> Paul Becker wrote:
> > a good read. I'm sure he embellished a lot on his experiences. He strikes
> > me as being a puckish kind of guy, somewhat rare amongst engineers. Read
> > some of his other material. A Day at the Zoo is a good one.
>
> And "Travels with Samantha" is a hoot. His coding style is very similar
> to his writing style -- lispish. But, then again, he's an old-hand MIT
> LISP hacker. You should read his tcl one day -- I've laughed till I've
> cried over some of his code. (I don't know if that's more of a
> statement about his coding style, or about my reading habits.....)
>
> Philip is certainly an interesting writer.
Yes, he was interesting. He clearly caused some of his own problems
with MacMillan, and I agreed with MacMillan on a number of issues.
What I found interesting is something I had suspected for quite some
time. I found that I have some great computer books, but when I go to
the computer section of a book store, most books there are junk.
Then I ordered Knuth's "Art of Computer Programming" directly from
Addison Wesley, and I started receiving their quarterly book bulletins.
I said, "Hey, I read that book, and that one, and that one..." I
realized that most of my books are from a handful of book publishers,
Addison Wesley being the most popular in my bookshelf.
Basically, I realized that not all the publishers are the same. Some
produce quality, and others take a much more marketing slant in book
production, usually producing poor quality books.
One of the reasons I am posting this to the list is so people
considering book writing ( and I know some publishers have been lurking
in the past months), be careful who you sign with. It can affect your
whole outlook on the process, and in the end, it is your name that is on
the cover of the book, not the publisher.
--
Bruce Momjian | http://www.op.net/~candle
maillist@candle.pha.pa.us | (610) 853-3000
+ If your life is a hard drive, | 830 Blythe Avenue
+ Christ can be your backup. | Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026