Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[eataTREE]

But DF is still in development and a state of flux. Any book that could be written about it will be badly out of date by the time it is published, even more so than most books about software are. Don't you need DF to be somewhat less of a "moving target" before you can right a serious, hundreds-of-pages book about it?

[Scarpa]

Did you miss the part about it being part of their new 'Real-Time' publishing program? Presumably the book will be updated as DF changes. And lets face it, DF is a fairly slow moving target.

[Vherid]

How is this real-time publishing going to work? If we buy an old copy do we get new updates for free? If it's paper back I don't see how that would work.

[TinyPirate]

I am learning more about this from O'Reilly as we speak. I will update this thread with details when I have them

[Proteus]

How is this real-time publishing going to work? If we buy an old copy do we get new updates for free? If it's paper back I don't see how that would work.

It makes sense if it is as TinyPirate believes, i.e. electronic book format only.
In this case there will surely a way for customers to update the book / get a new version of it

[Farmerbob]

Wait.  Is there really any question about what the cover art should be?

*grin*

[TinyPirate]

Got some book info updates!

- It's actually not eBook-only; it will be available in print, PDF, epub, mobi, and on Safari. You can buy both a print copy and an ebook copy at the same time for less than the price of both separately.

- eBook - If you buy directly from oreily.com you are notified when new updates are available and can download the newest version for free (also DRM-free).

- Turn around from me finishing an update to getting a new version out into the reader's hands should be around four weeks - in publishing, this is super fast, I'm told!

- Any errata that get reported to O'Reilly get listed somewhere for me to access and fix in due course.

- The print book won't include colour graphics inside. O'Reilly will be working to ensure art, etc, still look ok.

So, awesome news, YOU CAN BUY A COPY AND WEDGE IT BETWEEN YOUR CODE BOOKS!

[Kipi]

Very nice TinyPirate!

You know, I actually think of buying this once it's out, just to support projects like this. I admit I was one of those who doubted the legit of the book, but now that we know the author and the fact that Toady is fully aware of it (he even made forewords!) I'm happy to say that I was mistaken.

Now, I don't think the basic things would require lots of changing too often. After all, the basic mechanisms mostly stay the same and if those don't we usually know it way before the new release of DF. So the basic tutorials (world genning, starting a fortress, basic commands and how to set up the early fort) should be usable even if Toady releases new version every week.

Heck, this book could even be used to attract more players to DF. I have few friends who didn't like the fact that they had to go through all the wiki sites just to get started, they prefer paper manuals.

So, thumbs up from me!

[TinyPirate]

Thanks! And you've hit on precisely the thoughts behind the book

[zwei]

I already plan to ostentatively read it in cofee bars to pick up both new players and girls.

[oldark]

I already plan to ostentatively read it in cofee bars to pick up both new players and girls.

+1 sock for you.

[Intrinsic]

Very nice TinyPirate!

You know, I actually think of buying this once it's out, just to support projects like this.

I'd prefer to pay the author directly instead of having the publisher take a massive cut off the price

[TinyPirate]

Very nice TinyPirate!

You know, I actually think of buying this once it's out, just to support projects like this.

I'd prefer to pay the author directly instead of having the publisher take a massive cut off the price

I wouldn't worry, O'Reilly are actually pretty generous - something like 25% on ebooks - which is high in the publishing world, I believe.

[Kogut]

Trying to sell already-collected information to DIYers isn't exactly a brilliant business model.

It is a brilliant business model but it is hard to call it fair or ethical.

@Book - interesting idea!

[Gizogin]

Well, I don't know that I'd buy it, but I'm definitely interested in the idea.  Consider this my declaration of interest.