IME with technical computer software books, the good ones worth reading and dedicating bookshelf space to anyways: The first editions tend to describe a simpler

IME with technical computer software books, the good ones worth reading and dedicating bookshelf space to anyways: The first editions tend to describe a simpler form of the subject, and contain the most distilled and succinct description covering the minimum required salient points for publication. I'm pretty sure it's without exception. I have no multi-edition technical books that shrink in size in subsequent editions. So I end up with collections of editions for books of this type I really value, preferring to reach for the earliest editions first, and only after I can't find what I'm looking for, do I proceed to the subsequent editions. Old programming/operating system design books are such a pleasure to read. Simpler times make for simpler, easier to understand documentation. It sucks to come at a foreign, complex, mature system in reverse chronology.