Re: Why has the Metrowerks sign been taken down?

On 2005-06-29 05:17:48 -0700, larry@xxxxxxxxxx said:

I'd say the issue of building "robust, correct code" is a
software engineering problem,

Do you think you can engineer software well without knowing
how the APIs and technologies you're using work and
interact, both within your own software and with the system
as a whole?

Nope. But, say, an understanding of threading, parallelization and deadlock is not the same as an understanding of Apple's -- or anyone else's -- particular API or implementation.


I agree, publishing an API with no documentation is one
thing; a problem Apple should fix.

Well gee, isn't that what I've been saying?

Then why all the complaining about general problems you see in software? Doing so you appear to be making some vague connection to the docs Apple puts out. "Robust, correct code requires understanding more than what parameters you should pass to a function .... You need to understand the big picture and for that you need real documentation." And the documentation is necessary so developers will not "grab some sample code or find a likely looking API, learn as little as possible to get it to compile, and then if they don't get the expected results they post a question on some mailing list."

If a developer grabs some sample code and blindly tries to start creating a complex application without any attempt at understanding the underlying APIs they are using, it is their problem, not Apple's, or Apple's documentation.


And it can't hurt Apple to publish more examples,
tutorials and further documentation.  Sure, I'm all for
it.   But Apple's business is not holding a course in
software engineering, and not teaching people with few
engineering skills how to build complex software.

Thank goodness that isn't what I asked for. Now if I just
had a clue why you went off in this direction...

Hmmmm, how about "too many people today, IMO, fail to study technologies to get a good understanding before they write code" and "on the contrary, it is my belief that code written without an understanding beyond the minimum to needed to get it to work is a significant source of bugs" and so on. What this has to do with Apple not documenting a particular API you know about and are having problems with is beyond me.


Cheers.

-- Brian

.

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