cfps.Christian said:
So far I have not found a book that truly explains
how to program, the problem I've found is the authors generally treat
you as if you know nothing at all and you don't learn what you need to
know or the author assumes you know too much and you can't do what
they're showing you due to missing steps.
It is really hard to be an author. The payscale sucks. You spend months of
your time after work putting things together. Then Microsoft changes things
on you and you have to edit the entire manuscript. Next round, you try again
on a multi-author book. Less time, but even less pay.
In addition, you have to figure out what the book publisher will want to
attempt to sell, as the title "Learn How To Truly Program ASP.NET in C#" is
less sexy than "Building Mash-Ups Using ASP.NET MVC".
To further compound this, suppose you try an advanced book, but make sure
you cover the basics? You get bashed by the advanced guys, who feel you are
insulting your intelligence. In addition, you have just added a plethora of
pages to your plate, which take time to write, debug, etc.
Perhaps, you go the route of creating a complete application and surrounding
it with a book. If you do this correctly, you spend a month designing the
application before starting the book. That does not work, as the publisher
wants pages now. So, you write an app on the fly. Oops! Readers tag you for
not following standards, so your book sales suck.
In all reality, the only way to make any money or reputation off a book is
to tag upcoming, new and sexy technology and get the first book out there.
This generally gives the author about 18-24 weeks to complete the project.
And, in most cases, he is writing an intermediate book that assumes you know
the basics. It sucks, yes, but it is the nature of the publishing business
right now, as that is what is going to sell.
This means you, as the reader, generally have to choose between a book that
assumes you already know programming and want to learn the new X technology
or you have to pick up a beginner's book: "Step by Step", for example.
Should there be a book out there that fits more sizes? Possibly, but it is
generally either a) too time consuming or b) too niched. Either are a death
sentence for a book.
--
Gregory A. Beamer
MVP, MCP: +I, SE, SD, DBA
Subscribe to my blog
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http://gregorybeamer.spaces.live.com/
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