The Old New Thing: Practical Development Throughout the Evolution of Windows. Raymond Chen

The Old New Thing: Practical Development Throughout the Evolution of Windows



Download The Old New Thing: Practical Development Throughout the Evolution of Windows



The Old New Thing: Practical Development Throughout the Evolution of Windows Raymond Chen ebook pdf
Publisher:
Language: English
Page: 560
ISBN: 0321440307, 9780321440303

About the Author

Raymond Chen writes The Old New Thing, one of today's most influential technology blogs. A programmer at Microsoft Corporation, Chen has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than a decade. He also writes TechNet Magazine's Windows Confidential column and has been known to make appearances at technology events.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Much ink is devoted to describing the "how" of using and developing software for Windows, but few authors go into the "why." What might appear at first to be quirks often turn out to have entirely logical explanations, reflecting the history, evolution, and philosophy of the Microsoft Windows operating system. This book attempts to provide knowledge not so much in the form of telling what needs to be done (although there is certainly plenty of that, too) but rather by helping to understand why things came to be that way. Thus informed of the history and philosophy of Windows, you can become a more effective Windows programmer.

The emphasis here, then, is on the rationale behind Windows. It is not a reference or even a tutorial, but rather a "practical history," taking a conversational rather than didactic approach in an attempt to give you an appreciation for the philosophy of Windows through a series of brief, largely independent essays. You can therefore skip freely to topics of momentary interest (or technical expertise). Essays have been grouped into general themes, and there is the occasional sequential pedagogical treatment when a topic is explored in depth; even in those cases, however, the topic is confined to a single self-contained chapter.

Writer and commentator David Sedaris is often asked whether his stories are true. He responds that they are "true enough." Like David Sedaris's stories, the material in this book is also "true enough." The focus is on the big picture, not on the minutiae; on making a single point without getting distracted by nitpicking detail. Key details are highlighted, but unimportant ones are set aside, and potentially interesting digressions may be neglected if they do not serve the topic at hand.

The primary audience is technology-savvy readers with an interest in Windows history. About half of the essays require no programming background. Most of the remaining topics assume a basic background in software design and development, although nothing particularly advanced. Topics specifically related to Windows programming assume reader familiarity with Win32 user interface programming and COM. The table on page xxv provides a breakdown of the chapters for nonprogrammers and for general programmers who do not have an interest in Win32 specifically. Of course, you are welcome to skim chapters not explicitly marked as of interest to you. Perhaps you will find something interesting in them after all.

What will you get out of this book? As noted previously, the primary goal is to convey the philosophy and rationale behind what might at first appear to be an irrational design. You will also understand that when something can't be done in Windows, it's often for a good reason; and you will gain an appreciation of the lengths to which Windows goes to preserve backward compatibility (and why it's important that it do so). And if nothing else, you will be able to tell amusing stories about Windows history at cocktail parties (that is, cocktail parties thrown by other geeks).

Much of the short-essay material here has already appeared in one form or another on the author's Web site, The Old New Thing (http://blogs.msdn. com/oldnewthing/), but is substantially supplemented by new material better suited to book form.

Visit the Web page for this book (www.awprofessional.com/title/0321440307) to download two bonus chapters, "Tales of Application Compatibility" and "How to Ensure That Your Program Does Not Run Under Windows 95." Think of them if you like as the book version of a movie's unique and insightful deleted scenes. The Web page also contains the code samples from the book as well as errata.



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