Re: C++ n00b
From: Alwyn (dt015a1979_at_mac.com.invalid)
Date: 09/07/04
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Date: Tue, 07 Sep 2004 21:32:42 +0100
In article <qvPll8nsZgPBFwhP@robinton.demon.co.uk>, Francis Glassborow
<francis@robinton.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> In article <070920041858455219%dt015a1979@mac.com.invalid>, Alwyn
> <dt015a1979@mac.com.invalid> writes
> >Which is just a collection of opinions, like yours or mine. I would
> >prefer to balance those out against those of readers at:
> ><http://www.amazon.com>
>
> Not a problem, but it is probably worth remembering that in the case of
> books for novices the ACCU reviews are written by people who actually do
> usually spot authors who, however elegantly and readably, write books
> that have numerous technical errors. It is in the nature of Amazon
> reviews that most of them are written by people in the target readership
> who probably cannot spot the errors (if they could they would not be
> spending time and money reading the book. Amazon reviews for leisure
> reading are great, but when it comes to technical books on any subject
> they are much more suspect.
That's a serious point, but I have to ask myself: If I am approaching a
subject as a beginner, do I trust the opinion of experts about reading
material, or do I trust other beginners who claim to have learnt from
it? - bearing in mind that the 'experts' presumably know the stuff
already and have little feeling for the 'pedagogical' aspect of the
work. I think I would split the weight of the opinion half and half:
the beginners tend not to know much about the technical mistakes (which
can, in any case, be remedied later), and the experts may overlook the
fact that what they are reading may well be impenetrable to people who
don't already have a 'background' in the subject.
At the end of the day, the main question is: How much do we learn? How
useful did we find that book? That's something that people who knew it
all already cannot answer.
Alwyn
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