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digitalmars.D - If anyone needs a book written...

reply ajvincent juno.com writes:
One of the items on my resume is the "JavaScript Developer's Dictionary,"
published by Sams Publishing in May, 2002.  If anyone wants a book written on D,
I'm game.

I can also write articles, if requested.

My BigDecimal library in D is coming along fairly nicely.  At the current pace,
I should have an alpha release by the end of the week.  I'm estimating it at
being able to handle 36 billion digits flawlessly...
Sep 29 2004
next sibling parent reply Kramer <Kramer_member pathlink.com> writes:
Just out of curiosity, what would cause the library to not be able to handle
numbers longer than 36 billion digits "flawlessly".  Memory limitations;
limitations inherit in a library like this.  Or were you just throwing that
number out there.  I really am curious.  I've always been interested in the
implementations of the unlimitied precision "BigX" libraries.

Kramer

In article <cjf1qj$1dap$1 digitaldaemon.com>, ajvincent juno.com says...

One of the items on my resume is the "JavaScript Developer's Dictionary,"
published by Sams Publishing in May, 2002.  If anyone wants a book written on D,
I'm game.

I can also write articles, if requested.

My BigDecimal library in D is coming along fairly nicely.  At the current pace,
I should have an alpha release by the end of the week.  I'm estimating it at
being able to handle 36 billion digits flawlessly...
Sep 29 2004
parent ajvincent juno.com writes:
In article <cjf3f2$1e7u$1 digitaldaemon.com>, Kramer says...

Just out of curiosity, what would cause the library to not be able to handle
numbers longer than 36 billion digits "flawlessly".  Memory limitations;
limitations inherit in a library like this.  Or were you just throwing that
number out there.  I really am curious.  I've always been interested in the
implementations of the unlimitied precision "BigX" libraries.


Memory.  I actually figured it out:  each digit section in my implementation can
handle 18 digits.  Considering you have up to 2^32 sections (int long for the
pointer), and that's about 4 billion sections...

Side note:  I know the unsigned numbers have a lower boundary of zero.  This is
somewhat inconvenient for me, in the event that I may occasionally have a
section pointer drop to -1 -- and if it does, that triggers some special
conditions.  If the ulong would allow a -1 value within a function, that would
make things a little easier.  I'm wondering what suggestions the community has
for working around this.  I'm right now using signed longs instead.
Sep 30 2004
prev sibling next sibling parent reply Regan Heath <regan netwin.co.nz> writes:
On Wed, 29 Sep 2004 19:18:43 +0000 (UTC), <ajvincent juno.com> wrote:

 One of the items on my resume is the "JavaScript Developer's Dictionary,"
 published by Sams Publishing in May, 2002.  If anyone wants a book 
 written on D,
 I'm game.

 I can also write articles, if requested.

 My BigDecimal library in D is coming along fairly nicely.  At the 
 current pace,
 I should have an alpha release by the end of the week.  I'm estimating 
 it at
 being able to handle 36 billion digits flawlessly...


Have you seen AJ's 'Int' library. It sounds to me like the same thing as 
you are writing.
It is available in Deimos on the DSource site:
   http://www.dsource.org/projects/deimos/

Regan

-- 
Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/
Sep 29 2004
parent reply ajvincent juno.com writes:
Have you seen AJ's 'Int' library. It sounds to me like the same thing as 
you are writing.
It is available in Deimos on the DSource site:
   http://www.dsource.org/projects/deimos/


I saw it.  The license conditions were a bit unsavory.

Maybe the code's better, maybe not, but I still like having my decimal points.
Sep 30 2004
parent reply Arcane Jill <Arcane_member pathlink.com> writes:
In article <cjh4j6$2g9a$1 digitaldaemon.com>, ajvincent juno.com says...

Have you seen AJ's 'Int' library. It sounds to me like the same thing as 
you are writing.
It is available in Deimos on the DSource site:
   http://www.dsource.org/projects/deimos/


I saw it.  The license conditions were a bit unsavory.


But the license lets you do absolutely anything you want with it. It's a
straightforward BSD license (with an added sense of humor). What's the problem
with it? It was my intention that it should be usable by anyone, commercially or
otherwise, without restraint.




Maybe the code's better, maybe not, but I still like having my decimal points.


Unlimited precision decimals would be a very welcome addition to D. I certainly
look forward to seeing your class.

Arcane Jill
Sep 30 2004
parent reply ajvincent juno.com writes:
Have you seen AJ's 'Int' library. It sounds to me like the same thing as 
you are writing.
It is available in Deimos on the DSource site:
   http://www.dsource.org/projects/deimos/


I saw it.  The license conditions were a bit unsavory.


But the license lets you do absolutely anything you want with it. It's a
straightforward BSD license (with an added sense of humor). What's the problem
with it? It was my intention that it should be usable by anyone, commercially or
otherwise, without restraint.


The added sense of humor is what threw me off.  Particularly the bit that
required me to include that sense of humor.

It's not even good grammar!  :)

I'll be releasing my library under MPL/LGPL/GPL tri-license.  So you can still
play with it.


Unlimited precision decimals would be a very welcome addition to D. I certainly
look forward to seeing your class.


And ripping it apart... I'm hoping to have an alpha this weekend.  There will be
plenty of work to do on it, including supporting reals.  

The unittest will be very intensive, though.  Remember this is a port from my JS
BigDecimal script, and when I was writing that, I came up with one big honkin'
testcase suite.  Coding that into the unittest will be fun.

Alexander J. Vincent
(no relation to AJ at http://userfriendly.org)
Vallejo, CA
Sep 30 2004
parent reply Arcane Jill <Arcane_member pathlink.com> writes:
In article <cjhuhi$1rgs$1 digitaldaemon.com>, ajvincent juno.com says...


But the [Int] license lets you do absolutely anything you want with it. It's a
straightforward BSD license (with an added sense of humor). What's the problem
with it? It was my intention that it should be usable by anyone, commercially or
otherwise, without restraint.


The added sense of humor is what threw me off.


Hehehehe


Particularly the bit that
required me to include that sense of humor.


But of course. What would be the point otherwise? See - the thing is, I'm
utterly contemptuous of the whole "intellectual property" charade. I think it's
nonsense. It's an attempt to lump together all sorts of disparate concepts (a
copyright is not the same thing as a trademark; a trademark is not the same
thing a patent, etc.) under one name, in some kind of mad attempt to treat all
these issues the same way, and to perpetuate the idea that ideas can be owned.
(Don't you just wish that you or one of your ancestors could have taken out a
patent on taking out a patent?). So, as you might guess, I'm a strong advocate
of open source. My code can be used by anyone. It can be used in commercial
software. It can even be modified and redistributed in modified form. It is a
/much/ more liberal license than LGPL or GPL (I don't know much about MPL - I
had a brief look at it, and it looked long and complicated and full of
legalese). I find it hard to believe anyone takes all this license stuff so
seriously - the only reason I have a license /at all/ is because, without one,
some folk would be afraid to use the software. So yeah - Intellectual Property
Me Arse! - my statement of contept for all this nonsense.

I don't expect everyone to agree with this point of view, but if you're not even
prepared to quote me then tough! That's the deal.



It's not even good grammar!  :)


Of course not. That's on purpose. It sounds funnier if you say it that way
(IMO).



I'll be releasing my library under MPL/LGPL/GPL tri-license.  So you can still
play with it.


But can you import it into a commercial product and then sell that product for
money?



Unlimited precision decimals would be a very welcome addition to D. I certainly
look forward to seeing your class.


And ripping it apart...


Why would I want to do that? I'm nice.


(and in a different post, you said...)

I write all the time, whether it's code,
articles, or science fiction.  I just sent off a short story for this year's
"Strange New Worlds VIII Contest" (Star Trek), so who knows?


Yay! Another sci-fi fan - let's be friends.
Arcane Jill
Sep 30 2004
parent ajvincent juno.com writes:
I'll be releasing my library under MPL/LGPL/GPL tri-license.  So you can still
play with it.


But can you import it into a commercial product and then sell that product for
money?


Absolutely!  That's one of the advantages of the MPL.  Just ask ActiveState.
Their Komodo product is based on Mozilla source code, and it is commercial.

Or you can ask Mitchell Baker, who wrote the MPL and is the Chief Lizard
Wrangler for mozilla.org.


And ripping it apart...


Why would I want to do that? I'm nice.


I don't want people to be nice to my code.  I want them to find the bugs and fix
them.  :)

Now, you can be nice to me...

Alex
Oct 01 2004
prev sibling next sibling parent reply clayasaurus <clayasaurus gmail.com> writes:
Maybe you could contact Walter and/or Matthew directly?
I think Matthew's next book is going to be in D :-)
But you can never have too many D books!

ajvincent juno.com wrote:

 One of the items on my resume is the "JavaScript Developer's Dictionary,"
 published by Sams Publishing in May, 2002.  If anyone wants a book written on
D,
 I'm game.
 
 I can also write articles, if requested.
 
 My BigDecimal library in D is coming along fairly nicely.  At the current pace,
 I should have an alpha release by the end of the week.  I'm estimating it at
 being able to handle 36 billion digits flawlessly...
Sep 29 2004
parent reply "Matthew" <admin stlsoft.dot.dot.dot.dot.org> writes:
"clayasaurus" <clayasaurus gmail.com> wrote in message
news:cjfb7t$1j6a$1 digitaldaemon.com...

 Maybe you could contact Walter and/or Matthew directly?
 I think Matthew's next book is going to be in D :-)


Actually, my next book's going to be on STL, but Walter and I have have
planned a small book on D which has had the approval from my publisher
(Addison-Wesley).

It's intended to (hopefully) coincide with the release of D 1.0 (or soon
after), but the trick is in the timing of course. We cannot really get
stuck in until all/most of the "big issues" have been resolved, hence
Walter's recent MIIDs post, and my Exception quest (which will be done
in the next few days).

btw, it's not called "The D Programming Language". We certainly plan to
write that book - and I've reserved the domain name with that intent
;) - but that's not going to be appropriate until D's really been out
there and tested in the real world. I'd predict that "The D Programming
Language" will coincide with D 2.0 (as long as that's not within the
next 18 months <g>).


 But you can never have too many D books!


Indeed!

:-)

Matthew

P.S. If anyone's interested in books on C++, there's an interesting one
about to come out (latest date is 20th October, due to some delays at
the printer). If you don't dig it, it'll make a fabulous door stop.


-- 
Matthew Wilson

Author: "Imperfect C++", Addison-Wesley, 2004
    (http://www.imperfectcplusplus.com)
Contributing editor, C/C++ Users Journal
    (http://www.synesis.com.au/articles.html#columns)
STLSoft moderator
    (http://www.stlsoft.org)

"If I'm curt with you it's because time is a factor. I think fast, I
talk fast, and I need you guys to act fast" -- Mr Wolf

------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------



 ajvincent juno.com wrote:

 One of the items on my resume is the "JavaScript Developer's




Dictionary,"

 published by Sams Publishing in May, 2002.  If anyone wants a book




written on D,

 I'm game.

 I can also write articles, if requested.

 My BigDecimal library in D is coming along fairly nicely.  At the




current pace,

 I should have an alpha release by the end of the week.  I'm




estimating it at

 being able to handle 36 billion digits flawlessly...
Sep 29 2004
parent reply Ilya Minkov <minkov cs.tum.edu> writes:
Matthew schrieb:

 Actually, my next book's going to be on STL, but Walter and I have have
 planned a small book on D which has had the approval from my publisher
 (Addison-Wesley).


Would you accept contributions from outside?

Could you possibly publish the planned list of topics, say, on a Wiki? 
People can get ideas from it and suggest and/or contribute further topics.

Or should this all be left for another book?

-eye
Sep 30 2004
parent reply "Matthew" <admin stlsoft.dot.dot.dot.dot.org> writes:
"Ilya Minkov" <minkov cs.tum.edu> wrote in message
news:cjho7i$18ki$1 digitaldaemon.com...

 Matthew schrieb:

 Actually, my next book's going to be on STL, but Walter and I have




have

 planned a small book on D which has had the approval from my




publisher

 (Addison-Wesley).


 Would you accept contributions from outside?


What kind of contributions?

Do you mean something like where a chapter's provided by different
authors? I have another idea for a book, later on, for which that'd not
only be possible, but actually desirable


 Could you possibly publish the planned list of topics, say, on a Wiki?
 People can get ideas from it and suggest and/or contribute further


topics.

Good idea. We'll think about doing that.


 Or should this all be left for another book?


The first book will be a small introductory book, so what I _think_
you're planning may not be appropriate. But, as I said, I've an idea for
another book which may be suitable for that kind of approach.

Thanks for the stimulating ideas, as usual. :-)

Matthew
Sep 30 2004
parent ajvincent juno.com writes:
In article <cjhuh6$1rf4$1 digitaldaemon.com>, Matthew says...


Do you mean something like where a chapter's provided by different
authors? I have another idea for a book, later on, for which that'd not
only be possible, but actually desirable


 Could you possibly publish the planned list of topics, say, on a Wiki?
 People can get ideas from it and suggest and/or contribute further


topics.
...
But, as I said, I've an idea for
another book which may be suitable for that kind of approach.

Thanks for the stimulating ideas, as usual. :-)

Matthew


I hope you'll keep me in mind as well.  I just enjoy writing, and tinkering.
Sep 30 2004
prev sibling parent reply Arcane Jill <Arcane_member pathlink.com> writes:
In article <cjf1qj$1dap$1 digitaldaemon.com>, ajvincent juno.com says...


If anyone wants a book written on D, I'm game.


I'd say that if you're writing a book because someone else wants it, then you're
writing it for the wrong reasons. Write for the love of writing. You don't need
anyone else's permission, approval, or even support. If you want to write it,
just write it.

Well, I've been criticised in the past because my thinking is not very
"commercial", but that's my take, for what it's worth.

Jill
Sep 30 2004
next sibling parent "Matthew" <admin.hat stlsoft.dot.org> writes:
"Arcane Jill" <Arcane_member pathlink.com> wrote in message
news:cjgk3m$2762$1 digitaldaemon.com...

 In article <cjf1qj$1dap$1 digitaldaemon.com>, ajvincent juno.com says...


If anyone wants a book written on D, I'm game.


 I'd say that if you're writing a book because someone else wants it, then
you're
 writing it for the wrong reasons. Write for the love of writing. You don't need
 anyone else's permission, approval, or even support. If you want to write it,
 just write it.

 Well, I've been criticised in the past because my thinking is not very
 "commercial", but that's my take, for what it's worth.


You're spot on. Heavens knows there's precious little commercial justification
for writing a book. :-)
Sep 30 2004
prev sibling next sibling parent ajvincent juno.com writes:
I'd say that if you're writing a book because someone else wants it, then you're
writing it for the wrong reasons. Write for the love of writing. You don't need
anyone else's permission, approval, or even support. If you want to write it,
just write it.


Believe it or not, I agree with you.  I write all the time, whether it's code,
articles, or science fiction.  I just sent off a short story for this year's
"Strange New Worlds VIII Contest" (Star Trek), so who knows?


Well, I've been criticised in the past because my thinking is not very
"commercial", but that's my take, for what it's worth.


My take is "Writing is easy.  Getting paid for it... that takes a bit more
work."

Alexander J. Vincent
author, JavaScript Developer's Dictionary (Sams Publishing, 2002)

"The first step to confirming there is a bug in someone else's work is
confirming there are no bugs in your own." -- AJV, June 2001.
Sep 30 2004
prev sibling parent reply "Walter" <newshound digitalmars.com> writes:
"Arcane Jill" <Arcane_member pathlink.com> wrote in message
news:cjgk3m$2762$1 digitaldaemon.com...

 I'd say that if you're writing a book because someone else wants it, then


you're

 writing it for the wrong reasons. Write for the love of writing. You don't


need

 anyone else's permission, approval, or even support. If you want to write


it,

 just write it.

 Well, I've been criticised in the past because my thinking is not very
 "commercial", but that's my take, for what it's worth.


I do so enjoy your post. I've been successful commercially with products
that I wrote to please myself. Products I've written to satisfy the
marketing department's take on what people want have all been failures.

Therefore, I consider the fact that marketing's take on the D project being
utter madness as a good omen.
Sep 30 2004
parent reply Dave <Dave_member pathlink.com> writes:
Walter wrote:


 
 "Arcane Jill" <Arcane_member pathlink.com> wrote in message
 news:cjgk3m$2762$1 digitaldaemon.com...

 I'd say that if you're writing a book because someone else wants it, then


 you're

 writing it for the wrong reasons. Write for the love of writing. You
 don't


 need

 anyone else's permission, approval, or even support. If you want to write


 it,

 just write it.

 Well, I've been criticised in the past because my thinking is not very
 "commercial", but that's my take, for what it's worth.


 
 I do so enjoy your post. I've been successful commercially with products
 that I wrote to please myself. Products I've written to satisfy the
 marketing department's take on what people want have all been failures.
 
 Therefore, I consider the fact that marketing's take on the D project
 being utter madness as a good omen.


Like you, I have found that marketing dept. suggestions are most useful as
contrary indicators.

Most marketing departments are 'fighting the last war' - when, that is, they
are not agonizing over where their next martini is going to come from. The
mere fact that a company needs a large marketing dept. speaks volumes about
the competitiveness of their product in my mind <g>

IMHO, the fact you're creating something new/better is because it is not
already done by someone else, and if you like what you are doing the
results usually speak for themselves. Combine those two things and you
often create something that more than just a few others will find a use
for.
Oct 01 2004
parent "Walter" <newshound digitalmars.com> writes:
"Dave" <Dave_member pathlink.com> wrote in message
news:cjjq1o$19hd$1 digitaldaemon.com...

 Like you, I have found that marketing dept. suggestions are most useful as
 contrary indicators.

 Most marketing departments are 'fighting the last war' - when, that is,


they

 are not agonizing over where their next martini is going to come from. The
 mere fact that a company needs a large marketing dept. speaks volumes


about

 the competitiveness of their product in my mind <g>

 IMHO, the fact you're creating something new/better is because it is not
 already done by someone else, and if you like what you are doing the
 results usually speak for themselves. Combine those two things and you
 often create something that more than just a few others will find a use
 for.


You also have to be careful about information taken from customer surveys.
For example, a programmer once argued that the speed of product X was the
most important issue of all, and he expounded at length about it. His
arguments were very convincing. Until it turned out that he used Brand Y,
which was the slowest (by a factor of 4) implementation of X on the market.
In reality, X's speed was at the bottom of his list of issues.

Why people buy product A instead of B is a very interesting issue, and is
often not so easy to find out.
Oct 01 2004