Re: Free computer books
On Wednesday, October 5, 2011 11:37:57 PM UTC-7, Roedy Green wrote:
On Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:26:14 -0700, markspace <-@.> wrote, quoted or
indirectly quoted someone who said :
I sincerely doubt that. Old tech is just old and third world doesn't
change that. If your local library doesn't want them, then recycle them.
A book on Java 1.4 still covers most of Java. Mostly you need texts to
get you started.
The problem isn't its lack of coverage, the problem is the part that isn't "most of Java" will be wrong, misleading and conducive to bad programming in the post-5 world.
Why raise another generation of Java programmers to have the wrong view of the memory model, to lack skills with generics or the concurrent libraries, to struggle with out-of-date JDBC and to use (gasp!) java.util.Vector and java.util.Hashtable?
Why cut them off from the really, really significant changes that Java has undergone in the more than seven full years since the release of Java 5?
Good training is especially important for the newbies. It is better to teach them what is right then point out exceptions than to teach them wrong and try to patch good behaviors on top of a rotten foundation.
What you suggest is harmful to newbies.
Aren't you the one who presents himself as the champion of the newbie?
I think the way we are headed is "open source" text books and CAI that
can be used in the third world electronically without royalty. It
probably more a matter of cataloging it and preparing it in a number
of standard formats.
This does not speak to the question of training newbies on out-of-date and misleading information.
Even when I went to university, textbooks were extremely expensive.
They sold in small runs, and were frequently reissued. An ebook would
be much more economical.
Such an ebook would be false economy indeed if the "free" information therein turns out to be retardant to their learning.
Rather, push for useful information to be free or cheap.
--
Lew