Re: What's up with C++ (books)? [1 Attachment]

The attached photo shows the footprint for a rack of computing books that is
no longer required by Borders, Christchurch, New Zealand.

FYI, Borders in Australasia is currently in receivership due to a failure of
the parent company so the local Borders has been selling everything like
crazy.

I find it hard to find a decent C++ book these past few years since I
already have all the C++ books that I want (approx 3). I have been looking
for books to help me think new thoughts and have found most technology books
lacking in this respect.

On 27 May 2011 16:02, Jeroen Wenting <[email protected]> wrote:

>
>
> Only true in part. Many books are written based on hyped “new and improved”
> things. This was true for Java several years ago (and now also has died down
> a bit) and now seems to be the same for Android and iPad stuff.
>
> A new minor release of some small tool gets released, a few days later (and
> sometimes before) there’s 4-5 books about it, trying to cash in on the hype.
>
>
>
> C++ and to a degree Java have grown out of the hype stage, so publication
> cycles have gotten longer (as well as release cycles for tools and
> libraries, and new language versions). There’s less need for new books as a
> result, but those books also carried the hype (at least in part), and were
> written usually by the authors of those tools and libraries or people close
> to them, the software and books driving downloads/sales of each other.
>
> If tool/library authors perceive a platform to be past the hype stage, they
> go slower with their releases, thus their publications also go slower (and
> those living off those frequent publications, each often poorly written and
> printed in relatively small volumes, may well abandon the platform and
> repeat their trick on a new platform, as was apparent when the Ruby hype
> started several years ago with a flood of books from previous Java authors
> about migrating from Java (which they’d previously called very good and now
> called suddenly fundamentally flawed) to Ruby (which was now of course
> perfect when they’d prior completely ignored it or even ridiculed it).
>
>
>
> Seeing those patterns, I have to question the assertion that authors write
> what readers ask for. I think it’s at least in part the other way around,
> authors creating (together with marketing people) the market that readers
> (especially those eager to always have the latest and greatest rather than
> stick to proven tech and wait out the hypes to see which mature and which
> don’t) enter to purchase those books deliberately.
>
>
>
> *Van:* [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] *Namens
> *Dave Thomas
> *Verzonden:* vrijdag 27 mei 2011 3:57
> *Aan:* [email protected]
> *Onderwerp:* Re: [pragprog] What's up with C++ (books)?
>
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> there are fewer books on any topic being published. I look at the computer
> section at my local Barnes & Noble and it is about half the size it was five
> years ago.
>
>
>
> I don't think that's true. It's just that brick and mortar stores are
> carrying fewer titles.
>
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> The market is shifting, and traditional channel sales are dropping. So the
> successful publishers and authors are the ones that  don't rely on those
> channels.
>
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> Why don't we have C++ books under development? Because no one asks for
> them, and we're here to serve the readers.
>
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> Dave
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