# Suggestion to the Pragmatic Programmers **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [December 8, 2005, 1:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/suggestion-to-the-pragmatic-programmers/49755 "2005-12-08T13:49:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![xrfang](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/x/b9e5f3/32.png) [@xrfang](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/xrfang)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2005, 1:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/suggestion-to-the-pragmatic-programmers/49755/1 "2005-12-08T13:49:27Z")
Hi Andy and Dave, I recently purchased the PickAxe 2 PDF edition. I intended to use it to replace the bundled help… Although the book is very well written, even better than the first edition, I still feel regreted that it is not in CHM… I use this book very frequently when working, so I have a suggestion for you guys that is to provide CHM edition for the next edition. I think PDF is not necessary, at least for me, because it is not easy to use as a reference, and it also does not give you the feeling of a real book. PickAxe is a very good learning book, but it is much better used as a reference book. I love this book and it introduced the fantastic ruby world to me. Thanks, Shannon ---
**Author:** ![xrfang](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/x/b9e5f3/32.png) [@xrfang](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/xrfang)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2005, 4:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/suggestion-to-the-pragmatic-programmers/49755/2 "2005-12-08T16:13:32Z")
On Dec 8, 2005, at 6:45 AM, Shannon F. wrote: > use as a reference, and it also does not give you the feeling of a > real book. > > PickAxe is a very good learning book, but it is much better used as > a reference book. I love this book and it introduced the fantastic > ruby world to me. You mailed this to a Ruby mailing list, but I think you wanted: removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid James Edward G. II ---
**Author:** ![xrfang](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/x/b9e5f3/32.png) [@xrfang](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/xrfang)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2005, 4:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/suggestion-to-the-pragmatic-programmers/49755/3 "2005-12-08T16:38:06Z")
While I don’t have pickaxe2, I do have the rails book and I find the PDF very easy to use as a reference in Apple’s Preview app (their PDF viewer), thanks to the drawer and search box. CHM - is that the windows help format? If it were to be in some plain-text hypertext format I would say a better bet would be HTML. I haven’t really used Acrobat in several versions (since 4 I think); does it not have the table of contents and text searching? ---
**Author:** ![xrfang](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/x/b9e5f3/32.png) [@xrfang](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/xrfang)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2005, 8:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/suggestion-to-the-pragmatic-programmers/49755/4 "2005-12-08T20:41:01Z")
Totally agree. I also bought PickAxe II recently and even mailed the authors asking whether I could obtain an HTML version as well. For the same reasons you mention. The answer was unfortunately ‘no’. ---
**Author:** ![xrfang](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/x/b9e5f3/32.png) [@xrfang](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/xrfang)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2005, 4:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/suggestion-to-the-pragmatic-programmers/49755/5 "2005-12-08T16:46:14Z")
On 08/12/05, Hans Fugal [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > While I don’t have pickaxe2, I do have the rails book and I find the > PDF very easy to use as a reference in Apple’s Preview app (their PDF > viewer), thanks to the drawer and search box. CHM - is that the windows > help format? If it were to be in some plain-text hypertext format I > would say a better bet would be HTML. > > I haven’t really used Acrobat in several versions (since 4 I think); > does it not have the table of contents and text searching? Acrobat Reader (or Adobe Reader as its now called) does indeed have search functionality. Plus the index of the book has links to the pages. So why would CHM be any better? An even nicer way of doing a help system for the book, would be to make a querying service using ontologies in RDF/OWL… but thats not going to happen 🙂 The book is great, and its really good in pdf version. Daniel.