W
wade
I almost lost patient...
Any advice?
Any advice?
M
Martin Dickopp
If you have so little patience that reading the FAQ is already too much,
computer programming isn't for you. You'd need patience for the latter
activity as well.
Martin
O
osmium
I think there is something very annoying about long computer files. I
bought the C++ FAQ by Marshall Cline in paperback and I have never been
sorry, I consider it an essential book. But I don't really know if there is
a printed version for C. IMO computers will never totally replace trees,
there will always be some residual need for paper documents..
D
Dan Pop
In said:
You may want to read the very first paragraph of the c.l.c FAQ:
This article is Copyright 1990-1999 by Steve Summit. Content from the
book _C Programming FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions_ is made available
here by permission of the author and the publisher as a service to the
community. It is intended to complement the use of the published text
and is protected by international copyright laws.
A bit further down:
Other versions of this document are also available. Posted along with
it are an abridged version and (when there are changes) a list of
differences with respect to the previous version. A hypertext version
is available on the web at the aforementioned URL. Finally, for those
who might prefer a bound, hardcopy version (and even longer answers to
even more questions!), a book-length version has been published by
Addison-Wesley (ISBN 0-201-84519-9).
Dan
K
Keith Thompson
"almost"
There may be hope for you.
E
E. Robert Tisdale
Search the on-line comp.lang.c FAQ:
http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html
If you don't find the answer to your question,
post your question to the comp.lang.c newsgroup
and say that,
"I searched the FAQ but I couldn't find the answer."
Subscribers to the comp.lang.c newsgroup
will be happy to help you find the relevant answer in the FAQ.
D
Dan Pop
In said:
No need for this preamble:
1. If the answer is not to be found in the FAQ, no one will blame you for
not reading the FAQ before posting, for the simple reason that there is
no way to tell whether you read it or not ;-)
2. If the answer *is* in the FAQ, you will be toasted, anyway. You will
be suspected of being either a liar or an idiot.
Dan
E
E. Robert Tisdale
Dan said:
by trolls like Dan Pop.
Dan,
Did you ever consider the possibility that
a new subscriber might search the FAQ
and not recognize a relevant question?
This is just one of the differences between helpful regular subscribers
and trolls like yourself who snack on new subscribers.
C
CBFalconer
E. Robert Tisdale said:
Has anyone formed their own mental picture of Trollsdale? Mine is
of a stooped malevolent small being, with a blotchy complexion,
long nails, stringy hair and running sores, cackling to itself in
an ill-lit corner.
I
Irrwahn Grausewitz
E. Robert Tisdale said:
.... said the phisher to the mermaid.
E
Eric Sosman
CBFalconer said:
Odd; my mental picture is of someone whose answer
(the part you snipped, here restored):
.... is exactly right. One of the hallmarks of a newbie,
in pretty much any field of endeavor, is that all the bits
of new knowledge float around independently, and the
connections between them are not apparent. For example,
a newbie might have the problem that
printf ("%f\n", sin(theta));
produces absurd output, well outside the range [-1..+1].
If said newbie hunts all over the FAQ looking for advice
on how to get sin() to work, he'll get a lot of help on
linker options, but none on his actual problem. It is
only after a modicum of experience has been gained that
he'll realize that the apparently unrelated
Question 14.2
I'm trying to take some square roots, but I'm
getting crazy numbers.
is actually the information he needs.
Returning to the subject of ERT, I admit I am no fan:
he insists on too many sillinesses (all C programs should
be compilable as C++; whatever my compiler does defines
the language). It does not follow, though, that everything
he writes is wrong. And even if he were unfailingly fallible,
that would not justify playground taunts.
Didn't your mother ever tell you: "If you've nothing
nice to say, say nothing?" I'm sure she did, but you must
not have heard it over the racket of her Army boots.
A
Alan Balmer
That's not a nice thing to say ;-)
J
Joe Wright
Where did that come from? When I was a boy, long before you were,Eric said:
"Your mother wears Army boots" were fighting words (although I was
never sure why). Today thousands of mothers serve proudly and
honorably in the Army. I can't imagine why you would want to insult
Chuck Falconer. What's going on?
Anyway it wasn't mother who told you that. It was Thumper.
T
those who know me have no need of my name
in comp.lang.c i read:
i hear the faq for flipping burgers is much shorter.
I almost lost patient...
Any advice?
i hear the faq for flipping burgers is much shorter.
M
Michael Wojcik
http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/bulletin_board/18/messages/508.html
It was a jocular negative example of the point Eric was making about
Chuck's post insulting ERT. I thought that was pretty clear from
the context, but these things are often tough to communicate clearly
in Usenet (due to a combination of the conventions of the medium and
how readers typically regard it).
J
Joona I Palaste
Not being USAn, or Anglo-Saxic at all for that matter, I still fail to
comprehend what is particularly offensive about someone's mother or
sister being associated with the Army. Could someone explain?
K
Keith Thompson
Joona I Palaste said:
The expression "Your mother wears Army boots" is a childish insult,
not likely to be taken seriously by anyone over the age of 10 or so.
I'm don't even know whether it's still in use; I stopped hanging out
on elementary school playgrounds a long time ago. (I've also heard it
as "Your mother wears combat boots".)
As for why it's considered an insult, I'm not quite sure, but I
suspect it has to do with gender role reversal. Army boots are
considered masculine, so accusing someone's mother of wearing them is
an insult, though a much milder one than, say, accusing someone's
father of wearing a dress. (The reasons for that distinction are
complex and *extremely* off-topic, so I won't go into it.)
There are a number of reasons why it's absurd for the expression to be
considered insulting. That was Eric's point; it's *childish* and not
to be taken seriously.
To someone who was raised in USAn culture as I was, Eric's comment was
hilarious; my only complaint is that it's too long for a sig quote.
It has the form of an insult, but it's phrased in such a way as to
make it clear that it's not to be taken at all seriously, mocking the
very idea of an insult. A less subtle, and less culture-specific,
version might be something like, "Personal insults are inappropriate
in this newsgroup, you ugly moron."
Now that we've destroyed the joke by exlaining it to death, let's go
back to talking about C.
A
Alan Balmer
Maybe someone could, but not me. I've heard the expression all my
life, but never actually understood it.
M
Mark McIntyre
Not entirely. I believe it was supposed to imply that your mother had
earned a pair of army boots as part payment for 'services rendered' to the
needy occupation troops billeted in the village while the menfolk were off
being shot at in the hills.
A
August Derleth
That's one interpretation, but not the one that springs immediately to
(my) mind. Joona is probably interested in the more `mainstream'
interpretation of the insult, which Alan Balmer has given: It implies that
your mother is mannish, as opposed to womanly, and therefore would
probably be rather ugly.
Of course, what's mainstream to me could be off-the-wall* to someone else.
*Bizarre and absurd.