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Are majority of the developers still using printed books for study and learning or they shifted to e-books

  • April 9, 2014 at 6:28 pm

    #396574

    Are majority of the developers still using printed books for study and learning or they shifted to e-books

  • April 9, 2014 at 8:30 pm

    #1704731

    I have an iPad loaded with ebooks even though I prefer physical copies.

    Physical copies are super expensive almost always $50+ and sometimes even higher. They very rarely go on significant sale. Postage costs to Australia are ridiculous (and in-store costs are closer to $100+).

    With ebooks they are priced a little cheaper off the bat and often go on sales like $15 each, 50% off, 2-for-1, bundles, etc. That's when I buy. And because they're on my iPad I can take them with me everywhere, I can't do that with a library.

    Unfortunately (and paradoxically) the iPad is slower to search them though, than opening up a book to an index and then flipping it to the right page. That will improve in time though.

  • April 9, 2014 at 8:56 pm

    #1704737

    I voted "other" because I don't just use books to learn from. I write code and try new things out.

    As for the books themselves, I love to read real books and agree with the speed paradox that Cody pointed out. I hate the prices of real books, though. I also agree with Cody that there's nothing quite like having your favorite ebooks loaded up on your laptop when it's crunch time.

    The best books have all the code examples either online or on a CD/DVD in the back of the book.

    Now, if we could just get authors and editors to test all the code in such books (physical or electronic) to make sure they actually run! 😉

    --Jeff Moden

    RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
    First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
    ________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

    Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

    Helpful Links:
    How to post code problems
    How to Post Performance Problems
    Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

  • April 10, 2014 at 12:41 am

    #1704757

    I prefer physical books, but due to the high costs and the limited amount of space in my house I can reserve to store books, I only get physical books that fall into the "epic must-have" category. All the rest are eBooks, of which I prefer PDF because it closely resembles phyical books and tables/charts/screenshots don't get messed up.

    I also watch videos from time to time. These can come from 24 hours of PASS, channel9, PASS virtual chapters, youtube, coursera and so on.

    Need an answer? No, you need a question
    My blog at https://sqlkover.com.
    MCSE Business Intelligence - Microsoft Data Platform MVP

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