{"id":2083,"date":"2010-08-25T00:01:57","date_gmt":"2010-08-25T08:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=2083"},"modified":"2010-08-24T21:48:48","modified_gmt":"2010-08-25T05:48:48","slug":"when-computer-books-suck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=2083","title":{"rendered":"When Computer Books Suck"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am a professional computer book author. I’ve been working in the field for over 30 years. While I strive to make all my books the best that they can be, I recognize that I’m in an industry that routinely publishes a lot of crap.
\n
\nYes, I still buy computer books. Just bought one the other day. Forty bucks! Sheesh. I remember when even the most heavy of the nerd books were $30.<\/p>\n

You probably think I’m crazy for buying any book. After all, a lot of the “good stuff” is already online, right? For an old fart like me, it’s just not the same.<\/p>\n

I could go to the online PHP manual<\/a> to look up a function. I’ve done in many times. But my PHP in a Nutshell<\/em> book is a far better reference. For one, it’s better-written. For two, I can scribble in the margins. For three, I can dog-ear popular pages, which still beats any web search no matter how fast the Internet connection.<\/p>\n

Actually, being better-written is what a computer book is all about.<\/p>\n

The Internet is full of schlock. In fact, a lot of what you find when searching for reference material on the Internet is repetitious stuff. Rarely is there anything unique or insightful. Try looking up any Unix command line function like ifconfig<\/code> and you’ll see what I mean: It’s all the same documentation.<\/p>\n

Of course, computer books can be just as bad.<\/p>\n

The problem with laying down good money for a computer book is that you’re taking a risk. It’s a risk that the content will be junk. That’s why I prefer to buy computer books at a brick-and-mortar store instead of online.<\/p>\n

Recently I bought one of the worst computer books evar<\/em>. I won’t name it, but it was supposed to be a technical reference for a programming language. The book is sloppily organized, contains meandering text, and for a programming language reference contains no examples.<\/p>\n

I mean, when I want to look up the fragus()<\/code> function, I want to see more than just text that reads:<\/p>\n

The fragus()<\/code> function returns the fragus computation for the most significant byte of the operator. It returns an error status of 0 otherwise.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No examples. No reference to what a fragus computation<\/em> is. No mention of why it’s necessary or how it’s used.<\/p>\n

One of the most important things missing is how to react when things go wrong. Most of the idiots who write computer books must be so good at what they do that nothing ever screws up. Yet, the reason people are buying a reference is that they probably don’t get it and are experiencing massive screw-ups.<\/p>\n

Oh I could go on, but I’ll spare you.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the best advantage of going to a brick-and-mortar bookstore is that you can relish the satisfaction of returning the book and getting all your money back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am a professional computer book author. I’ve been working in the field for over 30 years. While I strive to make all my books the best that they can be, I recognize that I’m in an industry that routinely publishes a lot of crap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2083"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2088,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083\/revisions\/2088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}