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digitalmars.D.learn - Should I wait for the new edition of TDPL ?

reply "SomeDude" <lovelydear mailmetrash.com> writes:
Hi all,

Not owning TDPL right now, I feel I could learn the language much 
more quickly with it. But Andrei hinted somewhere that there 
would be a new edition of his book. Should I wait for it ?
Apr 28 2012
next sibling parent reply "H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh quickfur.ath.cx> writes:
On Sat, Apr 28, 2012 at 06:27:52PM +0200, SomeDude wrote:

 Hi all,
 
 Not owning TDPL right now, I feel I could learn the language much
 more quickly with it. But Andrei hinted somewhere that there would
 be a new edition of his book. Should I wait for it ?


I had known of D before I bought TDPL. I had a hard time getting
started. OT1H I was attracted by the promising features, but OTOH the
online documentation (at the time---and arguably even now) was not very
newbie friendly. I wasn't getting the positive feedback from my initial
attempts to learn it. So I gave it up.

Then one day my wife made me go to a bookstore with her. While there, I
offhandedly decided to look for TDPL, on the off-chance that it *might*
be in the computer books section. And sure enough, I found it amid all
the PHP, Javascript, how-to-build-a-sucky-website books. So I bought it.

Finally, here was something that eased me into D syntax, pointed me to
features of interest *and how to use them*.  That's when I seriously
began to write real D code, not just some half-hearted toy code attempt
to play around with the language. And what can I say? Now I'm just
loving every moment of D. (*cough*except for is() syntax*cough).

So it's up to you whether you want to buy the current edition or wait
for the next one (with the items in the errata fixed). But having the
book will help you learn the language MUCH faster, and use it much more
effectively instead of trying to shoehorn C/C++/Java mentality into D
code (which often just leads to less-well implemented parts of the
language, which leads to bugs/quirks, which leads to frustration with
the language).


T

-- 
Computers shouldn't beep through the keyhole.
Apr 28 2012
parent reply simendsjo <simendsjo gmail.com> writes:
On Sat, 28 Apr 2012 20:20:45 +0200, H. S. Teoh <hsteoh quickfur.ath.cx>  
wrote:


 Then one day my wife made me go to a bookstore with her. While there, I
 offhandedly decided to look for TDPL, on the off-chance that it *might*
 be in the computer books section. And sure enough, I found it amid all
 the PHP, Javascript, how-to-build-a-sucky-website books. So I bought it.


Having *real* computer books in the book shelf..?! You obviously don't  
live in Norway :)
And it's actually cheaper for me to order the book from Amazon in the US  
rather than order it in the book-store...
Apr 28 2012
parent "H. S. Teoh" <hsteoh quickfur.ath.cx> writes:
On Sat, Apr 28, 2012 at 08:23:54PM +0200, simendsjo wrote:

 On Sat, 28 Apr 2012 20:20:45 +0200, H. S. Teoh
 <hsteoh quickfur.ath.cx> wrote:
 

Then one day my wife made me go to a bookstore with her. While there,
I offhandedly decided to look for TDPL, on the off-chance that it
*might* be in the computer books section. And sure enough, I found it
amid all the PHP, Javascript, how-to-build-a-sucky-website books. So
I bought it.


 
 Having *real* computer books in the book shelf..?! You obviously
 don't live in Norway :)


lol... apparently I don't!

I have to say, though, that I very, very, VERY rarely buy computer
related books. Before TDPL, the last computer-related book I bought was
the Perl "camel book". And that was, oh, ... 15 years ago?



 And it's actually cheaper for me to order the book from Amazon in
 the US rather than order it in the book-store...


To be honest, I rarely find anything of value in my local bookstore's
bookshelves. Mostly it's just fiction (novels, comics, and the like),
reference books like the 201th edition of the Oxford, maps of outdated
places in the world, get-rich-quick-without-doing-work books, and
Javascript and PHP books. The fact that TDPL was buried in the midst of
that mountain of chaff was probably a miracle in and of itself.


T

-- 
The irony is that Bill Gates claims to be making a stable operating system and
Linus Torvalds claims to be trying to take over the world. -- Anonymous
Apr 28 2012
prev sibling parent reply "Jesse Phillips" <jessekphillips+D gmail.com> writes:
On Saturday, 28 April 2012 at 16:27:53 UTC, SomeDude wrote:

 Hi all,

 Not owning TDPL right now, I feel I could learn the language 
 much more quickly with it. But Andrei hinted somewhere that 
 there would be a new edition of his book. Should I wait for it ?


Andrei mentioned it may be time for a new Printing. This would 
mean that you won't know if you'd get the newest printing when it 
was done. I'd say buy it now, I don't know the odds of getting 
new printings.
Apr 28 2012
parent "SomeDude" <lovelydear mailmetrash.com> writes:
On Saturday, 28 April 2012 at 19:06:27 UTC, Jesse Phillips wrote:

 On Saturday, 28 April 2012 at 16:27:53 UTC, SomeDude wrote:

 Hi all,

 Not owning TDPL right now, I feel I could learn the language 
 much more quickly with it. But Andrei hinted somewhere that 
 there would be a new edition of his book. Should I wait for it 
 ?


 Andrei mentioned it may be time for a new Printing. This would 
 mean that you won't know if you'd get the newest printing when 
 it was done. I'd say buy it now, I don't know the odds of 
 getting new printings.


Ah, right, it's a new printing, not a new edition. Thx.
I'll get it through Amazon, I think.
Apr 28 2012