C Review

[Darius "OPRDRT" Ragheb]

In article <2313 at brl-adm.ARPA> Peter Steele - Acadia writes:
>I am currently finishing up a new text book on C with a colleague
>of mine and we just received the last of several technical reviews.
>This particular reviewer makes some statements that we find hard
>to accept. However, we're just two people, so we decided to get
>some opinions from other C programmers. Below is a list of some
>his statements. Is this guy for real? Your comments would be
>greatly appreciated. Incidentally, the text is not an intro
>text, it assumes the reader has finished a course in Pascal.
>

First of all...where do you want these responses to go?  

Second:  who is this reviewer?  a person in industry?  if so,
i hope he shapes up: his attitude is, to say the least, disgusting.
In acadamia?  if so, he is a fool.

>"... 95% of all C programmers couldn't give you a good
>explanation of the term lvalue..."

Possibly true, but for god's sake, if your book explains it, then
what is his gripe!

>
>"... Switch/case could be classified as rarely used and should be
>kept till later.

Has this person ever written a program in his life?

>
>"... very few C programmers know much about sizeof..."
>

WHAT? almost ALL programmers (i made this statistic up :-) know
about sizeof....many assemblers and compilers now have this
feature (I mean, non-C compilers are now adding it).

>"... 99%  of  all  professional C  programmers  have no idea
>what typedef is all about, couldn't care less and probably

He made that statistic up.

>won't ever need it."
>
>"... 99%  of  all  professional C  programmers  have no idea
>what the comma operator is all about, couldn't care less and
>probably won't ever need it."
>
>"... Leave the comma operator altogether. An intro book is no
>place for obscure and unmaintainable tricks..."

He has a bad attitude: if 99% of the programmers don;t know about
it, it is high time a good book was published explaining it.  
>
>"... Pointers to functions ... few C programmers understand
>them or would ever need them..."
>
>"... a C programmer never needs to know what a byte is..."
[by the same token, he must agree, then, that a C programmer does
not need to know what a register is.....obviously it is not
ESSENTIAL, but its like saying a pilot does not need to know what
landing gear is: he knows its there, and when he uses it , it works,
but knowledge of it might make him a better pilot]

HAHAHAA sounds like you made this one up to get back at 
the guy!  HAHAHAHAHA Good one.  Is this reviewr a stand up
comedian?  Why doesn't he come to the Comedy Works here
in Denver....he would be a big hit. HHAHAHAHA

Well, I am really not sure if the original posting was a joke or
not.....those points did not seem real, but, those are my reactions
to the reviewer's statements.  What is his problem? Hates people
being educated, or what?

-- 
Functionality, Efficiency, Luxury.

isis!dragheb  |  dragheb at isis.cs.du.edu