."
So, bash Microsoft all you like, until your head starts to bleed from banging it against a wall. Your energy is better spent developing and evangelizing better solutions. Not necessarily technically better, but better in the eyes of business customers, who often have concerns that might seem pretty alien to nerds, like: "Is this vendor large enough for us to sue if something goes wrong?"
I don't see MS as evil. They are ruthless, arrogant, satisfied with nothing but complete victory, and unparticular about the means they use to achieve it. But they aren't eating babies or pushing elderly old ladies in front of oncoming traffic. (As far as we know.)
I'd love to see someone give Microsoft a good fight. I fear that the naive idealism and inbred nerd culture of the open-source movement will limit its success.