Subject: Programmers' caffeine review
From: [email-masked] (Paul Peterson)
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1993 17:41:15 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers

CAFFIENATED SOFT DRINKS:
                       The State of the Art

                          By: Ted Bahr

Copied without permission from _Computer Language_, April 1989

Perhaps the most universally recognized tool for improving a professional
programmer's productivity is C.  Not the C language (after all, this *is*
the April issue, not February), but the C additive, Caffiene.

P.J. Plauger would have us begin this review with a definition:

caf-feine \ka-'fen, 'ka-,\ n[G kaffein, fr. kafee coffee, fr. F cafe']
(ca. 1828): a bitter alkaloid C  H   N  O   found esp. in coffee, tea, and
                               8  10  4  2
kola nuts and used medicinally as a stimulant and diuretic.

Much has happened in the Cola wars to date, and the intent here is to bring 
you up to speed on what seven leading contenders have to offer today.  Table
1 shows a comparison of basic features, Table 2 compares performance, and
Table 3 ranks the products on a variety of tests.

*** Diet Coke ***

Diet Coke is an ably launched sequel to Coca-Cola's well-known, high
calorie drinks.  It scours well in the mouth and the taste is surprisingly
full-bodied for a soda drained of all sugar.  As a member of the Coke
family, Diet Coke places well in the performance tests with 46 mg. of 
caffiene per can.

Diet Coke supplies the user with excellent documentation, taking care to
list a variety of vitamins and minerals of which it supplies less than
2% of the U.S. Recommended Allowances (U.S. RDA).  The documentation is
not perfect, however; one particular problem is sloppy indexing.  Diet
Coke notes that the product contains phenylalanine, a danger to phenyl-
ketoneurics, but does so in tiny letters on the front of the can, not
with the ingredients where one would naturally search for it (by contrast,
Diet Pepsi places this information with the other ingredients in a 
bright red color).

A toll-free help line is provided to support all the Coke products--their
commercials play in the background while you are on hold.  Diet Coke is an
excellent reproduction of the market leader and maintains its good perfor-
mance for programmers while nodding to the increased helath-consciousness
of the world today.

*** Mountain Dew ***

Long the late-night programmer's favorite with 17.4% more caffeine than
any member of the Coke family and over 40% more caffeine than Pepsi,
Mountain Dew means business.  Clearly the heavyweight choice of this
review, The Dew powers its way to a first place finish in both calories
(178.8) and sugar(44.4 mg.).  Its performance pales in comparison only
to Jolt.

Mountain Dew's taste is sickly sweet--the refreshing images of people
splashing around in ponds are clearly in reference to the energy derived
from the drink's effect, not the taste.  And the participants in the ads
are certainly not programmers (imagine--swimming!).  The scouring test
was disappointing--the tiny bubbles seemed buried by the high fructose
corn syrup.

Documentation was generally good, with more information revealed about
chemical content than any product except Diet Coke.  A toll-free help
number is offered on the can and questions to the technical support 
staff were handled efficiently and pleasantly.

Mountain Dew is still sporting its peace-and-love 1960s logo.  The
outdated packaging combined with levels of caffeine and sugar that
show almost total disregard for the 1980s health-consciousness reveal
parent Pepsico's intent to market Mountain Dew as a niche product.  With
only Jolt to battle head-to-head on the high end, that's not such a
bad idea.

*** Pepsi ***

Pepsi may be the choice of a new generation, but definitely *not* a
new generation of programmers.  Finishing dead last in performance and
buried in the middle of the pack with respect to calories, Pepsi is a
generally uninspired product.  The user interface (taste) is distinctive,
but its caffeine engine lacks the punch of the other products we surveyed.

Pepsi offers a toll-free help line and has adequate documentation, but
finished at the bottom of the heap in the Grindstone (teeth-grinding
after one six-pack slurped down in a two-hour period), ANSI (American
Neurological Speed Institute) conformity, and compatibility with UNIX
programmers.  Although drinking Pepsi while chained to a 100,000 line
Ada program for 36 hours will not make you a raving maniac, it probably
won't keep you awake either.  John Scully left for Apple years ago,
and we cannot recommend this product for serious programmers.

*** New Coke ***

Coca-Cola's new upstart is a worthy alternative to sleeping at normal
hours.  It placed second in both the scouring test and the Wetstone
(thirst quenching).  The kid brother to Classic (real) Coke has a taste
somewhere between the thinner, less-sweet Diet Coke and the heavy 
syrup of the original.  Despite its less-sugary taste, Coke (its real
name) actually has more carbohydrates than Classic Coke, leading this
reviewer to wonder if the programmers who created New Coke were drinking
Pepsi while they wrote the algorithms.

Coke's performance matches its siblings at 46 mg. of caffeine per can,
topping all but the specialty pops aimed directly at software developers.
With three relatively high-performance products to choose from in the Coke
family, a programmer really can have it all.

*** Classic Coke ***

Also known as "real Coke," this product seems to be adrift in a sea of
specialized competition.  Various tests provided some pretty mediocre
scores for what has traditionally been considered by the general public
the most high-powered cold liquid stimulant (unless you favor cold 
espresso).

Documentation is thin for Classic Coke drinkers and thus tends to favor
users who have some familiarity with the product.  What's more, the 
toll-free help number was not printed on any of the cans we tested!
While clearly a stalwart and founding member of the caffeine collection,
advantages offered by a number of competitors may be worth a taste
before settling on the real thing.

*** Dr. Pepper ***

While barely edging out Pepsi in caffeine performance level and defin-
itely qualifying as a "boutique" soft drink, Dr. Pepper's unique user
interface qualified it for review.  Bottled by Pepsi, Dr. Pepper has
had little national advertising in the past few years, being seen as 
a perennially big seller in Texas and a fancy alternative to root beer.

Despite this, Dr. P weighs in as a reasonable choice for programmers.
The taste is somewhat lemony, light, and fruity.  Documentation is 
good, but Dr. P lacks a toll-free number for support.  When I did call
technical support, the Pepper People seemed confused.  I bounced seven
times before finding the right person at the right number.  However,
once I got there, support was excellent and very cordial.

Although Dr. Pepper cannot be recommended outright due to its mediocre
performance, slipping a few in between a long night of Classic Cokes
may be just the change you need.

*** Jolt ***

Taking on the established Cola giants is a brash move for a little 
company in Rochester, N.Y., and Jolt is playing its role as spoiler
to the hilt.  In the face of a huge tide of "caffeine-free" soft 
drinks, Jolt boasts that it has "all the sugar and twice the caffeine."
On the surface, at least, it seems as if the programmer's ship has
come in.

Jolt's user interface is good, containing the bite and "look and feel"
of Classic Coke and winning the scouring test.  Performance is stellar
with 32% more caffeine than Mountain Dew, 55% more than the Coke family,
and a whopping 85% more than Pepsi.  Unfortunately, none of these
percentages back up the slogan aimed most directly at the programming
market:  "twice the caffeine."

While documentation is adequate, technical support was rather dismal.
Jolt had the ambience of a small company, with the receptionist answer-
ing my questions in an annoyed manner.  She said the company doesn't 
release information on sugar content, which is odd for a company that
boasts about it on the can.  When pressed about the "twice the caffeine"
claim, she said it referred to sodas other than the ones we tested but
wouldn't reveal which ones.

Despite a shaky feeling about the company's ethics, programmers will
find much to like in a can of Jolt.  The only side effect may be too
much of a good thing--the Grindstone test left me unable to bear the
sight of a monitor, and soon found me lurching from lane to lane at
80 mph on Rte. 101, alternately screeching at songs on the radio and
babbling incoherently to myself about RISC chips.  Use Jolt with
caution.

*** The Winners ***

A close look at the seven contenders in this review confirmed some
suspicions and raised others.  Pepsi's performance rated too poorly
to recommend, and Dr. Pepper's only real benefit is its unique user
interface.

Any member of the Coke family can be recommended for general-purpose
long bouts of coding and the company is to be lauded for maintaining
performance levels in its newest releases.  Jolt, the hands-down
winner in pure performance, is too jarring to be recommended for
prolonged use, but can be excellent for short bursts ofr quick patches.
Based on overall excellence, the winner and sultan of swig for pro-
grammer productivity is still Mountain Dew.

------- Table 1.

Comparison of basic features

                        Classic Coca   Diet Mountain                Dr.
                         Coke   Cola   Coke   Dew    Jolt   Pepsi  Pepper
                       --------------------------------------------------
Carbonated water         Yes    Yes    Yes    Yes    Yes    Yes    Yes 
High-fructose corn-
  syrup/sugar            Yes    Yes    No     Yes    Yes    Yes    Yes
Caramel color            Yes    Yes    Yes    No     Yes    Yes    Yes
Phosphoric acid          Yes    Yes    Yes    No     Yes    Yes    Yes
Caffeine                 Yes    Yes    Yes    Yes    Yes    Yes    Yes
Citric acid              No     No     Yes    Yes    Yes    Yes    No
Sodium benzoate
  ("A preservative")     No     No     No     Yes    No     No     Yes
Potassium benzoate       No     No     Yes    No     No     No     No
Natural flavorings       Yes    Yes    Yes    Yes    Yes    Yes    Yes
Proud sponsor of the
  U.S. Olympic Team      Yes    Yes    Yes    No     No     No     No
All-aluminum can         Yes    Yes    Yes    Yes    Yes    Yes    Yes
Toll-free help number    Yes    Yes    Yes    Yes    Yes    Yes    No

------- Table 2.

Performance

                        Classic Coca   Diet Mountain                Dr.
                         Coke   Cola   Coke   Dew    Jolt   Pepsi  Pepper
                       --------------------------------------------------
Calories(per 12 fl. oz.) 144    154    0      179    170    159     144
Sugar (grams/12 fl. oz.) 37.20  40.00  .30    44.40  NA     39.60   38.00
Caffeine (mg/12 fl. oz.) 46.00  46.00  46.00  54.00  71.20  38.40   40.80

------- Table 3.

Additional rankings (1-10)
1 - Excellent, 10 - Poor

                        Classic Coca   Diet Mountain                Dr.
                         Coke   Cola   Coke   Dew    Jolt   Pepsi  Pepper
                       --------------------------------------------------
Compatibility with
  Unix Programmers        2      6      3      1      4       7      5
Scouring effect           4      2      3      7      1       6      5
Wetstone(1)               3      2      1      5      4       6      7
Grindstone(2)             3      4      5      2      1       7      6
ANSI Conformity(3)        3      5      4      1      2       7      6
Sleeve of Eratosthenes(4) 4      3      7      1      2       5      6

Notes:
   (1)  Thirst-quenching.
   (2)  Teeth-grinding after one six-pack in a two-hour period.
   (3)  American Neurological Speed Institute.
   (4)  Staining power test conducted on standard Beefy T-shirt.

-- 
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| Paul R. Peterson - CUSA, Inc. - Salt Lake City, UT                      |
|  email: [email-masked]  - OR - [email-masked]     |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Pro'-gram 1) n. A magical spell cast over a computer which transforms   |
|  user input into error messages.  2) vt. An activity similar to banging |
|  one's head against a wall, but with less opportunity for relief.       |
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