From: Chad Perrin <code@...>
Date: 2011-07-15T01:41:35+09:00
Subject: Re: RubyInstaller Extras

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On Fri, Jul 15, 2011 at 12:28:56AM +0900, Josh Cheek wrote:
>=20
> FWIW, I my experience buying Land of Lisp ebook directly from No Starch w=
as
> positive, they offered it in several main formats, including PDF (Amazon
> only offers Kindle's format). In fact, it was positive enough that I had
> decided to stop buying books from Amazon (b/c they don't support any form=
at
> I want). Which is what led to my jaw droppingly negative experience with
> Addison Wesley's parent company's ebook distributor, where I ended up
> threatening to report them to the BBB.

What kind of problem did you have?  I'm interested in hearing about your
experience.


>=20
> Eloquent Ruby might be a better book, but I can't really see how I can ev=
er
> buy another book from them, but I'd happily buy another book from No Star=
ch
> Press.

For what it's worth, I got Eloquent Ruby as an ebook for my Nook from
Barnes & Noble, and I've had no problems whatsoever.  I will not try to
speak for other ebook formats than the EPUB version I got, or for other
ebook vendors that may carry this book.


>=20
> That said, I was a little shocked that Land of Lisp didn't have syntax
> highlighting, I mean it's a PDF, capitalize on its strengths, already!
> PragProg's PDFs have syntax highlighting (though not it's pretty
> simplistic).

I don't find that very surprising at all.  We still have not progressed
to the point where most publishers would consider ebooks anything better
than a second-class citizen.  As such, the books are designed for print
format, and the ebooks are generally produced from minimally finessed
variations on the print format.  Because print books generally do not
come with syntax highlighting (in large part because of a desire to
minimize printing costs), ebooks generally will not come with syntax
highlighting either (in large part because of a desire to minimize
changes in the publishing process despite supporting a completely
different publication format).

By the way, there are ebook formats that do not support color, too.  That
means that in some cases the simple fact of desiring to minimize costs
while supporting multiple formats can result in skipping syntax
highlighting, too.  The fact of the matter is that the Pragmatic
Programmers imprint is (unsurprisingly) way ahead of the curve in some
respects.

--=20
Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ]

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