From: ptkwt@...1.aracnet.com (Phil Tomson)
Date: 2003-01-31T07:43:46+09:00
Subject: Re: ANN: _The Ruby Way_ in Japanese

In article <001d01c2c888$b21010e0$0300a8c0@austin.rr.com>,
Hal E. Fulton <hal9000@hypermetrics.com> wrote:
>This is actually old news, but I've been meaning to
>mention it formally.
>
>As of December 2002, _The Ruby Way_ is available in
>a Japanese translation. The publisher is Shoeisha.
>
>Thanks again to Guy Hurst, Matz, Dave Thomas, Chad
>Fowler, Kevin Smith, Patrick Logan, and those behind
>the scenes at Sams.

Congratulations!

>
>I'll give you my comments on this book, even though
>obviously I can't read it. :) (Those who can read it
>are welcome to give any comments, whether positive,
>negative, or neutral.)
>
>1. First of all, the cover is wonderful. I could stare
>at it forever. I knew that Japanese books are often very
>colorful and whimsical. I've seen books with pictures
>of angry-looking rabbits and cartoons of monkeys in
>flying saucers. So I didn't know what to expect. But
>this cover is simple, dignified, and beautiful. I wish
>I knew who designed it so that I could tell him so.

It's a very simple cover.  But I do like the cover of the English _The 
Ruby Way_ a lot better... but I'm probably one of the few to recognize 
that the orangish, tree-like thing on the cover is a soft coral.  It 
seems that SAMs has taken to putting corals on the covers of their books 
now... I was in Powell's bookstore the other day and from a distance I 
saw a book with cup-coral polyps on it and I was immediately drawn to it 
and walked over to that shelf...  but the title was something Windows 
releated so I lost interest quickly, but at least they got me to cross 
the room to take a look ;-)

Phil
[probably one of the few people here who has a live coral reef in his 
house. ]
-- 
"Or perhaps the truth is less interesting than the facts?" 
Amy Weiss (accusing theregister.co.uk of engaging in 'tabloid journalism')
Senior VP, Communications
Recording Industry Association of America