Do you even bother with tech books anymore?
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Serious question. I get the "general" nature of development things, but most of the stuff I've seen in the last few years - meh. It's all fluff. Looking at my solid oak bookcase, I have about 40 books of various types on the shelves. In general, I have found the bookcase, my desk (lawyer sized solid oak), and credenza to be horizontal collection devices (think about that). About 1/3 of the books are cooking books - yes I'm getting tired of the tech, I'm seriously done with the tech BS. You youngsters are so screwed. Going to donate them to the local high school... Meanwhile, I'm just amazed at how us techies have moved on. I have not seen decent documentation since my openVMS days - and I KNEW where to find stuff in the large gray wall. Further, it was actually useful. Unlike the reprocessed garbage from MS. The last good book I read about MS was pure code related, but the name escapes me. Pretty sure MS has an idiot AI generating "technical" doc for their products.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
Books are for old people. I used books at the start of my career, about fifteen years ago. But now I rarely need to know 400 pages of information, so I just google for the particular thing I want to know, or ask ChatGPT. Much easier than searching through books, which probably don't have that specific answer anyway. If there's something new I must learn, online tutorials have gotten much better too.
Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript
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Serious question. I get the "general" nature of development things, but most of the stuff I've seen in the last few years - meh. It's all fluff. Looking at my solid oak bookcase, I have about 40 books of various types on the shelves. In general, I have found the bookcase, my desk (lawyer sized solid oak), and credenza to be horizontal collection devices (think about that). About 1/3 of the books are cooking books - yes I'm getting tired of the tech, I'm seriously done with the tech BS. You youngsters are so screwed. Going to donate them to the local high school... Meanwhile, I'm just amazed at how us techies have moved on. I have not seen decent documentation since my openVMS days - and I KNEW where to find stuff in the large gray wall. Further, it was actually useful. Unlike the reprocessed garbage from MS. The last good book I read about MS was pure code related, but the name escapes me. Pretty sure MS has an idiot AI generating "technical" doc for their products.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
I prefer textbooks to be dead tree. I find that learning a new subject from them is much easier than doing the same online. OTOH, when I just want to look up something I use the Internet, like everyone else.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
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Serious question. I get the "general" nature of development things, but most of the stuff I've seen in the last few years - meh. It's all fluff. Looking at my solid oak bookcase, I have about 40 books of various types on the shelves. In general, I have found the bookcase, my desk (lawyer sized solid oak), and credenza to be horizontal collection devices (think about that). About 1/3 of the books are cooking books - yes I'm getting tired of the tech, I'm seriously done with the tech BS. You youngsters are so screwed. Going to donate them to the local high school... Meanwhile, I'm just amazed at how us techies have moved on. I have not seen decent documentation since my openVMS days - and I KNEW where to find stuff in the large gray wall. Further, it was actually useful. Unlike the reprocessed garbage from MS. The last good book I read about MS was pure code related, but the name escapes me. Pretty sure MS has an idiot AI generating "technical" doc for their products.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
A while back I donated about 40-50 tech books to a local high school. I read them once but the Mr. Google knows most of what I need to know. And you're right, a lot of the tech books are terrible!
Definition of a burocrate; Delegate, Take Credit, shift blame. PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - Release Version 1.3.1 JaxCoder.com Latest Article: EventAggregator
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Serious question. I get the "general" nature of development things, but most of the stuff I've seen in the last few years - meh. It's all fluff. Looking at my solid oak bookcase, I have about 40 books of various types on the shelves. In general, I have found the bookcase, my desk (lawyer sized solid oak), and credenza to be horizontal collection devices (think about that). About 1/3 of the books are cooking books - yes I'm getting tired of the tech, I'm seriously done with the tech BS. You youngsters are so screwed. Going to donate them to the local high school... Meanwhile, I'm just amazed at how us techies have moved on. I have not seen decent documentation since my openVMS days - and I KNEW where to find stuff in the large gray wall. Further, it was actually useful. Unlike the reprocessed garbage from MS. The last good book I read about MS was pure code related, but the name escapes me. Pretty sure MS has an idiot AI generating "technical" doc for their products.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
Anything related to computing : no. It just ages too quickly.
CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair
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Serious question. I get the "general" nature of development things, but most of the stuff I've seen in the last few years - meh. It's all fluff. Looking at my solid oak bookcase, I have about 40 books of various types on the shelves. In general, I have found the bookcase, my desk (lawyer sized solid oak), and credenza to be horizontal collection devices (think about that). About 1/3 of the books are cooking books - yes I'm getting tired of the tech, I'm seriously done with the tech BS. You youngsters are so screwed. Going to donate them to the local high school... Meanwhile, I'm just amazed at how us techies have moved on. I have not seen decent documentation since my openVMS days - and I KNEW where to find stuff in the large gray wall. Further, it was actually useful. Unlike the reprocessed garbage from MS. The last good book I read about MS was pure code related, but the name escapes me. Pretty sure MS has an idiot AI generating "technical" doc for their products.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
Greetings Kind Regards Here is a story I've been waiting to tell. My master's thesis involved the FORTRAN simulation of random functions for the purpose of testing my advisor's mathematical model. In an effort to learn more I stole a text on the subject of random function theory from the University of Illinois library. In attempting to read it I could not get passed the 1st few pages. I found them incomprehensible. I had great hopes of unlocking the great mathematical secrets I assumed it contained as it was authored by a Russian and as we all know they are great mathematicians. In a subsequent meeting w/ my advisor I held up the text stating my attempt to study it. I was surprised by his reaction as he seemed to be intimidated by its presumed "advanced stuff" as he stated as he was held in high regard in the department w/ the standard and common saying "George is correct by definition." I completed the thesis w/o discerning the presumed magical mathematics contained therein. The text sat on my book shelf for many years and I often thought of it as a treasure chest if only I had the key to opening it. Subsequent for no particular reason I attempted again to study it. Upon reading again the 1st few mysterious pages I realized why I could not previously make sense of them. They were gibberish! Mathematical gibberish. As near as I could discern it was the author's or perhaps the translator's attempt to provide a mathematics of the symbology utilized in describing the mathematics of the subject at hand id est a mathematics of the mathematics. Ugh. I merely ignored these pages and continued reading further finding this introductory "information" not even referenced and quickly learned in only a few pages the great secret all powerful mathematics was precisely the same as my advisor had utilized in his own work. The remaining hundred or so pages of the text were of no use despite impressive chapter titles. As for texts in general I have high regard. A.M. Yaglom being the exception. - Best
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Serious question. I get the "general" nature of development things, but most of the stuff I've seen in the last few years - meh. It's all fluff. Looking at my solid oak bookcase, I have about 40 books of various types on the shelves. In general, I have found the bookcase, my desk (lawyer sized solid oak), and credenza to be horizontal collection devices (think about that). About 1/3 of the books are cooking books - yes I'm getting tired of the tech, I'm seriously done with the tech BS. You youngsters are so screwed. Going to donate them to the local high school... Meanwhile, I'm just amazed at how us techies have moved on. I have not seen decent documentation since my openVMS days - and I KNEW where to find stuff in the large gray wall. Further, it was actually useful. Unlike the reprocessed garbage from MS. The last good book I read about MS was pure code related, but the name escapes me. Pretty sure MS has an idiot AI generating "technical" doc for their products.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
Back in the 90s I literally went through 100s of tech books. Not an exaggeration. Everything is digital these days though. I still have books on trading, etc. but the volume of books I buy has dropped. These days you can use online courses like Udemy or YouTube, etc. Would I read a tech book again? Sure. But, not nearly as much as I did as a kid.
Jeremy Falcon
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Anything related to computing : no. It just ages too quickly.
CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair
Yes, computer books age quickly. But then: Maybe computer/programming fashions change (far) too rapidly. I have a good share of old computer books, and every now and then I flip through them, asking myself (because noone else want to listen :-)): Why did we abandon that idea? And this one? How much better is really that new methodology, compared to the four or five preceding it? Some times, there really were good reasons for ditching this or that technique. Surprisingly often, the major "good" reason was that something new had been proposed and strongly promoted. In hindsight (and after two or three even more revolutionary new methodologies) we may have difficulties realizing what was so great about #2. Especially considering the strongholds of #1 that we ditched, which were actually good ideas! #3 wasn't that much of an improvement over #2, and #4 none at all. So fortunately we today have alternative #5 that will really improve things! (At least until #6 comes and tell us that it #5 is old thrash.) Some times, when I point out to some younger guy how we did that very elegantly with now abandoned tools, I am told "We can achieve the same, at least approximately, by doing this, and that, and then this ... no, that ..." Yes, you can. But not with the same simplicity and lucidity. In principle, we could have retained the old stuff, but the developers of #2 and #3 and #4 and #5 wanted to stand out as something radically new, not just another extension to some old stuff. So I do read my old computer books, to recall methodologies, techniques and tools that we let go much too easily. And to better understand the reasons why it was definitely right to let some other techniques go forever.
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
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Serious question. I get the "general" nature of development things, but most of the stuff I've seen in the last few years - meh. It's all fluff. Looking at my solid oak bookcase, I have about 40 books of various types on the shelves. In general, I have found the bookcase, my desk (lawyer sized solid oak), and credenza to be horizontal collection devices (think about that). About 1/3 of the books are cooking books - yes I'm getting tired of the tech, I'm seriously done with the tech BS. You youngsters are so screwed. Going to donate them to the local high school... Meanwhile, I'm just amazed at how us techies have moved on. I have not seen decent documentation since my openVMS days - and I KNEW where to find stuff in the large gray wall. Further, it was actually useful. Unlike the reprocessed garbage from MS. The last good book I read about MS was pure code related, but the name escapes me. Pretty sure MS has an idiot AI generating "technical" doc for their products.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
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I prefer textbooks to be dead tree. I find that learning a new subject from them is much easier than doing the same online. OTOH, when I just want to look up something I use the Internet, like everyone else.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
Mostly agree. However, I do like online courses as well. I just perform and learn better with 'dead tree'.
-Sean ---- Fire Nuts
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Serious question. I get the "general" nature of development things, but most of the stuff I've seen in the last few years - meh. It's all fluff. Looking at my solid oak bookcase, I have about 40 books of various types on the shelves. In general, I have found the bookcase, my desk (lawyer sized solid oak), and credenza to be horizontal collection devices (think about that). About 1/3 of the books are cooking books - yes I'm getting tired of the tech, I'm seriously done with the tech BS. You youngsters are so screwed. Going to donate them to the local high school... Meanwhile, I'm just amazed at how us techies have moved on. I have not seen decent documentation since my openVMS days - and I KNEW where to find stuff in the large gray wall. Further, it was actually useful. Unlike the reprocessed garbage from MS. The last good book I read about MS was pure code related, but the name escapes me. Pretty sure MS has an idiot AI generating "technical" doc for their products.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
I recently had a clear out and relegated "Undocumented DOS" and "MSDOS 6.0", plus several others to the garage. They'll probably just get trashed as I can't think of anyone I know who'd want obscure details of a system nearly 30 years old! In fact, I can't remember the last time I actually looked at a tech book for information...
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Serious question. I get the "general" nature of development things, but most of the stuff I've seen in the last few years - meh. It's all fluff. Looking at my solid oak bookcase, I have about 40 books of various types on the shelves. In general, I have found the bookcase, my desk (lawyer sized solid oak), and credenza to be horizontal collection devices (think about that). About 1/3 of the books are cooking books - yes I'm getting tired of the tech, I'm seriously done with the tech BS. You youngsters are so screwed. Going to donate them to the local high school... Meanwhile, I'm just amazed at how us techies have moved on. I have not seen decent documentation since my openVMS days - and I KNEW where to find stuff in the large gray wall. Further, it was actually useful. Unlike the reprocessed garbage from MS. The last good book I read about MS was pure code related, but the name escapes me. Pretty sure MS has an idiot AI generating "technical" doc for their products.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
I recently purchased Code by Charles Petzold, but that is only for personal amusement. The last programming book I actually got any use out of was the manual for Turbo Pascal - now that was a good manual. For image processing the book Machine Vision Algorithms and Application by Carsten Steger, Markus Ulrich and Christian Weidemann was very useful when I was starting out. A little dated now in the 3D world, but still worth a read.
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Serious question. I get the "general" nature of development things, but most of the stuff I've seen in the last few years - meh. It's all fluff. Looking at my solid oak bookcase, I have about 40 books of various types on the shelves. In general, I have found the bookcase, my desk (lawyer sized solid oak), and credenza to be horizontal collection devices (think about that). About 1/3 of the books are cooking books - yes I'm getting tired of the tech, I'm seriously done with the tech BS. You youngsters are so screwed. Going to donate them to the local high school... Meanwhile, I'm just amazed at how us techies have moved on. I have not seen decent documentation since my openVMS days - and I KNEW where to find stuff in the large gray wall. Further, it was actually useful. Unlike the reprocessed garbage from MS. The last good book I read about MS was pure code related, but the name escapes me. Pretty sure MS has an idiot AI generating "technical" doc for their products.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
I had the idea that the written books would come in PDF or something like that, in a very very economical format, because so many books or courses are generated that the bookstores simply do not sell any more, they all have old books on the counter, so for the programmers It would be great to have a book delivery point somewhere in the city where it could be printed at a low cost PER UNIT (paying minimum copyright), in reality printed books are much better than pdfs for learning.
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Yes, computer books age quickly. But then: Maybe computer/programming fashions change (far) too rapidly. I have a good share of old computer books, and every now and then I flip through them, asking myself (because noone else want to listen :-)): Why did we abandon that idea? And this one? How much better is really that new methodology, compared to the four or five preceding it? Some times, there really were good reasons for ditching this or that technique. Surprisingly often, the major "good" reason was that something new had been proposed and strongly promoted. In hindsight (and after two or three even more revolutionary new methodologies) we may have difficulties realizing what was so great about #2. Especially considering the strongholds of #1 that we ditched, which were actually good ideas! #3 wasn't that much of an improvement over #2, and #4 none at all. So fortunately we today have alternative #5 that will really improve things! (At least until #6 comes and tell us that it #5 is old thrash.) Some times, when I point out to some younger guy how we did that very elegantly with now abandoned tools, I am told "We can achieve the same, at least approximately, by doing this, and that, and then this ... no, that ..." Yes, you can. But not with the same simplicity and lucidity. In principle, we could have retained the old stuff, but the developers of #2 and #3 and #4 and #5 wanted to stand out as something radically new, not just another extension to some old stuff. So I do read my old computer books, to recall methodologies, techniques and tools that we let go much too easily. And to better understand the reasons why it was definitely right to let some other techniques go forever.
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
:thumbsup:
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Serious question. I get the "general" nature of development things, but most of the stuff I've seen in the last few years - meh. It's all fluff. Looking at my solid oak bookcase, I have about 40 books of various types on the shelves. In general, I have found the bookcase, my desk (lawyer sized solid oak), and credenza to be horizontal collection devices (think about that). About 1/3 of the books are cooking books - yes I'm getting tired of the tech, I'm seriously done with the tech BS. You youngsters are so screwed. Going to donate them to the local high school... Meanwhile, I'm just amazed at how us techies have moved on. I have not seen decent documentation since my openVMS days - and I KNEW where to find stuff in the large gray wall. Further, it was actually useful. Unlike the reprocessed garbage from MS. The last good book I read about MS was pure code related, but the name escapes me. Pretty sure MS has an idiot AI generating "technical" doc for their products.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
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Serious question. I get the "general" nature of development things, but most of the stuff I've seen in the last few years - meh. It's all fluff. Looking at my solid oak bookcase, I have about 40 books of various types on the shelves. In general, I have found the bookcase, my desk (lawyer sized solid oak), and credenza to be horizontal collection devices (think about that). About 1/3 of the books are cooking books - yes I'm getting tired of the tech, I'm seriously done with the tech BS. You youngsters are so screwed. Going to donate them to the local high school... Meanwhile, I'm just amazed at how us techies have moved on. I have not seen decent documentation since my openVMS days - and I KNEW where to find stuff in the large gray wall. Further, it was actually useful. Unlike the reprocessed garbage from MS. The last good book I read about MS was pure code related, but the name escapes me. Pretty sure MS has an idiot AI generating "technical" doc for their products.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
charlieg wrote:
Going to donate them to the local high school...
I sent a pile of old programming books about 4 feet tall to the recycling bin last year. Most of them in excellent condition. I'm still saddened by that, but I honestly had more use for the space they were taking than the actual books. My local library wouldn't accept any technical book if it was published more than 4 years ago. Snobs. Their loss.
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Serious question. I get the "general" nature of development things, but most of the stuff I've seen in the last few years - meh. It's all fluff. Looking at my solid oak bookcase, I have about 40 books of various types on the shelves. In general, I have found the bookcase, my desk (lawyer sized solid oak), and credenza to be horizontal collection devices (think about that). About 1/3 of the books are cooking books - yes I'm getting tired of the tech, I'm seriously done with the tech BS. You youngsters are so screwed. Going to donate them to the local high school... Meanwhile, I'm just amazed at how us techies have moved on. I have not seen decent documentation since my openVMS days - and I KNEW where to find stuff in the large gray wall. Further, it was actually useful. Unlike the reprocessed garbage from MS. The last good book I read about MS was pure code related, but the name escapes me. Pretty sure MS has an idiot AI generating "technical" doc for their products.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
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Serious question. I get the "general" nature of development things, but most of the stuff I've seen in the last few years - meh. It's all fluff. Looking at my solid oak bookcase, I have about 40 books of various types on the shelves. In general, I have found the bookcase, my desk (lawyer sized solid oak), and credenza to be horizontal collection devices (think about that). About 1/3 of the books are cooking books - yes I'm getting tired of the tech, I'm seriously done with the tech BS. You youngsters are so screwed. Going to donate them to the local high school... Meanwhile, I'm just amazed at how us techies have moved on. I have not seen decent documentation since my openVMS days - and I KNEW where to find stuff in the large gray wall. Further, it was actually useful. Unlike the reprocessed garbage from MS. The last good book I read about MS was pure code related, but the name escapes me. Pretty sure MS has an idiot AI generating "technical" doc for their products.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
Well for me it is a somewhat different problem. I've switched away from paper books to eBooks; take up much less space and are keyword searchable. Problem is the formatting has gone downhill over the years, to the point some of them are tough to read. I can no longer justify spending over >$30 for a book that was rushed through. And like many others here, once you reach a certain experience point, the internet is good enough for most things. [Tim]
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Serious question. I get the "general" nature of development things, but most of the stuff I've seen in the last few years - meh. It's all fluff. Looking at my solid oak bookcase, I have about 40 books of various types on the shelves. In general, I have found the bookcase, my desk (lawyer sized solid oak), and credenza to be horizontal collection devices (think about that). About 1/3 of the books are cooking books - yes I'm getting tired of the tech, I'm seriously done with the tech BS. You youngsters are so screwed. Going to donate them to the local high school... Meanwhile, I'm just amazed at how us techies have moved on. I have not seen decent documentation since my openVMS days - and I KNEW where to find stuff in the large gray wall. Further, it was actually useful. Unlike the reprocessed garbage from MS. The last good book I read about MS was pure code related, but the name escapes me. Pretty sure MS has an idiot AI generating "technical" doc for their products.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
Without books how will we survive the oncoming nuclear war? - No internet - All DRM things lock up because they can not check our subscription ... ?
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Serious question. I get the "general" nature of development things, but most of the stuff I've seen in the last few years - meh. It's all fluff. Looking at my solid oak bookcase, I have about 40 books of various types on the shelves. In general, I have found the bookcase, my desk (lawyer sized solid oak), and credenza to be horizontal collection devices (think about that). About 1/3 of the books are cooking books - yes I'm getting tired of the tech, I'm seriously done with the tech BS. You youngsters are so screwed. Going to donate them to the local high school... Meanwhile, I'm just amazed at how us techies have moved on. I have not seen decent documentation since my openVMS days - and I KNEW where to find stuff in the large gray wall. Further, it was actually useful. Unlike the reprocessed garbage from MS. The last good book I read about MS was pure code related, but the name escapes me. Pretty sure MS has an idiot AI generating "technical" doc for their products.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
No matter what I want to study or have a reference for, I look for a good manual. And I have always preferred a good technical manual to all this online crap, most of which is not all that good. The problem with a lot of the online documentation is that much of it is simply a reflection of all the sloppiness that has been invested into our daily lives from having it too good with all the smart-devices and online capabilities that the Internet provides. This is not to say that there aren't any good online sources for technical material; there are (ie: W3Schools) but no online source can provide the quality in depth engagement that a manual can provide. This has also been proven scientifically years ago. I believe the youngest generation of new developers are quite screwed as you have stated since many of them do not have the research skills necessary for our profession...
Steve Naidamast Sr. Software Engineer Black Falcon Software, Inc. blackfalconsoftware@outlook.com
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Serious question. I get the "general" nature of development things, but most of the stuff I've seen in the last few years - meh. It's all fluff. Looking at my solid oak bookcase, I have about 40 books of various types on the shelves. In general, I have found the bookcase, my desk (lawyer sized solid oak), and credenza to be horizontal collection devices (think about that). About 1/3 of the books are cooking books - yes I'm getting tired of the tech, I'm seriously done with the tech BS. You youngsters are so screwed. Going to donate them to the local high school... Meanwhile, I'm just amazed at how us techies have moved on. I have not seen decent documentation since my openVMS days - and I KNEW where to find stuff in the large gray wall. Further, it was actually useful. Unlike the reprocessed garbage from MS. The last good book I read about MS was pure code related, but the name escapes me. Pretty sure MS has an idiot AI generating "technical" doc for their products.
Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.
I had sent a comment earlier but it was marked as spam. Why? It was a valid comment on the state of eBooks. Can you tell me why it was marked as spam? [Tim]
