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Totally agree, and I'll piggyback this to say that the quality is not always too important either. Worrying about whether the book you are learning from is "the

by krivx 10y ago

Totally agree, and I'll piggyback this to say that the quality is not always too important either. Worrying about whether the book you are learning from is "the best" is not as productive as getting on with learning the language. A book really only has to good enough not to teach bad habits or explain concepts incorrectly.

agumonkey 10y ago
Recently read the phrase 'don't optimizing for comfort'.
Mithaldu 10y ago
75% of all Perl books teach bad habits and explain things incorrectly. I didn't use the word "shit" up there lightly.
- krivx 10y ago
  I guess Perl is kind of a special case :) I got up to speed by reading half of some fairly old Perl book, then reading most of Modern Perl.
  - Mithaldu 10y ago
    You'd be guessing badly. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12036826 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12036826 I've also had similar experiences with Java, nevermind Javascript. It is an utter and simple fact that due to tech being an everchanging landscape, any book more than a few years old is going to teach bad habits or explain concepts incorrectly.
    - krivx 10y ago
      >It is an utter and simple fact that due to tech being an everchanging landscape, any book more than a few years old is going to teach bad habits or explain concepts incorrectly. Concepts change meaning and good habits turn bad every few years? Shitty books are shitty, OKish books will be probably be fine for a language intro, even if they are old.
    - agumonkey 10y ago
      That's why I like old books at libraries. They were from a time where the research / book ratio was better. People in research centers didn't write about trivial stuff. That's why math is so nice (when you can parse it), very general and aiming at timeless.
- ternaryoperator 10y ago
  Based on Sturgeon's Law [1] then, Perl books are doing fairly well. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law

by krivx 10y ago

agumonkey 10y ago

Recently read the phrase 'don't optimizing for comfort'.

Mithaldu 10y ago

75% of all Perl books teach bad habits and explain things incorrectly. I didn't use the word "shit" up there lightly.

krivx 10y ago
I guess Perl is kind of a special case :) I got up to speed by reading half of some fairly old Perl book, then reading most of Modern Perl.
- Mithaldu 10y ago
  You'd be guessing badly. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12036826 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12036826 I've also had similar experiences with Java, nevermind Javascript. It is an utter and simple fact that due to tech being an everchanging landscape, any book more than a few years old is going to teach bad habits or explain concepts incorrectly.
  - krivx 10y ago
    >It is an utter and simple fact that due to tech being an everchanging landscape, any book more than a few years old is going to teach bad habits or explain concepts incorrectly. Concepts change meaning and good habits turn bad every few years? Shitty books are shitty, OKish books will be probably be fine for a language intro, even if they are old.
  - agumonkey 10y ago
    That's why I like old books at libraries. They were from a time where the research / book ratio was better. People in research centers didn't write about trivial stuff. That's why math is so nice (when you can parse it), very general and aiming at timeless.
ternaryoperator 10y ago
Based on Sturgeon's Law [1] then, Perl books are doing fairly well. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law