4 ms·

Is it just me or is the intro relating to COM a bit off the mark?

by bfrog 5y ago

ghshephard 5y ago
The intro is about how some things change slowly. His transition paragraph is how things don't seem to get better. He then does his real topic launch by then identifying something that did change quickly, and did get better. I've been reading Spolsky essays for 20 years, he really is incredibly talented. So much so that even today, you can reference some of his early essays on "commoditizing your complement" in the tech industry - and there is a better than average chance that the person you are speaking to will be familiar with Joel's essay on this topic.
khazhoux 5y ago
It resonated for me because 10 years ago I worked on a COM project (browser extension that had to support IE) and the total lack of information for that "pre-internet" technology meant I had to rely on very hard to find books. There was one book in particular that without it, the project would have failed. And that's what everything used to be like (well, more like before Internet, not necessarily before Stack Overflow).
- BeefWellington 5y ago
  Having stopped writing COM components in the early 2000s, back then there were very good resources at Microsoft's site (MSDN) as well as within the Visual Studio help. It's interesting to hear it got worse just ten years later but kind of doesn't surprise me that they wouldn't upkeep that kind of documentation.
  - HWR_14 5y ago
    I did a COM project around the same time. It took a little bit of searching, but I found an excellent tutorial on a random site. Something that could not have existed at StackOverflow because it didn't answer a specific question, any question it answered would have been downvoted, and it would have been difficult to find there.
thorwasdfasdf 5y ago
not to us old farts, who get a great feeling of nostalgia when we read about those win32 APIesque topics.
- drewcoo 5y ago
  That's not nostalgia. Look behind you!!! My primary use of Win32 APIs now is to scare people away from making anything that byzantine. If the APIs don't do the trick, I start telling back compat stories. [shudder]
- squarefoot 5y ago
  Win32? ...Ha! That's modern stuff. My first thought was "who the heck would need to maintain .COM DOS executables in 2021?":)

Is it just me or is the intro relating to COM a bit off the mark?

by bfrog 5y ago

Is it just me or is the intro relating to COM a bit off the mark?

The intro is about how some things change slowly. His transition paragraph is how things don't seem to get better. He then does his real topic launch by then identifying something that did change quickly, and did get better. I've been reading Spolsky essays for 20 years, he really is incredibly talented. So much so that even today, you can reference some of his early essays on "commoditizing your complement" in the tech industry - and there is a better than average chance that the person you are speaking to will be familiar with Joel's essay on this topic.

khazhoux 5y ago

It resonated for me because 10 years ago I worked on a COM project (browser extension that had to support IE) and the total lack of information for that "pre-internet" technology meant I had to rely on very hard to find books. There was one book in particular that without it, the project would have failed. And that's what everything used to be like (well, more like before Internet, not necessarily before Stack Overflow).

BeefWellington 5y ago
Having stopped writing COM components in the early 2000s, back then there were very good resources at Microsoft's site (MSDN) as well as within the Visual Studio help. It's interesting to hear it got worse just ten years later but kind of doesn't surprise me that they wouldn't upkeep that kind of documentation.
- HWR_14 5y ago
  I did a COM project around the same time. It took a little bit of searching, but I found an excellent tutorial on a random site. Something that could not have existed at StackOverflow because it didn't answer a specific question, any question it answered would have been downvoted, and it would have been difficult to find there.

thorwasdfasdf 5y ago

not to us old farts, who get a great feeling of nostalgia when we read about those win32 APIesque topics.

drewcoo 5y ago
That's not nostalgia. Look behind you!!! My primary use of Win32 APIs now is to scare people away from making anything that byzantine. If the APIs don't do the trick, I start telling back compat stories. [shudder]
squarefoot 5y ago
Win32? ...Ha! That's modern stuff. My first thought was "who the heck would need to maintain .COM DOS executables in 2021?":)