Who hates msdn.
Author
Because I do. It is rarely helpfull to me. Numbs my mind much more often. In other words its not very clear and hard to understand. At least to me.
Quote:Original post by Dko
Because I do. It is rarely helpfull to me. Numbs my mind much more often. In other words its not very clear and hard to understand. At least to me.
MSDN is an invaluable resource for a lot of things, and I use it frequently. I'll grant you though, it's not the easiest resource to use - you have to know what you're looking for, and even then, the search function is pretty hopeless, and google's results sometimes aren't always much better.
There's also the occasional time when it lies, or fails to tell you important things you need to know, which is quite frustrating, but fortunately that's fairly rare.
I personaly hate the organization, might be me, but i just think the way they organize the subjects is just weird.
It has helped me many times, but only after i lost a lot of time looking for a particular piece of information.
I actually have to bookmark some reference pages, because otherwise i'll never find them again, they will be lost until the end of time in the thick mist that is msdn.
It has helped me many times, but only after i lost a lot of time looking for a particular piece of information.
I actually have to bookmark some reference pages, because otherwise i'll never find them again, they will be lost until the end of time in the thick mist that is msdn.
I love it!
Use Google to search it, because the MSDN search often returns strange results..
Google: 'site:msdn.microsoft.com getmessage' Search!
For example.
References are always more helpful than tutorials.
Use Google to search it, because the MSDN search often returns strange results..
Google: 'site:msdn.microsoft.com getmessage' Search!
For example.
References are always more helpful than tutorials.
have you ever tried to organise such vast amount of information in a sensible way? It's hard. Not only from a purely organisational view, but also logistically.
The Win32 API refrerence alone is several thousand book pages.
If you have issues with using MSDN and also have ideas on how to do better, for heaven's sake - let them know! I especially found DX support team to be very thankful for constructve critique.
You see, MS has a huge amount of documentation and provides it for free. If nobody complains or suggests better ways of presenting this information - how should they ever know?
Just my .02€,
Pat.
The Win32 API refrerence alone is several thousand book pages.
If you have issues with using MSDN and also have ideas on how to do better, for heaven's sake - let them know! I especially found DX support team to be very thankful for constructve critique.
You see, MS has a huge amount of documentation and provides it for free. If nobody complains or suggests better ways of presenting this information - how should they ever know?
Just my .02€,
Pat.
I did make sugestions to them, a few months back when they were conducting those surveys to change the site, don't know if they are still doing them, i did make several sugestions.
We all know organizing all that info is hard, but let's not be naive either, organizing it well isn't a priority for microsoft they don't get money for it.
I can think of FreeBSD for instance and their handbooks for users and developers, it looks to _me_ like a much more organized bunch of information.
We all know organizing all that info is hard, but let's not be naive either, organizing it well isn't a priority for microsoft they don't get money for it.
I can think of FreeBSD for instance and their handbooks for users and developers, it looks to _me_ like a much more organized bunch of information.
Its a good resource, but has a naff search (or I dont know how to use it) and the oranisation is crap.
If i want to search for a function, structure or constant i search in google, msdn link is normaly near the top and google is almost always spot on.
If i want to search for a function, structure or constant i search in google, msdn link is normaly near the top and google is almost always spot on.
Quote:Original post by Dko
Because I do. It is rarely helpfull to me. Numbs my mind much more often. In other words its not very clear and hard to understand. At least to me.
I guess you just dont understand how to wade through the tons of data to find you want.It take a bit of proctice ;)
As others stated, it's something you initially hate, then tolerate, then love. To a beginner, it's impossible to understand, or find anything. But once you do understand it, you'll be going back to it any time you have a question.
The only thing I hate about it is the search feature. Often, even if you know the name of the function it is very difficult to find. Just the other day, I was going to put a link to GetDlgItem in a reply, but I searching for GetDlgItem was no use. Sure, I found CDialog::GetDlgItem or something like that, but the plain old Win32 API function was nowhere to be found. I gave up on using the search feature and found it navigating throught the little hierarchy. When I search for "GetDlgItem", I would expect the Win32 API function with that name to be the first result, but as far as I could tell, it wasn't in the results AT ALL. MSDN is a great resource if you can find what you're looking for. I only really use it when I'm helping other people online. For my own use, I use the documentation that came with VC++ 6 because I can find things much more quickly that way.
Edit: I'll have to try that idea of using Google to search MSDN. I'd never thought of that. But still, it's pathetic that one should have to resort to that.
Edit 2: Google works like a charm.
Edit: I'll have to try that idea of using Google to search MSDN. I'd never thought of that. But still, it's pathetic that one should have to resort to that.
Edit 2: Google works like a charm.
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