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Warning: slightly off-topic. Is the book really dead? The post's title is poorly chosen. Until e-books come anywhere near the experience of reading a physical
by BasDirks 16y ago
Warning: slightly off-topic.
Is the book really dead? The post's title is poorly chosen. Until e-books come anywhere near the experience of reading a physical copy of say À la recherche du temps perdu, the book isn't dead.
Clearly the post isn't about Proust, and I hope I don't come off as an ass for being picky about the title.
The post is about technical (especially computer-related) literature, and I think it's inevitable that this genre will suffer greatly. I think it will be supplanted by more interactive alternatives, which is great. There is something strange about a paper book full of source code, isn't there?
And let's be honest: 90% of the books on software engineering (and perhaps on computer-related subjects in general) that should never have gone through a printer.
- michaelbuckbee 16y agoI'm not sure it is off-topic so much as out of context. It's not just a technical post, but in large part a very technical blog and the author of the post is also the author of 'Dive into Python, Greasemonkey and HTML5', so it is also somewhat a reflection on his own work and place in the technical publishing sphere.
- abecedarius 16y agoPhysical books aren't what they used to be, as recently as the 90s. I was disappointed with Knuth volume 4A -- the glue binding makes it a pain just to hold open far enough to read comfortably, like just about any new hardback now. I'd rather have gotten a PDF. (DRM formats are still out, for me.)
- Apocryphon 16y agoPrinted books still have a higher resolution: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/12/printer-and-screen-resolution.html http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/12/printer-and-screen-...