Patterns of Bugs

[Nick Sabalausky]

"Steven Schveighoffer" <schveiguy at yahoo.com> wrote in message 
news:op.voyerqyseav7ka at steve-laptop...
> On Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:44:10 -0500, Nick Sabalausky <a at a.a> wrote:
>
>> "Walter Bright" <newshound2 at digitalmars.com> wrote in message
>> news:ig7n8o$1t3u$1 at digitalmars.com...
>>> Max Samukha wrote:
>>>> On 01/06/2011 09:38 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
>>>>> http://www.drdobbs.com/blog/archives/2011/01/patterns_of_bug.html
>>>>>
>>>>> (dedicated to bearophile!)
>>>>>
>>>>> Anyone want to post it on reddit?
>>>>
>>>> Good points. However, computer hardware analogies are a bit outdated. 
>>>> For
>>>> example, USB is prevalent nowadays. You connect a USB keyboard, mouse 
>>>> or
>>>> whatever to a slot, which is closest to you and forget about it.
>>>
>>> Yes, USB is a big improvement. So is SATA.
>>>
>>
>> IDE's been keyed for a long time too. Wasn't originally, but has been 
>> for a
>> long time now.
>
> SATA is better not because of the keyed nature of it.  How many times I 
> have tried to twist around my IDE cables so they would be the right way to 
> plug into two components!
>
> That small cable makes a world of difference.  Same thing with HDMI --  
> instead of 3-5 clunky cables that hopefully are color coded correctly, you 
> get one cable transmitting all data.
>

I thought Walter was talking specifically about the keying. Also, I use 
these on my IDE drives which have been around for quite a few years: 
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0285984 
(They do something special with the shielding inside so that the wires don't 
have to be in a big ribbon). Granted, SATA cables are even better still, but 
these are still a huge improvement over the older-style IDE cables.