complement to $

[Mike Parker]

Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> 
> Once upon a time, there was a book called "Writing Solid Code". It seemed 
> that anyone who was an established, respectable programmer swore by it and 
> proclaimed it should be required reading by all programmers. These days, I 
> sometimes feel like I'm the only one who's ever heard of it (let alone read 
> it).
> 
> So much of the book has made such an impact on me as a programmer, that from 
> the very first time I ever heard of a language (probably Python) using 
> "someArray[-5]" to denote an index from the end, I swear, the very first 
> thought that popped into my head was "Candy-Machine Interface". I instantly 
> disliked it, and still consider it a misguided design.
> 
> For anyone who doesn't see the the problem with Python's negative indicies 
> (or anyone who wants to delve into one of the forerunners to great books 
> like "Code Craft" or "The Pragmatic Programmer"), I *highly* recommend 
> tracking down a copy of "Writing Solid Code" and reading "The One-Function 
> Memory Manager" and "Wishy-Washy Inputs", both in the "Candy-Machine 
> Interfaces" chapter.

It's available on safari, for anyone who has a subscription.

http://safari.oreilly.com/