A really bad idea.

[James J. Besemer]

Erik Max Francis wrote:

> Condensing all that to 16 pages is, well, not going to do it much
> justice.  

Doing "justice" to the language is not the objective.  Providing a "crib 
sheet" for earstwhile experts is the primary purpose.

Keep in mind these are "pocket reference CARDs".  Once upon a time, these 
tools were pretty ubiqutious.  They often were not booklets, but simply a 
cardboard sheet that folds acordian-style to pocket size.  "Pages" were 3.5 x 
8 in.

The intended audience is people who already know the domain but occasionally 
need to double-check some detail, not necessarily newbies just starting out. 
  E.g., IIRC, It gave the syntax for all the control structs in less than 1 
page -- what is there to say about them really?  One page for operator 
precedence.  It gave name and arg signature for stdio functions but not any 
lengthy description.  Partial page to outline template syntax.  Etc.

I can't find the original ones for C/C++ and Standard libraries.  However, I 
have an analogous "pocket reference" for the PowerPC -- 8 pages for the 
entire architecture and instruction set.  Of course, it assumes you already 
know the meaning of IBAT, DBAT, STWU, STWX, etc.

The current Python "pocket" ref is much more verbose than this standard.

 > I have serious doubts about the utility of a reference claiming

Claiming?

I dunno.  During most of the 90s I always kept a set in my briefcase and 
found them helpful from time to time.

Regards

--jb

-- 
James J. Besemer		503-280-0838 voice
2727 NE Skidmore St.		503-280-0375 fax
Portland, Oregon 97211-6557	mailto:jb at cascade-sys.com
				http://cascade-sys.com