Re: A note on computing thugs and coding bums

On Jan 9, 8:11 pm, "Stephen Howe" <sjhoweATdialDOTpipexDOTcom> wrote:
..., I am being assaulted for speaking this truth: that it would be
possible to discuss Herb's errors in a specific book, such as the
omission of virtual base classes, without once using syntax of the
form "don't trust Herb" or "Herb is incompetent".

But people have reached those conclusions _AFTER_ reviewing _MANY_ books of
Herb, not 1 book.
It is not prejudice, it is postjudice.
I would interested to know if Herb's coverage of C#, Java or the STL is as
slipshod.
I could certainly check what he has to say about the STL and know if it is
any good.

This is being done, I believe, by Richard Heathfield here as the
editor of an inferior and little-regarded book, C Unleashed, to
promote his sales in an inappropriately commercial misuse of usenet.

But it has been pointed out that distrust of Herb began _LONG BEFORE_
Richard's book.
I posted links which show distrust of  Schildt back in 1995.
So are you believing FALSE FACTS CONTRARY TO EVIDENCE NILGE?

Almost every review mentions that he's a good writer, and then
proceeds to take him to task for not getting excited about C insider
information which is not needed by the beginner, and in the case of
insider information which is "standard" but not implemented on real
compilers, misleading...and then calls Herb misleading when he says
"negative numbers are twos complement" NOT as a statement about C, but
about the real world.

You "post links". Well, the Vandals' article on Herb in wikipedia
shows that on the Internet, anyone can "post links" elsethread to ruin
another person strictly by innuendo, without having to comprehend
thisthread defenses of that person's record (the inability to
comprehend English being already on display in this exchange by many
anti-Schildt persons). "Posting links" elsethread is nastily
reminiscent of a drunken Joe McCarthy waving empty slips of paper on
which a drunken Joe McCarthy claims he has the names of Communists.

I've already shown how to critique a person's work without trashing
him. Precisely because the Internet allows rumor to flourish, job one
should be protecting other peoples' reputations by discussing flaws,
not in them, but in their work.

In fact, all the errors in C++: The Complete Reference could be
identified as a comp.programming FAQ by anyone genuinely concerned
without a single fucking word about Schildt. As a computer author
who's not sought media fame or infamy other than by fulfilling to his
contractors, he's protected by US libel law against broad and global
charges of incompetence which could harm his employability. I hope he
sues your ass, in other words.

McGraw Hill didn't accept most of the errata because they seem like,
and are, the ravings of geeks with a hair up their skinny butts saying
"C must be and can be standardized" when in fact C is a coding bum
language that should only be used to maintain legacy C code. C++ may
also be a similar mistake.



[Snip] "computing thugs" & "coding bums" subjective drivel, none of which I
recognise in many USENET programmers and I have been here since 1995.

Richard Heathfield is a computing thug because he is misusing this
site for commercial gain. Randy Howard is a coding bum who doesn't
contribute much more than abuse and conventional wisdom. Both are
thugs also because they vandalize threads with opinions about
personalities.


Stephen Howe

.