In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Timothy Swenson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes >At 04:32 PM 12/23/2001 +0000, you wrote: >>If you get time then try a visit to Dillions bookshop ... I have found >>this in the past to be a treasure of all the latest in computer related >>texts. > >Latest does not necessarily mean good. I find that most modern computer >books fall into two categories: > >1 - Good thought out volumes on a particular computer program, language, or >technology. > >2 - Worthless 500 page tome with the nutritional value of sugary breakfast >cereal. > >Most O'Reilly books fall in the first category. They are full of good >technical information that is aimed at the programmer or System >Administrator. They cover topics like Perl, Apache, DNS, Cisco routers, >etc. Most are about an inch thick. I've been buying O'Reilly books for >about 11 years and have about 30 so far. > >The others are these "Java in 24 hours" tomes put out by publishers like >Que, that are 3-4 inches think and are pretty much worthless. They are >aimed at the new guy to computers and are glitzy enough to catch the >attention of the new guy. They seem to think that the greater the word >count, the better the book must be. > >There are probably a few books on the last 10 years that might eventually >become classics. There is a web page called "Joel of software" where this >guy talks about books and such, but he is mostly talking about >User-Interface books.
< clip of good advice > Like everything there are books to suit all tastes and abilities. I agree that there will be few 'classics' amongst them ... yet word soon gets around about which are best. Knowing Chris Cave ... he will require the new ones with a good depth of understanding. Anyone know of any that they have enjoyed and benefited from ? -- Malcolm Cadman
