[3770] in Perl-Users-Digest
Would you like to review a Perl book?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jon Orwant)
Thu Jul 20 17:53:46 1995
Date: Thu, 20 Jul 1995 17:49:18 -0400
From: Jon Orwant <orwant@fahrenheit-451.media.mit.edu>
To: perl-users@mit.edu
Reply-To: orwant@media.mit.edu
I know some of you, but not all of you, so forgive the impersonal tone:
I've written a book on Perl 5 for the Waite Group Press. My deadline
is approaching fast, and I'm looking for anyone interested in Perl
(both novices and gurus) who might be able to review my current draft
before it's mailed to the publisher on July 27.
The following is excerpted from the README file in the "secret" FTP
directory containing the book (Why secret? Because my contract
doesn't allow me to make the draft available to the public. I also
want to know who is reviewing and who isn't.)
------
If you can review a chapter or two (or fourteen), that's great. You'll
earn my heartfelt thanks (and a mention in the book, which should be
on the shelves by the end of the year). Send me e-mail, and I'll send
you the directory from which you can retrieve PostScript files, one
per chapter.
Please take chapters ONLY if you can send me feedback on them by July 27.
That's when the final draft is due, and I'll need comments by then
if they are to be published in the first edition.
Each chapter is around 60 sparse pages. Figures are left empty (so
they shouldn't take eons to print). There's no index or table of
contents yet.
If you want to grab individual chapters, that's fine.
Here's a guide to help you decide which chapter(s) to review:
Chapter 1: The Basics
Chapter 2: Regular Expressions
Chapter 3: Files and Filehandles
Chapter 4: Subroutines
Chapter 5: Associative Arrays (Hashes)
Chapter 6: Formats
Chapter 7: Object-Oriented Programming
Chapter 8: Modules
Chapter 9: Processes
Chapter 10: Debugging
Chapter 11: Databases and Security
Chapter 12: The Web
Chapter 13: Networking
Chapter 14: Perl and Other Languages (e.g. using C, X, with Perl)
What sort of feedback is most helpful? Here are some cues.
Good feedback:
o I didn't understand your section on "greedy matching."
o I disagree with Quiz question 3 in Chapter 7, Lesson 4, because...
o You mis-explain this concept...it should be this way...
o This transition confused me.
o This section seems rushed/too-slow.
o This programming exercise is bloody impossible.
Bad feedback:
o "Your headers and footers are
screwed up." (I know.)
o "Your dialogues are corny!" (The publisher likes them that way.)
o "These fonts suck." (Not under my control.)
o "This word should be italicized." (That's helpful, but not crucial;
the publisher's little elves
catch those sorts of things.)
o "Move these chapters around." (It's too late for any sweeping
changes.)
o "I want more explanations for the
quiz answers." (I'm working on it.)
Thanks!
Jon Orwant
orwant@media.mit.edu
(617) 492-4762
