PickAxe 2 licensing

[Dave Thomas]

it seem that the pickaxe reference is going to end in the ruby source
again (if I understand correctly)

It's already there

Cheers

Dave

 

[gabriele renzi]

It's already there

well, then I have to thank you again

 

[James Britt]

il Sun, 11 Jul 2004 08:14:33 +0900, James Britt
<[email protected]> ha scritto::





well, take a look at
ruby-talk:105782

it seem that the pickaxe reference is going to end in the ruby source
again (if I understand correctly)

Right, but ri does not tell you the corresponding page number in the
book. Once the book is finished, and the page numbers known, an ri
extension could append this info to the ri text when displayed.

James

 

[Ben Giddings]

We haven't decided yet, but it's likely that if we offer a PDF, it's be
deeply discounted for folks who also buy the book. With the existing
(considerably smaller) books, the PDF is $20, the paper $29.95, but the
two together are $37.50. The prices won't be the same for the PickAxe,
but the concept might be.

Would you consider including a PDF or HTML version with the book? I
know, there's a major problem with tracking HTML and making sure it
doesn't get passed around, but dead trees just aren't greppable.

I personally much prefer HTML to PDF, because PDFs are almost always
done expecting that they'll be printed to 8 1/2" by 11" paper, and so
they don't scale well to my 4:3 screen. HTML, on the other hand, will
adjust itself to whatever shape my browser is in. To me, PDF is a
barely useful format. It has all the inflexibility of layout of a book,
with all the difficulty of reading of a web page. Sometimes you want
something laid out in a very specific way, but most of the time, you
just want the data.

Maybe, as others suggested, you can include a coupon with the book, and
once your sales pass a certain point, that coupon can be redeemed for an
electronic version of the book. Having read (and helped to edit) a few
chapters of the book already, I know it will be worth buying. On the
other hand, I think the last time I used a paper book as a reference
while programming was when O'Reilly came out with their first
"Programming Java" book.

I hope your book succeeds, but if I could choose the format my $37.50
bought, it would be HTML.

Ben

 

[Richard Lionheart]

Thanks, Hal

No, they're the same. He's referring to their first (non-Ruby)
book, _The Pragmatic Programmer_.


Hal