I want to read the follow up article where the challenge is to create a typesetted document. Bentleys criticism includes a single like Shell script invoking Latex.
We have brainwashed ourselves with dogmatic theory. I see nothing wrong with the code. This code is not for business production. It works well for what it is. Un-brainwash yourself! It's great that Knuth doesn't have to apply for a job and go through the gauntlet because that would make Knuth un-Knuth!
If one of the words is slightly wrong, then you want it to be obvious.
If the Kentucky emergency operator adds an extra s they will see that it can’t be right. With the contiguous numbering the ambulance would be close, but probably still unable to find you.
The reason is explained in the front matter: “On one level, the data is simply a part of a mundane programming book. On another, each row represents immense suffering, lives lost, and in some cases amazing redemption and acceptance. In preparing for this dataset, I was deeply moved by a number of the statements and found myself re-evaluting my position on capital punishment. I hope that as we examine the data, you too will contemplate the deeper issues at play.”
If they can be developers, they can learn SQL. Apart from DDL statements, it's literally 3 DML statements, of which most of the clauses operate exactly the same way across all 3 statements.