I guess as the main author of Pro C# I ought to reply to that :) There were far too many typos in the 1st edition of the book, as I think Julian Skinner, the main editor, has also stated. That was I'd say caused by the rush to get the book into print as soon as possible to meet the demand for a book on the subject when .NET beta2 was released last year. There were some pretty heavy discussions about the issue as soon as the first copies of the book appeared and the authors and editors saw what had happened in terms of typos. At the time I did get the impression of a real determination at Wrox Press to make sure that kind of thing didn't happen again.
A few people have commented that Wrox books look like they haven't been edited. Even if the typos give that impression, that's not the case. In my experience the editors do a lot of work checking through the chapters. But there is always the problem of time. There is a wider issue of how useful a book that has multiple authors can be - and I'd certainly agree that if you have lots of authors each writing one or two chapters then you can't really do the kind of detailed digging into technologies that you find in books like Essential COM or Professional DCOM - arguably the standard-bearers when it comes to great books that go beyond the documentation. And, depending on the subject matter, that can be a problem. The other side to that however is, once again, time. (Remember that COM had been around for a couple of years before either Pro DCOM or Essential COM appeared). Writing a decent book can typically take 6 months to a year if you're doing it as a solo effort. Add time for editing . And remember too that since the author is almost certainly also actively doing programming work (I suspect most readers would expect that because they want to know that the author is experienced and up-to-date!) then that author cannot by definition be working completely full time on the book. How many developers would want to wait that long when a big new technology appears before any books come out to explain the technology? There will always be a need for at least a few books to get published a lot more quickly. So there's obviously a balance between time on the one hand and lack of typos/depth of subject matter on the other hand. With hindsight I'd say that Pro C# 1st edition went too far on the side of time and it would have been better to have waited a couple more weeks to sort out typos etc., and allow a bit more time for writing, (although that would have meant a fair few frustrated developers who wanted a book during those couple of weeks). But then decisions like that are always easier with hindsight aren't they :) Simon --------------------------------------------------------------- Simon Robinson http://www.SimonRobinson.com --------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Janssen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2002 4:38 PM Subject: Re: [DOTNET] Wrox > A few typos here or there is no big deal. But the first edition > of "Profession C#" didn't seem like it was even looked at by an editor. I > stopped reading after a few chapters because the typos and grammatical > errors were so irrating. Makes me wonder about the validity of the code > samples. I've read similiar comments about other Wrox books on > bookpool.com. Because of this I have not purchased any more Wrox books. > > You can read messages from the DOTNET archive, unsubscribe from DOTNET, or > subscribe to other DevelopMentor lists at http://discuss.develop.com. > You can read messages from the DOTNET archive, unsubscribe from DOTNET, or subscribe to other DevelopMentor lists at http://discuss.develop.com.
