Re: Just how easy is it anyway?
Well Charlie,
I don't think it's particularly difficult to write code. In fact, I think it's exceedingly easy.
Of course if I were stop there it would be a completely redicuolous statemant.
The challenge is writing good code. And I've found after posting only two proposals that I didn't do nearly enough homework to presume my "complaint" should be converted into a proposal.
I don't know how other people use the NEC, but I know how I do. I find the precise code I want and hope it's not written by CMP 2 (sorry, couldn't resist) so that I can proceed with whatever it was I was doing that I needed a code reference for.
It's a completely different operation when your intention is to change the code (hopefully to make it better). The code you want to change can not possibly be considered outside of it's relationship to other codes.
Because of one of the proposals I posted I decided that I needed to take a closer look at what I was "really" doing. I studied article 210 until, at one point, I turned around and saw that most of the ordinary men following behind me were wandering aimlessly in a state of utter confusion. And as I forged ahead, I realized that my proposal was not particularly meaningful in the sense that:
I didn't have a clear enough understanding of how the code I wanted to change was interdependent with so many other things. Long story less long, NOW, I see my initial attempt at a proposal as offering the wrong solution.
Yes JW, it is easy to use the code, once you know a particular area, it's not all that difficult to "refind" something. The same could be said about how "easy" it is to get from your house to the nearest movie theater. In fact, you might not even remember how to write down all the turns you need to make because you don't even have to think about it anymore. So, although that's great for you, how does your honed and sharpened experience with the NEC make it easier for someone else to find something? And then to also know, there isn't something somewhere else that redifines it?
I'd like to see the NEC be useful without a five year investment of whatever kind is currently required.