#M2 Prging Book
7 messages in this thread
A new Amiga Modula 2 programming book has been announced by the makers of
Benchmark M2. Its priced at $59.95 runs 300 pages and includes a disk. This
PRICE is WAY to HIGH for a 300 page book. Books in its class usually run
about $20-$30 w/ disk. Watch out for news of a competitive product in a
store/magazine near you.
If the book is well-written (I have *no* idean, btw) then it is worth every
penny.
Assuming you want to work with Modula, of course. ;^)
On the other hand, it does open the market for competition. I look forward
to seeing either a 300 page book for 20$ of equal quality, or a 900 page
book for the same price, written by your or your comrade(s).
BBS->Williams.Ben[AA7AS]
Perhaps you should tell us about the competitive book, David. Who is
printing it, and when shall we expect it? Know the name of the author?
Betty
David:
Thank you very much for your announcement of the Modula-2 book
my company is publishing. However, let me clarify a few of the
statements made in your message.
1) Books are not priced based on the number of pages in the book.
I think most people know that the price of a book is not determined
by the amount of paper required to print the book. (I belive, you
work in a book store, you show know this, right?)
2) Consider the relatively small market for this type of book, the
price I chose was is very reasonable. Based, on the initial
response from my customers, I would say the price has not been
an obstacle.
3) You mention another Modula-2 book which is currently not available.
Is this book written by you and if so shouldn't you have mentioned
that in your message? If I am wrong on this account, then you
can disregard this last item.
>> Leon Frenkel <<
You tell him, Leon. :^))))
Disclaimer: I hate M2. I'm a C person. I don't know Leon well. I just found
the idea of a book being priced by # of trees killed rather peculiar…
personally, I buy for content… exactly why this fellow claimed #pages is
a function of price or v-v I have no idea. :^)
BBS->Williams.Ben[AA7AS]
Oh, no – C snobbery!! :^} What is it about this one letter language that
causes its users this maniacal fanaticism to institute PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE
JIHAD (read caps with lots of echo :^} )? I mean they had to plus it twice
to give a face lift that allowed them to call it a modern language!!
Sheesh – such love for a language that came from the same neighborhood as
FORTRAN!!! The way all you's C'spurts (as in experts) attack other
languages one must be suspicious that perhaps the language is in grave
danger!!
Now, on the serious side, about the only M2 references required are
"Modula-2 A Complete Guide" by B.N. King from Heath publishing at bout $21
and "Programming in Modula-2" by N.Wirth from Springer-Verlag. The other
thing is that anyone who programs in Pascal can transition to M2 in about
30 minutes. Anyone who programs in C (only, as is usually the case with C
programmers – very narrow bunch ;^} ) could transition in a day or so. The
prime difference is the tight typing, unambiguous notation and simplicity
(abeit verboseness) of M2 I/O.
As for the price of Mr. L. F.'s book, Just say a good textbook on a
programming language runs about 25 – 35 so the disk must cost 35 – 25! Base
on content of the disks, that may or may not be fair – individual buyers
will have to decide for themselves. Of course, since Leon failed to notify
the less than 300 M2Sprint owners for whom he refuses to reognize his
responibility since sneaking up on and overpowering his one-time competion,
there are less than or equal to 299 more potential customers to defray the
per-unit costs. But thats another story…(sorry, Leon, I didn't die
yet…)
BTW, the King book has an excellent bibliography and list of suppliers. It
is a good book for someone just starting in M2. The other book is a good
desk refernece for someone who is moderately experienced with M2 or Pascal.
wmc
I've always thought the M2 folks were fanatical. The people I've had
"discussions" with about the language don't seem to realize that each
language has it's own strengths. I had a Modula-2 compiler once, but after
messing with it for a few weeks I could see no advantage to switching to
it, and I'm not interested in hearing why I'm "wrong" (especially when, for
what I do, I'm not). 🙂
Steve