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Do you like it Hard or Soft?

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 12:15 am
by harrisonad
Nowadays, students and professionals alike take advantage of electronic (soft copy) references, such as PDF files, web pages and other files, to learn their things. I want to know if how many of you still use manual book for studying.
My question is this: what type of references do you like most? books or online references? Then explain why.

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 12:24 am
by nielsene
Well I voted for manuals/books.

I like a quick web tutorial for getting started with something; and I like this forum for expanding my viewpoints on different programming issues.

However, nothing comes close to a good textbook/reference book for helping me truly internalize and understand the material.

The books that sit by my side while code:
Refactoring by Martin Fowler, Test-Driven Development: A Practical Guide by David Astel, PoEAA by Fowler, Design Patterns by GoF, Introduction to Algorithms by CLR (still have to older edition so no S), and Introduction to Database Systems by Date.

The bookshelf behind me has the collected essays of Date, all of Meyers CSS books, and the three volumn Knuth set, not to mention a zoo's worth of O'Reilly....

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 2:07 am
by crazytopu
Lucky you! Whatever books you want to have you can have them in your collection. I always think of it as one of my biggest drawbacks to equal with the knowledge of fellow programers. In the country's biggest book store I didnot get any of those Meyers CSS books. There is not adequate amount of books on web development. If one book store has wrox's PHP, every other store is happen to have that but getting different publications books on PHP is next to impossible. I once searched for a book that covers all three- PHP+MySQL+Apache , there was none, thogh I took 10 reference with me that I got after searching the web and forum.

To make it even worse, Our national bank has restrictions on trade over the Internet. So, can't buy those books online and with so limited money (bad economy)I can't even think of buying books in Dollar. Sometimes I really wish there were some guys making their own resources accesible to people like us who have so many restrictions.

As you see, I have to rely on the e-resources a lot more than hard manual. It's not that I prefer it, I am just pretty much out of any suitable alternative.

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 2:22 am
by s.dot
I have learned everything online. There are a few reasons. #1 is you can generally find everything for free. #2 it's a lot easier to copy/paste a code and tamper with it to find out what it does, than to type it out and risk silly errors.

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 2:24 am
by harrisonad
Books are so portable. You can bring them almost everywhere, except for under the sea of course. And you don't have to worry about your eyes corrupting after hours of reading online documents.
Plus you can read books even without electricity, like in uncivilized places, :lol: well just in case you visit one.

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 5:04 am
by timvw
I like the electronical version when i want to lookup something quickly.


I like the dead-tree version when i'm on the bus going to class (or wherever i'm going)

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 8:26 am
by onion2k
When I'm learning I prefer a book..
As a reference, I prefer to be able to search properly, so something computer based.

Depends.

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 9:57 am
by AnarKy
I think it depends on the type of book….

If it is a novel or something like that, I would like a hard copy.
So that I can enjoy it and give my eyes something a bit different
to look at as opposed to my Laptop screen.

If it is something I need to learn, something like news or something
that I am using as reference while working, then I like to have an
electronic copy so that I can search easily or even …. Copy / Paste.

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 10:07 am
by imstupid
I'm the same as onion. considering I barely can make it through a simple login script, manually typing code instead of the copy + paste method helps me learn for some reason... at least until I start to get better.

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 10:27 am
by Burrito
online references for me, much easier to search and I have a hard time turning pages...

on a different note, no [ php ] tags and no beer make burrito go crazy.... 8O

Copy Code

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 10:35 am
by AnarKy
Yip,

It is a bad idea to copy code....
Even if it is you own,
it is very easy to copy mistakes :?

But if you are compiling research or have a list of
amounts / transactions, etc. then copy/paste is useful.

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 10:47 am
by neophyte
I like books where there are electronic copies of examples on cd or on a website and the how to and why in the book.

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 11:53 am
by timvw
Most authors have an electronic version of the code on their (or the publishers) site :)

As a student i don't have much money to spend, not on books anyway :p, but each year there is something like a "market" where you can find all nice books like the o'reilly ones for $5 each.. :)

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 12:27 pm
by wwwapu
I like books because of their smell and feel. e-resources are in most cases more handy, but still... Also books are easier to read while in toilet.
crazytopu wrote: There is not adequate amount of books on web development...
Sometimes I really wish there were some guys making their own resources accesible to people like us who have so many restrictions.
As you see, I have to rely on the e-resources a lot more than hard manual. It's not that I prefer it, I am just pretty much out of any suitable alternative.
How much demand is there in your country for these books? Can you start your own business, importing books? If demand is high then the profit would be good. Or at least minimal profit and the main thing: books available for programmers and students.

Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2005 2:28 pm
by anjanesh
Online is defintely faster but books are less strain on the eye. This article has some points when using the Computer and how to relax your eyes.