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>What do you think of the 6.0 Hacker's guide?
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>An interesting question. A question that can answered on many different levels..
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>If you ask me to assign a grade based on how much I refer to the book, I would give it an F. Seriously, I do not refer to the Hacker's guide one iota. There are scores of information about the XBase aspects of VFP. I have no use for that type of information. Further, most of the issues I tend to deal with are contained in the MSDN Knowledge Base. It is important I define why I have reached the conclusion I have since my feelings may appear to be a bit biased.
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>The deal is that if you use VFP in a COM or Client/Server setting, the HG is of little use. And, if you take the portion of the book that references the help file directly, I am sure that the volume would be compressed by at least 50%. Take away the irrelevant quotes, and you could cut it down another 10%. I'm sorry, I am not reading a novel here. I don't need to be amused....
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>And, of what is there, do we really need it? Please, do we really need info on _dos, _mac, _windows, or _unix? Go ahead, ask yourself the question, how often do you actually refer to the HG? Flip through the book, how much stuff is irrelevant today? I am sure there are folks that rely on it. However, my guess is that many of the folks who say it is a "must have" book, it rarely gets opened - like most other books that people buy...< s >... Why, because that is the politically correct thing to say...
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>For many VFP developers however, I think the book is a good investment. If it helps you solve one problem, I suppose you could make the argument that the purchase price was worth it. However, could the problem have been solved through the MSDN KB? Maybe that is irrelevant, I don't know...
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>I am amazed at the number of folks who don't utilized MSDN on the web. It is free and is one of the best resources out there. With that said, it is important to remember that the HG is NOT the only place to find the issues related to VFP. When you get down to it, all they did was annotate the help file. Don't get me wrong, I think that it is a valuable service. However, I could think of dozens of folks that could have done just as good, if not a better job.
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>So, for the VFP development community as a whole, I give the 3.0 HG an B and the 6.0 HG a C.
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>Now, I need to be mindful here of Ted Roche. I have the utmost respect for Ted. I know that he does real work. I am also of the opinion that if Ted was not involved in the project, the project would have not been the success it turned out to be. Also, Steve Black was part of the 3.0 HG as well. And, while he did not receive cover credit, my guess is that Steve's contributions were extensive. For as long as I have known Steve, I have never known him to be "partially" involved in anything. And, what is a big mystery, is that his name does not appear in the 6.0 HG. Steve was mentioned in the acknowledgements of the second edition. And, after reading that, it would appear that his contributions were at least as extensive as the first edition. And yet, his name did not appear on the cover or on the inside of the cover. The deal is that if you were involved in a project, and a second edition comes out, and if you put in at least the same amount of work, you get the same play. I am sure there
>are other issues that I am not aware of. However, on the surface, it stinks to me...
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>Obviously, the size of the thing is a disgrace. Heck, it is the same size as my local yellow pages. What is wrong with this picture?????
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>OK, in the final analysis, the HG is better than Siegel's 3.0 book from Sybex. Will you find some use for it, if not the content, it makes a great monitor stand..< bg >... Seriously, there are some good aspects to the book. However, you are asking me to evaluate the book as a whole. The fact is, for me anyway, much of the book is irrelevant. Either because I simply do not use those features of the book, or because better material exists on MSDN, or because the issues I am trying to solve, are flat out, not addressed in the book.
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>And you thought that was going to be a simple question...< bg >...

Thanks, John.

No, I knew it wasn't a simple question. I asked because I know a lot of VFP'ers consider the Hacker's Guide (at least the 3.0 HG) to be the VFP bible of sorts. I guess I view it as a glorified help file with some additional tips but I wouldn't recommend it to someone looking to get started in VFP or an advanced VFP developer for that matter. I guess it's more of a reference than anything else.

I also hold a very high opinion of Ted, having had the opportunity to work with him and speak with him at length. I respect Tamar's knowledge and expertise as well having attended her previous devcon sessions and being an avid reader of FPA. That being said, I do have some qualms about the Hacker's Guide (it's too big, it's help file format doesn't lend itself to continuity etc.) and FPA (it's too damn small!) I prefer a book which looks at the development process from design and architecture to testing and implementation and covers advanced topics for enterprise and web development. In terms of FPA, I'd like to see it more along the lines of VBPJ, a publication rich in content and chock full of information. Unfortunatly, I can only get so much out of VBPJ not being a VB developer (yet).

Thanks for your input, John. I look forward to your future critiques.

-JT