2 ms·
Say what you will about Windows development, but back in the 90's the MSDN reference documentation that Microsoft shipped for Win32 and MFC was quite good. Almo
by ryandrake 2y ago
Say what you will about Windows development, but back in the 90's the MSDN reference documentation that Microsoft shipped for Win32 and MFC was quite good. Almost gold standard good. That, plus Petzold and Prosise, and you pretty much could answer any API question you had without even going online.
Yet, we had engineers who would still just hunt and peck and stumble guess until they either accidentally got it working or they'd ask a more senior guy for help (who would always first say: did you read the documentation?) There was no excuse back then, the documentation was good and accurate, and if you followed it, it worked. Were there hidden dark corners of Win32? Sure, but the 99 percentile developer never needed to even go near them.
- d0mine 2y agoIt was good but it was not perfect. I remember leaving comments such as “MSDN says X, but the actual behavior is Y, therefore there is Z in the code” The fact that I remember this is the evidence that it was not everyday occurrence that the docs were good overall.