Marc, himself, his blogs, and you reading them.
August 24, 2004
So I just thought I was funny when dropping in this small (albeit most dull) statement in my close to straight positive, short reference to Doug Dunn's book Java Rules.
Theauthorhimself just commented on my blog asking for an explanation on the usage of the word 'dull'.
Well, obviously I was trying to express some kind of negative vibes around the book, and just used the word that in my limited knowledge of the English language had the appropriate association to the feeling.
Using more then one word [and after clearly saying that I think this book is the absolute reference work to Java that every serious developer should have on his desk (honestly)] to describe my (only) negative experience with the book: readin' it was a (tough, dull?) job. It wasn't any fun. It was plain hard work, and more then once I really had to put myself to it. I'm quite a heavy all-reader type of guy and am easily grabbed by books in general. I also remember reading more then one technical book that actually made me smile or brought the ideas in such a way that I just couldn't put it down. I was hoping for the same with Java Rules. It didn't work out. Concluding: To me this book however has taken the place of the universal telephone book on Java: every number is in the book (and regarding the many Java books I've read my feeling is that a lot of numbers are only in this book), but you look up what you need and you don't expect to have an exciting evening reading it from front to back.
# Posted by mpo at 08:54 AM | TrackBackOpps. I meant to refer you to 1.3.2 Initialization Blocks, not the discussion of declarators. I rewrote both yesterday and got confused. Eric Blake (who maintain the jikes compiler) has a great hack for interface contant initialization that I added to the former.
Posted by: Doug Dunn at August 24, 2004 04:26 PM
Marc,
I smiled when I saw the comment. What mattered to me more was that before you said it was dull you had said it was the best explanation of how the compiler searches for files. I worked long and hard on the section to which you were referring. The book is dull, especially Volume 1 (or what most people know as Java Rules). I wrote that a long time ago you know.
I am working on that aspect of the writing. It's a confidence thing. More and more people are reading the book, and I am starting to relax a little and have more fun writing it. Do me a favor and check out check out the new discussion of variable declarators (and yes there is more depth to this relatively easy subject than you might think) in 1.2 Fields in the version I am going to post later today (20040824). I actually decided to "let down my hair" a little in that discussion as a result of running across your "albeit the most dull" comment and thinking about it for a couple of hours. It felt good to relax a little and have some fun in the text. I think now that the book is better established, I will do more of that. Meanwhile, no worries. I had thick skin as a programmer and it is ten times thicker as a technical writer. You just can't take this stuff too seriously because there is *always* some programmer somewhere who is going to be convinced you are a complete idiot and doesn't mind sharing his opinion with the rest of the world.
If you really want to help, send errata!!!! I'm back working on the book full-time now for the 1.5 release, so I can respond to errata usually within 24 hours.
Regards,
Posted by: Doug Dunn at August 24, 2004 02:43 PMDoug Dunn