Re: [boost] [function types] New tag type logic [update]

From: Tobias Schwinger (tschwinger_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-07-06 10:40:13

David Abrahams wrote:
> I learned this rule from Andrew Koenig, who said it was one of the
> surprising things he learned from his editors after writing his first
> book.
> 

I believe the root for this rule being surprising is that just saying "this" in 
informal, spoken language is often not big of a problem, because the receiver of a 
message can ask if things are unclear. However, a book or technical documentation 
communicates in a unidirectional way and asking for clarification is usually not 
that easy (as we usually don't drink tea with the authors of our favourite books 
or papers on a regular basis -- and even if, we'ld most likely know more 
interesting things to talk about and/or forget to ask ;-) ).

I learned from Dave's numerous comments on this topic, that for these reasons it's 
imporant to be careful with 'this', 'that' and 'it' in written language.

Strict-typedness (in some ways) buys us the same sort of clarity when programming 
(with the unfortunate difference, that compiling natural languages involves much 
more human work). And even without a formal requirement, adding an antecedent to 
every 'this' there is would still make a lot of sense (as those of you who know 
Perl will most likely "use strict" if the program gets longer than a handful of 
lines).

Just my EUR -,02.

Regards,

Tobias