O'reilly got a good rep due to the quality books they published during that period. Now they are in the sell out phase. -jmz On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 12:45 AM, Mark Jarvis wrote: > > I was a mainframe developer who was retreaded as a Unix SysAdmin and worked > at that for 10+ years and two companies. Maybe some of you have the kind of > memories that can remember all the options for all the *nix commands. I was > constantly checking details of a command that I hadn't used recently. Yes, > the man pages are wonderful, but often as not they told me more than I > wanted to know about a command. Once I found the O'Reilly Unix in a > Nutshell, I seldom used them. The O'Reilly commands section had the > commands, concise explanations, and examples. The sections in the Linux book > about the boot loaders and how to work with them were a great help when I > branched into multi-boot PCs. > > Maybe the difference is in developers writing C code and SysAdmins poking > around in the system, checking on things, and writing Korn or Bash scripts > (trying to keep systems up and the developers under control). > > -mj- > > > Joshua Zeidner wrote: > > On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 8:03 PM, Alex Dean wrote: > > > On May 4, 2009, at 7:23 PM, Joshua Zeidner wrote: > > > > On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 7:02 PM, Craig White > wrote: >  fact is, those books barely equip you to pass a job interview let > alone actually build software.  At this point, they act primarily as > totems of technical knowledge and tend to help convince oblivious > managers that someone is technically knowledgeable. > > > Well, I work at home, and my boss never sees my desk, but I have plenty of > books lying around.  I find I use them most when I'm first learning a > subject, and less and less after that.  Overall, my experience has been that > O'Reilly books have had the best staying power (as references, not just > step-by-step introductions) of any of the various technical books I've > owned. > > The O'Reilly JavaScript book is the single book where I've actually > purchased the updated edition of a book I already own.  It's excellent, and > having all that trivial detail collected in one place is a great supplement > to the various bookmarks I have on the subject.  Their book on Ruby is > written in fantastic (you might say excruciating, in some places) detail.  I > very seriously doubt you could collect such a comprehensive resource online > without a massive amount of effort.  $40 (minus the 40% PLUG discount!) was > well worth the money.  I'm currently fully employed as a Ruby/Rails > developer, and I can say without hesitation that O'Reilly books were part of > getting me there.  I'm sure I could have done it without the books, but > having them made the experience much more pleasant.  I read the thing nearly > cover to cover before really doing much at the computer.  Scoff if you will, > but I say to each his own. > > I will say I have noticed the quality of their bindings seems to less in the > last year or two.  I have several with cracked spines, and that never seemed > to happen back in the day.  But overall a book purchase is still something > which makes sense to me when I'm first getting into a totally new technology > or language. > > I guess I don't understand where all the virulence is coming from here? >  You're making a very sweeping generalization about most every developer who > uses books.  Why?  I get that having a rack of books which don't get read is > lame and poser-like, but why do you think that's the main purpose for > published technical books nowadays? > > > > > In general, the > print world is in crisis because their value proposal is quickly being > invalidated. > > > I don't think that's true. > > > yes, but don't you work for a newspaper? ;) > > -jmz > > > > >  The value of a book is in the editing as much as > the author's copy.  As I've said, I feel like O'Reilly books in general > score very well on this scale.  It wouldn't bother me if someone were to > disagree with this assertion, but I don't understand the disdain for print > you are be showing. > > alex > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > > > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss