New Generation does not realy understand computers
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Everyone here, raise your hand if you even "..care.." about compiler construction. How many hands did you count? Me too, just you. If that is your cup of worms, try Microsoft, Borland, Google, and... .
I spent 20 years writing & running various IT projects, using tools from various big name companies. They always had bugs (I anded up contacting the source developers of compilers, databases, GIS's, etc). Without a solid understanding of both OS & compiler theory, I would never have been able to identify the bugs, either for workarounds or to actually persuade the people that there was something wrong with their code. Did my bosses care? Well, I did keep getting projects, and raises, so I guess so.
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MFC is way harder than it should be. I've come to the conclusion that it's mainly because the documentation is inadequate. Look up an MFC topic and the documentation you get is lacking in both depth and breadth. Much functionality isn't even discussed in the abbreviated documentation, and the context, i.e. HOW it's used is barely touched on in the simplistic example. One quick example: Using the documentation of CDC::CreateCompatibleDC () (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/kwxzck32%28VS.80%29.aspx[^]), how do you use this to work with an 8-bit-per-pixel bitmap? THERE'S ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE! Sure, it's POSSIBLE, but it's a goddamn research project to do something that should only take a few minutes with adequate documentation. I find this to be true in general for Microsoft documentation.
WHS!
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MFC is way harder than it should be. I've come to the conclusion that it's mainly because the documentation is inadequate. Look up an MFC topic and the documentation you get is lacking in both depth and breadth. Much functionality isn't even discussed in the abbreviated documentation, and the context, i.e. HOW it's used is barely touched on in the simplistic example. One quick example: Using the documentation of CDC::CreateCompatibleDC () (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/kwxzck32%28VS.80%29.aspx[^]), how do you use this to work with an 8-bit-per-pixel bitmap? THERE'S ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE! Sure, it's POSSIBLE, but it's a goddamn research project to do something that should only take a few minutes with adequate documentation. I find this to be true in general for Microsoft documentation.
Visual C 6.0 had great documentation for MFC classes. After that, Visual Studio 7 had the most terrible help.