Re: Hugh Darwen's latest free book

On 22/11/2012 4:04 PM, Eric wrote:
> Well I do find it troublesome, though I too am a fan of the author. They
> are irritating, distracting and a perversion of the whole idea of a
> book. I find these books difficult to read, and I do not feel that I
> could refer someone to them as part of a serious argument about database
> theory, because the ads make the integrity of the book suspect.

I've seen some otherwise smart people say the same thing. Not for me, which is why I referred the book(s) in the first place. Darwen's arguments seem pretty well-founded and well put to me, nothing frivolous about them. I think it's laughable to anybody who's serious for serious content becomes un-serious because of nearby advertisements.

Anyway, I gather bookboon is considering ad-free, paid-for editions, but my budget will continue to prefer the editions with ads'. Doesn't bother me, after all I usually let Google et al know what's on my mind in return for free email, etc.

Maybe it's just that generations who grew up with magazines don't find ads' off-putting. Well into the 1990's the most succinct writing by CJ Date was to be found only in print magazines. His columns were often adjacent to Celko's. I thought the format forced both authors to write very clearly (though of course Celko was writing clearly either about stuff that has nothing to do with theory or if not that, he was just writing clearly about nonsense!).

It's pdf's themselves that have always put me off, having to use various graphical controls to imitate the turning of a printed page. Received on Fri Nov 23 2012 - 03:44:59 CET