Path: utzoo!attcan!telly!moore!eastern!egsgate!Uucp From: Unknown.Of.250/401@p402.f401.n250.z1.FidoNet.Org (Unknown Of 250/401) Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal Subject: Re: Borland flaming Message-ID: <671521507.6@egsgate.FidoNet.Org> Date: 7 Apr 91 21:11:33 GMT Sender: Uucp@egsgate.FidoNet.Org Lines: 79 > Let's face it, Borland has a good track record in their C++ > development, and I have no reason to flame them for anything. I will give you a reason for free: Borland documentation is awful. To prove this assertion would require a much longer critique than you would care to read. However, I can illustrate my assertion with a few examples. I hope you will agree that, just as these few examples do not prove the assertion, so too the assertion would not be disproved should you disqualify an example on the basis of currency or overall importance. o The Turbo C++ manuals describe several methods to tell the compiler whether to regard the input program as "C++ code" or as "C code", but I have not found an explanation in any of the four Turbo C++ manuals of how the results might differ. How is it possible that Borland could describe a compiler switch without explaining its effect? I could speculate that the difference might have something to do with "type-safe linkage", but that term is not mentioned in any of the Turbo C++ manuals, as far as I have determined. (However, Borland manuals are poorly organized, so it is hard to find things. I am certain that "type-safe linkage" does not appear in any form in any of the indexes.) o The following excerpt from the Turbo Assembler User's Guide (page 529 in my edition) is Borland's explanation of what is commonly known as "scope", in regard to field names within structure defintions: > They say you can't take it with you but, just in case they're > wrong, this example shows how to create a variable with three > fields, storing your net worth in dimes, nickels, and pennies in a > structure named Heaven. The fields Dimes and Nickels are unique > to the structure. Pennies, though, occurs twice. First, there's > Pennies outside the structure's pearly gates, and then there's > Pennies from Heaven. The reader's task is more difficult when useful information is hidden within nonsense like this, and there's lots of nonsense like this in Borland manuals. I don't go to technical manuals to find amusement or entertainment. It is tedious to wade through nonsense like this to find the information I need. Perhaps if the Borland documentation people spent less time writing long tutorials and weaving nonsense into their prose, they could devote more time to their primary mission, which is to produce accurate, concise, and complete technical documentation. o In Turbo Pascal 5.0, unsigned integers are not allowed as labeuE cz8V9.RTuDnV GDMK]xM1ZtD%VMwa:TQM0``CO$aVK >4w|vnNQQ-X60$QB[Be$V {GDUwfV0D*6/12i1iYF\(2q|LusFQwXj${D#Ou4&7t8`a8TAIueq Y&W|7I,;T2P@PpM[]hNq?Mq*xf(}TAwHAQPD aTi Qzh*%RM#34P Z2Bv P u(!O=!$d%iTd9T`r Jl@C4Phz C]V0M=eJK\dn)$ Qa WX3M hP>pR2;2 1 N:H\fRD-$dnMY c3X;B=J}C yr&5DMh 0r} /? g$4dM $U?zBp = BX3f`XV+]D! s, s!Np/EbLg0Ie[BJ88 0X Ws&1Ch$uWbL7[ Q%4#4Bo" "& dwJ!->F`pRbRR6z=*Hj!Jh^ C1I"lxH4"+#StHTcrPPU; 3U. G\WD 9.s6iUc?%8%A}^f3s5WA7yjC@