Hi Fudmer,
I didn't think my comments would have piqued your interest so much. :-)
Well, we're off-topic from Perl, but let me add just the following:
fudmer rieley wrote:
The need is for a problem book with real explained answers [producing
such a problem book would be a massive undertaking]. Such a
questions and answers server project would advance programming, and
it would probably extend the need for books of all types of computer
knowledge. the idea would advance programmer knowledge base. Each
I somewhat wrote my comments with one particular book in mind:
http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Challenges-Steven-S-Skiena/dp/0387001638/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252369122&sr=8-1
Though I'm sure there are many others out there. I think you can browse
the pages on Amazon.
There are of course two other questions. How would such a book differ
from (say) the Perl Cookbook? And how can such a book work with
something like the ACM Programming Contest?
Teaching like this needs to become open source and be available for
no charge and it needs to be created by those who are still learning.
The knowledge involved in Instructional design is a Phd in and of its
self.
I have to admit that I'm in support of open source, but I think there
are limits to it. An excellent (IMHO) example is Wikipedia. It's open
and I do use it often; but there are certain topics which I would not
rely on. The quality control is good in some cases but very poor in others.
Likewise, a resource that is as open as you say is no different from
(say) a blog by Perl experts. In other words, what is the difference
between an O'Reilly book on Perl and a blog by the same authors? The
people who wrote it are the same, but the publisher adds quality
checking, support for authors in standardizing, etc. Also, I think an
author would put more care into something that is going "in print" [on
paper or on-line] than something that is going into a blog.
As the saying goes, "You get what you pay for...".
Ray
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