The book that Bruce Tate and I co-authored was released yesterday by
O’Reilly --“Ruby on Rails: Up and Running”. It is a quick-start guide
expressly designed to get you going with Rails quickly.
The press release is here:
and the book page is here:
Ruby on Rails: Up and Running [Book]
Curt
On 8/25/06, Curt H. [email protected] wrote:
[snip]
and the book page is here:
Interesting. When I first checked the page, there was a pdf available
for purchase, as well as the printed book. Now it’s just the printed
book.
—John
Congrats Curt. Question though, why is a quick start guide selling for
$30 ?
I tried to see chapter listings on the page but couldn’t find.
Is there something more in this book then in the the quick starts
already out on the web ?
Stuart
John G. wrote:
Interesting. When I first checked the page, there was a pdf available
for purchase, as well as the printed book. Now it’s just the printed
book.
Ah, well, the PDF version sold out.
–
James B.
“I never dispute another person’s delusions, just their facts.”
On Friday 25 August 2006 12:53 pm, Dark A. wrote:
Congrats Curt. Question though, why is a quick start guide selling for $30
? I tried to see chapter listings on the page but couldn’t find.
Is there something more in this book then in the the quick starts
already out on the web ?
I can answer that.
My book, “Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful Technologist”, is
309
pages and sells for $42.50, because lots of people perceive that its
info
will save them way more than $42.50 in a few months. Now let’s look at
Curt’s
book:
The press release quotes Curt thusly:
“However, if they want the shortest, easiest way to jumpstart their
knowledge
of Ruby on Rails, this book will save them a lot of time.”
If that’s true, this book is worth a lot more than $30.00.
I need to rewrite all of Troubleshooters.Com’s business processes, in
Rails,
so that my wife and/or daughter can run the business when I’m out of
town.
Rails is a huge, broad, and not always easy topic, and if Curt’s book
can
help me quickly understand Rails’ big picture and get me started
designing
and coding my new business processes, it’s worth many multiples of
$30.00.
I already have “Agile Web D. with Rails”, which is worth
waaayyyy
more than its purchase price, and has helped me immensely. However, for
the
short term I’d like a less comprehensive book with a shorter learning
curve.
As far as why it’s better than existing web quickstarts, I can compare
it to
my Ruby tutorial at
http://www.troubleshooters.cxm/codecorn/ruby/rails/rapidlearning_rails.htm.
My tutorial is great – for something that was written in 2 days. There
are
better web tutorials out there than mine, but I believe most are one man
efforts, probably done with time gleaned from a technologist’s free
time, not
done as a full time effort.
I bet Curt spent 2 to 9 months writing and helping produce his book. His
book
has been independently tech-edited and grammer edited. It’s been layed
out
professionaly. O’Reilly probably gave him guidelines on style and what
to
include, what to leave out, based on O’Reilly’s long and intimate
knowledge
of what technologists like.
I haven’t read Curt’s book, so I can’t comment on its quality. All I can
say
is that if it lives up to its goal of quickly getting someone up to
speed on
Rails, and that person has an economic motivation to learn Rails, Curt’s
book
is worth considerably more than $30.00.
When I saw the press release a few days ago, I was excited and put it on
my
list of possible books to buy.
SteveT
Steve L.
Author:
On 8/25/06, John G. [email protected] wrote:
—John
I’ll bet the PDF isn’t ready yet (or they never intended to have it
for this book) and when I reported the problem, they relized the
mistake and pulled it.
Curt
From your StLouis.rb friends, congrats.
How soon do you think Borders will be to carry it?
Ed
On Aug 25, 2006, at 9:53 AM, Dark A. wrote:
Congrats Curt. Question though, why is a quick start guide selling
for $30 ?
I tried to see chapter listings on the page but couldn’t find.
Is there something more in this book then in the the quick starts
already out on the web ?
Hint: It’s 182 pages.
Please don’t top post.
– Elliot T.
It’s a bit niave to think that the pricing wouldn’t be opportunism
here. An attempt to cash in on the popularity of Ruby on Rails at the
moment. I agree the most a book like this should cost is about
$25.99. $30 is pushing your luck.
Companies do whatever pricing the consider to do, they have the right
to do so. Normally outsiders have the finest idea about the rationale
and any attempt to say this is cheap or expensive is just worthless
speculation.
Please stop complaining about the price, just ponder whether the
price seems OK TO YOU and take a decission about the purchase.
On 8/25/06, Dark A. [email protected] wrote:
Congrats Curt. Question though, why is a quick start guide selling for $30 ?
Here it is for a bit less:
and even less:
http://www.bookpool.com/sm/0596101325
$20 does seem pretty high for a book with less than 200 pages.
Especially since I just picked up Ruby Cookbook brand new from the
used section on Amazon for $31 including shipping, and it’s nearly 900
pages.
Elliot, why do some people get annoyed by “top post’s”? Seems perfectly
normal to put the new relevant stuff at the top and leave the rest below
as “reference”. I’m not annoyed that you’re annoyed, just annoyed
that I haven’t been able to figure out why it annoys you (and a few
other people). 
thanks,
jp
Elliot T. wrote:
…snip…
Please don’t top post.
– Elliot T.
Curiosity Blog – Elliot Temple
Jeff P. wrote:
Elliot, why do some people get annoyed by “top post’s”? Seems perfectly
I think top-post sums it up
nicely.
I top-post my email, but rarely do it here. Sometimes it just seems
more natural to have what I want read at the top (the first place seen)
of the email. Sometimes it makes more sense to intersperse my comments
with quotes from the original.
On 8/26/06, Robert N. [email protected] wrote:
It’s a bit niave to think that the pricing wouldn’t be opportunism
here. An attempt to cash in on the popularity of Ruby on Rails at the
moment. I agree the most a book like this should cost is about
$25.99. $30 is pushing your luck.
Well, I just ordered my hardcopy for $30, and since O’reilly gave me
free shipping, it’s kinda’ like paying $26 + shipping.
And they’re not even charging me for the box! 
—John
Curt H. wrote:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/rubyrails/
Curt
Congratulations!! Looks like I have to head back down to Powell’s.
Greg D. wrote:
On 8/25/06, Dark Am bien t <s am bie [email protected]> wrote:
Congrats Curt. Question though, why is a quick start guide selling for $30 ?
Here it is for a bit less:
and even less:
http://www.bookpool.com/sm/0596101325
$20 does seem pretty high for a book with less than 200 pages.
Especially since I just picked up Ruby Cookbook brand new from the
used section on Amazon for $31 including shipping, and it’s nearly 900
pages.
Thanks for the links, although I’d have to disagree with your line of
reasoning regarding the number of pages somehow being the guage of a
book’s worth. K&R is around 220 pages, and its one of the best damn
technical books I have read to learn a new language.
these days people conflate more pages with more information and
therefore (somehow) more value. I have gone throug half a chapter on
some of the technical books and realized that the author could have very
easily described the same thing is a couple paragraphs. Times like these
leave you with a vague feeling of being cheated of our precious time
somehow.
I don’t know when we started technical information as if we were bying
oats by the tonne, but I’d rather take the short and sweet rather than
the drawn out version that uses various kinds of filler to just look
respectable on the bookself. Time is more important and if I can get the
same info in less time, then by all means give me a short book.
sorry, I’m just sick and tired of reading 500 page books which only hold
about 20 page worth of real valueable information. Just makes me feel
cheated sometims. 80% of the “technical” books out there these days are
utter garbage, and only feed this weird book fetish most of us techies
seem to have.
Having said that , this is a general comment and not a comment on either
of the two books you mentioned. Authors seem to get beaten up a lot
these days for not putting enough pages, putting too many pages, putting
too much detail, not putting enough detail etc. etc.
kudos to Curt and Bruce for putting the efffort in for the book, the
market will decide the eventual value and worth of each item.
just my 2c, no offence intended.
Cheers,
Amr
In article [email protected],
Jeff P. [email protected] wrote:
Elliot, why do some people get annoyed by “top post’s”? Seems perfectly
normal to put the new relevant stuff at the top and leave the rest below
as “reference”. I’m not annoyed that you’re annoyed, just annoyed
that I haven’t been able to figure out why it annoys you (and a few
other people).
thanks,
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?
I can’t answer you on the pricing – I had nothing to do with that,
but it us way more detailed (in both depth and breadth) that than
quick start tutorials on the web. Its also got a really nice quick
reference appendedix that pretty much coveres the entire feature set
with links to more detailed info on the web.
Curt
On 8/25/06, Curt H. [email protected] wrote:
book.
—John
I’ll bet the PDF isn’t ready yet (or they never intended to have it
for this book) and when I reported the problem, they relized the
mistake and pulled it.Curt
I just got an answer back. The PDF will be available by Monday.
Curt
I’ll bet the PDF isn’t ready yet (or they never intended to have it
for this book) and when I reported the problem, they relized the
mistake and pulled it.Curt
I bought the rough cut PDF version on Safari, and am able to read the
book
on my Safari account still. There does not appear to be a PDF of the
release.
I do have the PDF that was updated June 08, 2006, that I’ll hang onto.
-Coby Randquist
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