|
[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]
I have some knowledge of how these publishing methods work. Th epublishing
company will see a niche that needs a book, and put out a contract whoever
writes the book gets X sum of cash..
the authors lobby for privs to write the book..and someone gets it.
It's kinda the reverse o fthe traditional writing industry..someone writes a
book, and takes it to a publisher...
Consequently, the quality of said books may be spotty from time to time..I used
to go to Borders, get all of the boooks on a subject I was intereasted in, head
over to the cafe, and peruse them all until I found the one that best suited my
needs..
I no longer do that...after numerous trips like this, I realised this was a
pointless gesture..now I go in, and grab one of two publishers, O'Reilly, or
Stone Soup (altho' Stone Soup wqas purchased by sams and haven't published a
book since). And I'm cretain I've got the best book on the subject..end of
story.
Sorry for thejittery tone of this email, and the typos, I've had *WAY* too much
coffee..
Peace,
Vale
On Sat, 11 Dec 1999, you wrote:
> >
> > My first PERL book was Teach Yourself Perl 5 in 21 days by Sams Publishing
> > Second edition. There may be a newer one out now. As a beginner these types
> > of books help and explain things in an easy to understand way. In the end
> > you will want to buy the camel book. {Programming Perl by O'Reilly}
>
> Sorry, but I have to step in here.
>
> A lot of these types of books (at least the perl ones) have a very nasty
> property of being misleading, wrong and buggy. I've seen people who have
> been working in perl for a number of years pick up any one of these
> (24 Hours | 21 Days | Dummies | Idiots | Special Edition | Complete Reference )
> type of books and open any random page and find 2-3 *SERIOUS* flaws within
> 10 seconds. And continue to a series of 5 more random pages with the
> same results.
>
> No, these people aren't complaining about typography, prose style or
> other mundane issues, but outright bugs and flat out incorrect statements.
>
> I don't think this is a universal condemnation of this style of publishing.
> Maddog wrote both editions of "Linux for Dummies", so some of these books
> may have some redeeming qualities in other subject areas. I won't hazard
> to guess where, though.
>
> > I have found that what I wanted to do was web cgi perl programming.
> >
> > Both of which were hard to figure out for a beginner, at the time, from
> > either book.
>
> That's a good reason not to recommend either book. Learning Perl and
> Elements of Perl Programming have been recommended already. I'd second
> the recommendations and recommend the camel book once you can tell the
> difference between $a[4] and @a[4].
>
> > The below lines are from a script in matts script archives:
>
> The zeroth law about learning Perl is "AVOID MATT'S SCRIPTS!!!!". Once
> you've been using perl for a while, you'll understand why they're so bad.
>
> Z.
>
> PS: http://phl.pm.org/
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Plug maillist - Plug@lists.nothinbut.net
> http://lists.nothinbut.net/mail/listinfo/plug
_______________________________________________
Plug maillist - Plug@lists.nothinbut.net
http://lists.nothinbut.net/mail/listinfo/plug
|
|