is it possible to learn D(2)?

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

On 12/19/10 11:00 AM, Caligo wrote:
>
>
> On Sun, Dec 19, 2010 at 10:16 AM, Andrei Alexandrescu
> <SeeWebsiteForEmail at erdani.org <mailto:SeeWebsiteForEmail at erdani.org>>
> wrote:
>
>     On 12/19/10 9:57 AM, Andrej Mitrovic wrote:
>
>         On 12/19/10, lurker<lurk at lurk.net <mailto:lurk at lurk.net>>  wrote:
>
>             Does this mean that Facebook is not paying you that well,
>             after all? I could
>
>             donate like $82 to you to give away three more books. No
>             need to mention my
>             name, after all I'm just helping the poor.
>
>
>         I'm pretty sure it means he got a couple of free books from the
>         publisher to give away for free. ;)
>
>
>     The main issue is perceived value. Books are not T-shirts as
>     significant time would have to be spent on reading them. Say I had
>     40 people in the audience and 40 books. Then it would have been like
>     passing around marketing samples of no perceived value.
>
>
>     Andrei
>
>
> That's almost like saying all documentations, books, and reference
> materials licensed under GNU FDL are worthless because you don't have to
> pay for them.  There are actually people who think that about FOSS; "eh,
> if it was worth anything they wouldn't let you download the source code
> for free."

That's a completely different matter, but I won't insist as I'm sure you 
understand the extent to which you're forcing the comparison.

> I actually think your book would have been worth more if you had
> released it under GNU FDL or a similar license.

I do a lot of work for free anyway so making money was not the first 
motivation. The thing is, however, that printed books still carry more 
authority than online ones, even though clearly there are many online 
books that compare favorably with the average printed book. Having a 
major publisher decide to take risks and invest money in producing at 
professional quality and marketing a book on a up-and-coming language is 
a clear signal that they believe in the success of the book and 
consequently that of the language.


Andrei