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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