Period after E but not after BLVD?
Comma between POINT RICHMOND and CA but not between NY and NY?
This code does not compile.
Don’t trust it.
Don’t you think printing the guys name and mailing address on a widely read blog might not be such a wonderful idea?
Man, you guys are sensitive. Some people consider their address a matter of public record, not necessarily a state secret. What are we, Dick Cheney?
Here’s my address:
Jeff Atwood
410 Clayton Ave.
El Cerrito, CA 94530
Scary!
I’m going to knock on your door and run away!
I wish everyone I slated on my blog sent me stuff. Especially car manufacturers
Hm, sounds like bribery or the tactic Michael Jordan used before game time against the Knicks (if anyone remembers that). Just kidding…
Seriously, in defense of Petzold, his books are not intended so much for beginners. But they are great to fill any missing knowledge gap after you have a better understanding about the topic. By that time, other books no longer seem interesting to read, but Petzold’s books begin to.
How paranoid are your readers Jeff ?
"Here’s my address:
Jeff Atwood
410 Clayton Ave.
El Cerrito, CA 94530
Scary!"
Haha! It’s true! What’s so special about an address? I guess if you REALLY want to spend the money and come and see me, I guess that might be creapy… Maybe…
That was indeed classy of Charles Petzold.
OTOH Jeff, I hope this classic example of conflict of interest won’t deter you from the kind of rude-but-needed-to-be-said review of Charles (or anyones) work.
I have just read most of Petzold’s and Nathan’s WPF books. There is a lot of great content in Petzold’s book and I got a lot out of it. But I was frustrated by the lack of simple, tech-writing-101 structural cues like subheadings. I’d have been much happier if Petzold poured his high-quality content into the more standard, obviously structured style that Nathan uses. Hopefully Charles will actually adapt to the constructive criticism rather than just blowing it off. Honestly Charles, take one of your chapters in manuscript form and sit down with a tech writing instructor who doesn’t know who you are and see what they say about your existing style. No one’s too old to improve.
Alex
It may be that he’s not afraid of posting his address himself, it may be a case that you are posting his address without his consent to do so.
Steve.
Although I guess Jeff’s address is public record (at least it is now – I couldn’t find it on anywho.com), it’s amazing what you can find just by poking around.
For example, (probably) Jeff’s neighbor had a false alarm call to the fire department on 2/22/03.
http://www.el-cerrito.org/fire/call_log_february2003.html
(is there a story?? :D)
According to Zillow.com, Jeff’s house is worth ~$613,000, has 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, and is 1200 sq.ft.
http://www.zillow.com/search/Search.htm?addrstrthood=410+Clayton+Avecitystatezip=el+cerrito%2C+caGOButton=%3CSPAN%3EGO%3C%2FSPAN%3E
Other ‘public record’ sites let us know that Jeff is 36.
There’s a lot more out there (thanks to Google) but I’m not feeling too stalkerish this morning 
Petzold is an industry legend and a class act. Like many people I learned Windows programming at the API level from his classic Programming Windows book.
tjb
I haven’t read the book or your post about it, but I’m sure if it’s anything like all other Microsoft sponsored documentation, it’s bloated and confusing.
I’ve always wondered why every single code sample microsoft puts out includes huge amounts of code that does things that have nothing to do with the sample. So if I want to see how I should write a particular piece of code, I first have to extract it from all of the extra code. I really don’t have the time or the patience to do that, so I always end up searching Google and finding some third-party article that explains it clear as day and shows me exactly what to do.
Sometimes I feel like Microsoft over-engineers everything so that only they know how to use it.
I’m looking forward for my copy for arrive, progress on my 3D WPF pinball simluation is on hold until I’ve got a solid 3D reference book: http://www.strifestrips.com/3dpinball
Total class act, Mr Petzold is. And a fine author as well.
What conflict of interest? Writing rude-but-needed-to-be-said reviews gets him free books.
According to Zillow.com, Jeff’s house is worth ~$613,000, has 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, and is 1200 sq.ft.
Also known as “welcome to California”. It’s even crazier in Silicon Valley, if you can imagine that.
How paranoid are your readers Jeff ?
Just because they’re paranoid doesn’t mean people aren’t after them.
I removed the closeup of Petzold’s address last night, just in case. It’s a fair criticism, although I don’t agree with it. Better to err on the side of caution, I suppose.
That’s big of Mr. Petzold, and shows some heartwarming camaraderie among Windows buffs.
Just for the record, I read his book on “Programming Windows 95” and learned an important lesson from it: I decided then and there never to code to the horror that is the Windows C API. I am utterly thankful to Delphi and Java for hiding it so well.
I removed the closeup of Petzold’s address last night, just in case.
It’s a fair criticism, although I don’t agree with it.
Better to err on the side of caution, I suppose.
Ahh… thanks to the paranoid world we’re living in, we now we have to use google cache to see the damn image, how annoying is that?
Hi Jeff,
I’m interested to read your assessment of the 3D book.