Kenneth Pugh, a principal in Pugh-Killeen Associates, teaches C and C++ language courses for corporations. He is the author of All On C, C for COBOL Programmers, and UNIX for MS-DOS Users, and was a member of the ANSI C committee. He also does custom C/C++ programming and provides SystemArchitectonicssm services. He is president of the Independent Computer of the Independent Computer Consultants Association. His address is 4201 University Dr., Suite 102, Durham, NC 27707. You may fax questions for Ken to (919) 489-5239. Ken also receives email at kpugh@allen.com (Internet) and on Compuserve 701215,1142.
This will be my last Q & A column for the C/C++ Users Journal. My cat, Nameless, who sat on my lap while I typed my four books and many of these columns, died in November. I dedicate this last column to her.
It's been an interesting time to write for a programming magazine. I created my first columns on an Osborne with an 8088, running Wordstar on CP/M. My last columns were written on a Thinkpad with a 486, running Wordstar in an MS-DOS window in Microsoft Windows. You can't teach an old dog new editing tricks.
During the early days of this column, the ANSI C committee was established and the draft was approved as a standard The ANSI C++ committee started during the colunm's later days and its draft may be issued for voting soon.
The C compilers used on the Osborne fit onto two floppy disks. Kernighan and Ritchie explained the entire language in a small book. The latest C++ compilers I use on my Dell Pentium come on CD/ROM and take almost 100 MB of hard disk. The language and the interactions between its features have grown tremendously. For example, contemplating the ramifications of exception handling within a template that uses multiple inheritance from templated classes which themselves contain exception handlers is not a light task.
I relinquish my column because I cannot move close to the speed of light and therefore cannot stretch out my ever shrinking time to continue answering your questions — good questions that deserve attention I can no longer give. With the continuing spread of object-oriented programming and client/server technology, my teaching obligations have increased enormously. COBOL programmers are switching to C and C++ in droves. Demand for skills in UNIX, used for database servers, has dramatically grown. One publisher has been begging me for the last year for a book on the distributed computing environment. Another one wants a "Best of Questions and Answers."
In April, I assume the presidency of the Independent Computer Consultant's Association. The ICCA is blossoming as corporations downsize, but still require the talent to produce their products. The anticipated growth of the association may engulf much of my remaining free time.
In addition to time constraints, I have been slowly transforming my practice to what I call System Architectonics. Incorporating object-oriented analysis and design, its emphasis is on the interface to objects. Part of System Architectonics is the specification of that interface in a manner understandable to both the object designer and the object user. SA moves away from the actual coding in C/C++ to the abstraction of the design.
Although I will not appear physically in these pages any more, I will still be present in the electronic world at 70125.1142@compuserve.com and eventually at kpugh@pughkilleen.com, which is currently being established.
I wish my successor the best of luck in his column.
Good-bye to all you C and C++ fans. See you in cyberspace.