Paul Dilascia
Encyclopedia
Paul DiLascia was an American software developer, author, web developer and programming journalist and one of the most celebrated columnists for MSDN.
He grew up in Manhattan, where he went to a special high school for smart children. After that he went to Columbia University
and MIT, where he got a bachelor's degree in Mathematics. After that he studied at Harvard for a year working on a PhD, also in Mathematics. There he realised that where in mathematics it was quite hard to contribute something useful, this was not the case in software. At that time it was possible to contribute right away. .
In 1992 he published his influential book, Windows++, one of the first serious attempts at encapsulating the complexity of Windows 3.X programming with C++ classes .
For 13 years he wrote the C++
Q&A column, aka "C++ At Work" for MSDN Magazine.
According to Matt Pietrek
(MSDN magazine columnist):
"Paul was an amazing technical writer, and one with the gift of adding humor to what could be an otherwise dry topic. Eric Maffei once told me that without humor, MSJ would read like "Microsoft Pravda". Paul's contributions were a big part of why it wasn't."
Paul DiLascia died on the night of September the 3rd, 2008. He was only 49 years old at the time.
Many present day C++ and MFC programmers still use his reusable modules and pieces of code containing his famous article/code comment:
"If this code works, it was written by Paul DiLascia. If not, I don't know who wrote it".
He grew up in Manhattan, where he went to a special high school for smart children. After that he went to Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and MIT, where he got a bachelor's degree in Mathematics. After that he studied at Harvard for a year working on a PhD, also in Mathematics. There he realised that where in mathematics it was quite hard to contribute something useful, this was not the case in software. At that time it was possible to contribute right away. .
In 1992 he published his influential book, Windows++, one of the first serious attempts at encapsulating the complexity of Windows 3.X programming with C++ classes .
For 13 years he wrote the C++
C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
Q&A column, aka "C++ At Work" for MSDN Magazine.
According to Matt Pietrek
Matt Pietrek
Matt Pietrek is a computer specialist and author specializing in MS Windows.Pietrek has written several books on the subject and, for eight years, wrote the column "Under the Hood" in MSJ MSDN Magazine...
(MSDN magazine columnist):
"Paul was an amazing technical writer, and one with the gift of adding humor to what could be an otherwise dry topic. Eric Maffei once told me that without humor, MSJ would read like "Microsoft Pravda". Paul's contributions were a big part of why it wasn't."
Paul DiLascia died on the night of September the 3rd, 2008. He was only 49 years old at the time.
Many present day C++ and MFC programmers still use his reusable modules and pieces of code containing his famous article/code comment:
"If this code works, it was written by Paul DiLascia. If not, I don't know who wrote it".