Timeline for What's the worst programming book you've ever read?
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 3, 2011 at 7:47 | comment | added | FinnNk | If this is the series I'm thinking of then they're also printed on something like toilet paper. Kind-of ironic really. | |
| Jan 30, 2011 at 17:02 | comment | added | user1249 | Perhaps they are referring to "Venus-days" - they are much longer than Earth-days. | |
| Oct 16, 2010 at 20:46 | comment | added | Tim Goodman | I think the biggest problem with some of these books is the title. If you change it to "A Brief Introduction to X" you'd have a better picture of what you're getting. I agree they aren't good for the details or as a reference you'll keep coming back to, but that's not really what they're intended for. | |
| Sep 27, 2010 at 18:41 | comment | added | cHao | To me, the "for Dummies" books are great for what they are -- a compact (if less detailed) explanation of a complex concept, geared toward people that don't already know much about it. They'd probably suck as the only reference, but they go a long way toward helping someone who's new to the concept wrap their minds around it, without oversimplifying to the point of being wrong. That's more than i can say for a lot of other books. | |
| Sep 24, 2010 at 15:54 | comment | added | Tom Kidd | I may get shouted down on this but I think as a corollary, the "C for Dummies" books were actually pretty good for what they were trying to do. The guy who wrote them invented the "for Dummies" concept (and sold it), so he was a pretty adept technical writer. They might not hold up so well now if I go re-read them but they did stand out to me at the time as a good exception to the "___ for Dummies"/"___ in ___ hours/days" being crap rule. | |
| Sep 24, 2010 at 15:21 | comment | added | Jonn | THIS. The only SAMS book I bought that "teaches me" VB.NET in 21 days was so ridiculously out of sync with reality that I literally threw it away. | |
| Sep 24, 2010 at 13:10 | history | answered | Tamara Wijsman | CC BY-SA 2.5 |