Please Vote: Exercises in TDPL?

[Nick Sabalausky]

"grauzone" <none at example.net> wrote in message 
news:guikqi$adm$1 at digitalmars.com...
>> would typically be reasonable), and not actually give them any real 
>> information except (if we feel like it) some "info" that's incomplete, 
>> poorly explained, etc." I can come up with plenty of questions and 
>> problems
>
> Ah yes, if there are exercises, they should also give the solutions. In 
> case of coding exercises, not only the source code, but with explanations. 
> If not, it's utterly useless and should not be done.
>

Good point.

>> on my own. If I buy a book (or take a class), it's because I want 
>> *answers* and *information*. If I want to work through it all on my own 
>> (and, hell, sometimes I do), then I can do that without f&*%^&* putting 
>> down the money for a book/class in the first place.
>
> You pay for books? I just get them from the library.

I was afraid someone would catch that ;)  Yea, I do usually just use the 
library (especially for videos (Ohio has awesome libraries) but also books 
too). I guess I was talking more about classes and books that I think I'll 
want to hold on to for more than a few weeks (like TDPL).

> (By the way, how do intellectual property freaks deal with this?)

I've wondered that too.

I suspect, in the case of books, they've either given up on it or never even 
thought about it. I mean, public libraries have been around a loooong time. 
Certainly longer that at least the US's copyright law (or the US itself, for 
that matter). Hell, longer than the printing press. (Interesting question: 
if the printing press and intellectual property had been around before 
libraries, would libraries have ever happened? I suspect not.)

With periodicals, I don't think they'd care. If anything I'd think it does 
periodicals a favor. It's not like you can usually buy back issues, and even 
when you can it's probably just because they're just trying to clear out 
back stock. Plus a lot of there revenue is ad-generated. There's magazines 
that literally hand out subscriptions for free to anyone who know where to 
look, just to boost their circulation and thus increase ad revenue.

But I've heard the MPAA and RIAA haven't been too happy about their stuff 
being in libraries. Not that I don't care though: With music, I've learned 
the hard way not to buy discs I haven't listened to first (even if I've 
previously been happy with the artist). And with videos, I'll be damned if 
I'm going to buy something that tries to shove advertisements, product 
placement (*COUGH* Star Trek 2009 *COUGH*), and prohibited user operations 
down my throat. I'll go back to VHS before I buy another disc that has 
prohibited user operations.