N
Nick Malik [Microsoft]
To be fair, Zach, different books have different purposes, and different
audiences.
There are quite a few books that take a "teaching" approach, or tutorial
approach. They are mostly aimed at rank beginners, because, honestly, no
publisher wants to publish a tutorial book for mid-level developers, since
mid-level developers don't, by and large, buy them.
So, there's a vicious cycle. Mid-level developers don't buy tutorial books,
and therefore, publishers won't publish them, and therefore, authors won't
write them, and ... (you get the point).
It is not fair to criticize an author for not writing the book that you
wanted him or her to write, either when *that* book was next to it on the
bookshelf, or is not considered profitable, and therefore publishable, by
most publishers.
--
--- Nick Malik [Microsoft]
MCSD, CFPS, Certified Scrummaster
http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmalik
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this forum are my own, and not
representative of my employer.
I do not answer questions on behalf of my employer. I'm just a
programmer helping programmers.
--
Re:
I don't mean to react at all defensively, but I'd be very interested in what
you didn't like about my book (which has been, after all, one of the best
selling .NET books, and which was highly recommended by a number of
organizations[1] and reviewers[2] and which was the VSJ book of hte
year[3]).
Since you have placed your question in the public domain, any one can join
in on the discussion. I am studying the various domains of C# theory and am
doing so with nothing but your books, after having read other IT books and
comparing them. So I think your books belong to the best. That having been
clearly stated, I do have some comment. A review is relative to comparable
books, already on the market. They implicitly function as the standard. So a
review also says something about these other books as well as saying
something about the book at hand. An IT book isn't a novel, but a textbook.
One should be able to study a textbook without having to take lots of notes.
The organization and layout (teaching method) of the textbook should make
that almost unnecessary. That is the standard of comparison I'd like to use.
I have yet to see an IT book that applies a teaching method. Most of them
are a summing up of information with examples, and I am sorry to say so,
your splendid books are no exception.
audiences.
There are quite a few books that take a "teaching" approach, or tutorial
approach. They are mostly aimed at rank beginners, because, honestly, no
publisher wants to publish a tutorial book for mid-level developers, since
mid-level developers don't, by and large, buy them.
So, there's a vicious cycle. Mid-level developers don't buy tutorial books,
and therefore, publishers won't publish them, and therefore, authors won't
write them, and ... (you get the point).
It is not fair to criticize an author for not writing the book that you
wanted him or her to write, either when *that* book was next to it on the
bookshelf, or is not considered profitable, and therefore publishable, by
most publishers.
--
--- Nick Malik [Microsoft]
MCSD, CFPS, Certified Scrummaster
http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmalik
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this forum are my own, and not
representative of my employer.
I do not answer questions on behalf of my employer. I'm just a
programmer helping programmers.
--
Re:
I don't mean to react at all defensively, but I'd be very interested in what
you didn't like about my book (which has been, after all, one of the best
selling .NET books, and which was highly recommended by a number of
organizations[1] and reviewers[2] and which was the VSJ book of hte
year[3]).
Since you have placed your question in the public domain, any one can join
in on the discussion. I am studying the various domains of C# theory and am
doing so with nothing but your books, after having read other IT books and
comparing them. So I think your books belong to the best. That having been
clearly stated, I do have some comment. A review is relative to comparable
books, already on the market. They implicitly function as the standard. So a
review also says something about these other books as well as saying
something about the book at hand. An IT book isn't a novel, but a textbook.
One should be able to study a textbook without having to take lots of notes.
The organization and layout (teaching method) of the textbook should make
that almost unnecessary. That is the standard of comparison I'd like to use.
I have yet to see an IT book that applies a teaching method. Most of them
are a summing up of information with examples, and I am sorry to say so,
your splendid books are no exception.