
Do programmers still buy printed books? - acangiano
http://antoniocangiano.com/2009/08/15/do-programmers-still-buy-printed-books/
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DanielStraight
Yes.

I buy lots of printed books (and not just for programming). I've probably
bought at least a dozen computer books this year alone. I've read several of
them cover to cover, substantial portions of several, and used several just
for occasional reference. My favorite type of computer books to buy is more
theoretical books. Most books to learn a technology are not much better than
tutorials online. Reference books don't really beat Google. However, books
intended for READING are much better in print. There is no way I would read
Code Complete on a computer screen. 800, or however many pages it is, is just
way too much not to have paper and ink.

Another point for books, you OWN them. Most digital content, you don't really
own. If it has any DRM at all of any kind whatsoever, you don't own it. You're
leasing it at best. Furthermore, accidental deletion and disk failure are much
more likely than your house burning down or flooding to destroy your books.
It's even worse if the content lives on someone else's servers. I don't want
the availability of my books to be subject to some company's continued
existence. If Honda goes out of business, I still have a car. If O'Reilly goes
out of business, I should still have my books. There are other ways this comes
up. If my internet access goes out, I should still have my books.

Another point of books, you can resell or gift them. I bought a computer book
recently that I didn't find very useful. I think I got it for like $30 used on
Amazon. It's still going for about the same price. So basically I can sell it
and have paid nothing for it. Try that with a PDF.

Another advantage of books, you can go to a bookstore and browse through them
all you want. If you really wanted, you could go to Barnes & Noble, get some
coffee, pick up a computer book and read the whole thing there in the store.
Sure, some places give previews, but they decide what part of the book the
preview comes from and how much you can see. When you're shopping for books,
you decide (assuming you're in a store, not on Amazon).

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bayareaguy
For me the whole point of buying programming books is to save time and these
days fewer and fewer printed books accomplish that.

Before the web I used to drive 50 miles every other weekend to buy books from
Computer Literacy to add to my personal library when I didn't have a need for
them because of the time saved having them at hand later. I don't do this
anymore, in part because for my needs the web is often sufficient but also
because Computer Literacy eventually went out of business and there's no
comparable store anymore worth that trip.

These days I'm _thrilled_ whenever I do find a printed programming book likely
to save me time compared to searching the web. The last such book I found was
Kurt Jung and Aaron Brown's "Beginning Lua Programming". It's full of well-
organized time-saving details and an excellent companion to Roberto
Ierusalimschy's "Programming in Lua", a book at the same quality level as
K&R's "The C Programming Language". Unless the price is an absolute bargin, I
won't bother buying a printed book unless it's as good as those.

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jrockway
I sold more printed copies than electronic copies (of my Catalyst book).

Personally, I buy ebooks whenever possible. Printed books are fine, but you
have to wait for them to arrive. When you buy an ebook, you can start reading
immediately.

For technical books, I don't mind being forced to read in front of my
computer. I am going to want to play with "real code" while I am reading
anyway, so I am probably not going to be too far from my computer. (An
exception; I read "Real World Haskell" on two very long flights. There was
just a lot to play with when I got home...)

For non-technical books, the Kindle is much nicer than a physical book.
Smaller, lighter, cheaper content, and nobody knows what you are reading
about.

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erikstarck
I do! Books are great for learning. You can tell how difficult something is
simply by the weight of the book. Books have a linear structure suitable for
learning. You always know how far you've got and how much you have left to
learn by the number of pages left. You can even feel it with your fingers!

No online tutorial comes close. Just wish they had a CTRL+F.

~~~
pjonesdotca
I like that Pragprog gives you the option of buying both the deadtree and pdf
versions. That way you CAN have your Ctl-F and something to read on holiday at
the same time.

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yannis
Programmers always spent their money on books and computers and they will
forever! :)

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draegtun
Perhaps the question should be "Do programmers still read printed books?".
Because I still regularly buy printed books but a lot do seem to end up on the
shelf unread or barely read collecting dust :(

