Coding Horror

programming and human factors

How Not To Write a Technical Book, Epilogue

I arrived at work today to find this package.

package mailer

It's from one "C. Petzold", whoever the heck that is.

Inside was a copy of the book 3D Programming for Windows: Three-Dimensional Graphics Programming for the Windows Presentation Foundation.

3D Programming for Windows: Three-Dimensional Graphics Programming for the Windows Presentation Foundation

It's even inscribed:

book inscription: Jeff, Hope you enjoy this one! (And I hope I didn't make too many coding or literary horrors.)

This is, of course, a reference to my post How Not To Write a Technical Book, in which I rather harshly called Petzold's previous book "a greyscale sea of endless text and interminable code", and compared it very unfavorably with Adam Nathan's book on the same topic.

I can't speak for the quality of the book, as I haven't had time to read it yet. But if nothing else, it tells us that Charles Petzold has a good sense of humor. (And, indirectly, it demonstrates the value of an "about me" page on your blog with your contact information.)

Thanks, Mr. Petzold.

Written by Jeff Atwood

Indoor enthusiast. Co-founder of Stack Overflow and Discourse. Disclaimer: I have no idea what I'm talking about. Find me here: https://infosec.exchange/@codinghorror