Re: [MacPerl] Programming Perl (2nd ed)

[thowland@vsi5.vsicom.com (Tim Howland)]

FWIW-

Oreilly has started an early adopters program. You can get your camel now-
if you buy the book online, they'll give you a password and ID, and you can
read online. They'll ship the book when its printed.

I bought it, and it's great. Highly recommended. Searchable, too.

Tim Howland

At 9:55 AM 8/20/96, Matthias Ulrich Neeracher wrote:
>[This whole discussion is not quite on topic for this mailing list, but
> it is about an issue vital to Perl itself.]
>
>Vicki Brown <vlb@cfcl.com> writes:
>>A friend of mine, who gets press releases from O'Reilly and Assoc, has
>>received notice of the second edition of Larry Wall's "Programming Perl":
>>
>>>Co-authored by Larry Wall, the creator of Perl, "Programming Perl" is
>>>the authoritative guide to Perl version 5.  O'Reilly expects
>>>"Programming Perl, second edition," to grow into an approximately
>>>800-page Nutshell Handbook by the time it's completed in October.
>
>Oops, on ORA's web site it still says 700 pages and September :-)
>
>>I don't know about you folks, but in my opinion, an 800-pager is not a
>>handbook, it is a weighty TOME.  It may look nice on a shelf but it's not a
>>good desk reference.
>
>If I interpreted recent subscription requests correctly, Larry Wall is now
>listening to this mailing list (Hi Larry!), and maybe he will comment. In
>my personal opinion, 800 pages are not unreasonable at all:
>
> - If Camel II is to cover Perl5 in the same depth as Camel 1 covered Perl4,
>   800 pages sound about right, in particular because the library has grown
>   enormously.
> - 800 page books are not impossible to handle at all. Several volumes of
>   New Inside Macintosh have that many pages (The 2000+ pages of Inside Mac
>   VI, on the other hand, were not very pleasant).
> - Now that O'Reilly has good binding technology (as opposed to the original
>   Camel "fall-apart" binding), their ability to publish 800 page books is
>   proven: The sendmail book is 830 pages, and due to their small format
>   does not feel unwieldy at all.
>
>>I'd much rather see this broken into 2 volumes, possibly packaged as a set.
>
>There is a somewhat logical division of material between the core language
>and libraries. However, sepparating these topics IMHO would jeopardize
>one of the most important objectives or Perl5 evangelists: To convince
>people to learn about the library instead of constantly reinventing their
>own solutions.
>
>Furthermore, the poor huddled masses yearning to learn Perl5 want a new
>Camel *now*. Any changes which might further push back the delivery date
>are bound to be unpopular.
>
>Matthias
>
>-----
>Matthias Neeracher   <neeri@iis.ee.ethz.ch>   http://www.iis.ee.ethz.ch/~neeri
>  "Then anyone who leaves behind him a written manual, and likewise
>   anyone who receives it, in the belief that such writing will be
>   clear and certain, must be exceedingly simple-minded..."
>                                                -- Plato, _Phaedrus_



-------------
Tim Howland
New Media Director
VSI Communications
44 N Main, Norwalk, CT 06854
thowland@vsicom.com