For the newbies (book question)

Mark Komarinski mkomarinski at wayga.org
Tue Mar 4 21:29:08 EST 2003


On Tue, Mar 04, 2003 at 09:20:40PM -0500, Erik Price wrote:
> 
> On Tuesday, March 4, 2003, at 06:24  PM, Derek Martin wrote:
> 
> >Another point I'll make is that it seems to me that the typical new
> >home user doesn't really want either of these...  What they want is a
> >pamphlet that tells them everything they need to know in order to
> >browse, use e-mail, write documents and install new software; and all
> >in 5 pages or less.
> 
> Agreed.  Especially since once you can browse and use email, you can 
> use the web and email to locate help (forums, online HOW-TOs, and 
> mailing lists), and if you know how to install new software, you should 
> be able to go forth from there.
 
That alone will take up many hundreds of pages.  Remember, this is for
new users.  Think of the ideal book for your mom.

> But I don't think it's just the typical home user.  I think everyone 
> would love this.  Martin Fowler himself wrote so in his short-n-sweet 
> "UML Distilled".

185 pages is a lot more than 5.  But the point is taken.  Unfortunately,
the thing going against this is the thought (which I want to prove or
disprive) that bigger is better, at least in terms of books that take
up a lot of shelf space being better.  Until a book (like UML Distilled)
gets known within its group of readers as a good book, it won't sell.
UML Distilled was last updated in 1999.  Linux books will rarely last
a year in the bookstore, let alone 4.  So the perception to the
user has to be that it's a quality book and should be purchased instead
of the [behemoth|5 page pamphlet] that's also on the shelf.

-Mark
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