I do agree his approach is hard understand at times, but all in all I do believe his heart was in the right spot.
He stresses that one should know and understand the various aspects of the use of the steel square, eventhough at times it seems to clash with reality.
Anyone studying his books will glean some new understanding of roof framing besides that which comes nicely bundled up from the factory with steel bands around the various sections nowadays.
Today I was talking with a vary good framer for a while, and the subject came around to framing in a complicated roof structure with valleys and hips. He really had never had to even think about such things as framing and cutting rafters to accomodate roof slopes because it was always there to be unbundled and most times fit where it was supposed to.
Fred Hodgson's works overall I salute because having been written before the modern trend started tries to waken up those that are aspiring into the realm of the carpentry world as it was known at that time with various descriptions that were around at that time and zeros in on the use of the steel square in paricular.
I have read various old texts written before Hodgson's works one was "carpentry made easy" by William E Bell (1858). It had sections that related to the construction of timberframe structures using hewn material, which I found very interesting but the terminology would sometimes slow you down.