What would Bjarne Stroustrup say ?
I'M spiral, high school student somewhere in the world. So I'm dependent to my parents in money. I'm pretty excited about learning new things. I know java(beginner) and trying to learn c++ currently(game devalopment). But there is no way I can buy this book (programming :principles and practice using c++) and I'm not staying home in school time so cant access those tutorials on internet.
So If I get this book from the sources not considered legal. What would he say :(
Would It bother him ?
---sorry for long introduction---
So If I get this book from the sources not considered legal. What would he say :(
Would It bother him ?
---sorry for long introduction---
You don't need illegal studies in order to start learning. If you have to question your sources, then why even bother with those sources?
Also, reference to treating Bjarne as a god.
Also, reference to treating Bjarne as a god.
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Well, I need sources that I can use offline...
As a crater of c++ it would be much easier to start from his book.
But he gain money from these books... So I dont want to intercept his income even little...
Am I mistaken ?
As a crater of c++ it would be much easier to start from his book.
But he gain money from these books... So I dont want to intercept his income even little...
Am I mistaken ?
Not sure how an illegal digital copy would help you there.
Also, you can't go into a discount book store and find a book?
Also, you can't go into a discount book store and find a book?
Why would you think we would know what he says, I don't want to sound like an ass but we are not him. Though you could email him.
Yeah, That's what I thought at first, but i couldn't find his contact info. I'm just trying to think like him and I probably wouldn't care because it would help me spread c++ language :[]
| I'm just trying to think like him and I probably wouldn't care because it would help me spread c++ language |
| Isn't rationalization such a wonderful thing? |
Where is the like button on these forums.
@Spiral
Just googled....
bjarne@stroustrup.com
| Spiral wrote: |
|---|
| Well, I need sources that I can use offline... |
1) Go to a web tutorial
2) Press CTRL+S on every page you want to use offline
Better yet use wget to get the whole or a certain part of it more easily.
If your a windows user wget for windows should work as well: http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/wget.htm
If your a windows user wget for windows should work as well: http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/wget.htm
I would suggest a public library if your country has them, they are there for learning and while you might not find Bjarne's book there I am sure at least one of them in your area will have a few decent beginner C++ books to choose from.
So basically
1) Google online to find a list of good beginner books http://stackoverflow.com/questions/388242/the-definitive-c-book-guide-and-list
2) Write down or printout that list
3) Go to your local libraries (Or search their websites) to see what they have
4) Checkout the books you find.
There is no need to resort to illegal options to learn C++, specially with the sheer number of learning material we have available these days for free.
So basically
1) Google online to find a list of good beginner books http://stackoverflow.com/questions/388242/the-definitive-c-book-guide-and-list
2) Write down or printout that list
3) Go to your local libraries (Or search their websites) to see what they have
4) Checkout the books you find.
There is no need to resort to illegal options to learn C++, specially with the sheer number of learning material we have available these days for free.
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We are in 2015 , most of the book in programming can be download as pdf either . Buy yourself a tablet , download these pdf (free or not..) look at them offline . Simple . You can do a quick search on Google for having the ISBN of the book . All books are registred . But the ISBN of the pdf might be slightly different so.
Many books have older edition that can be found for free or ...easily..
Good luck .
Many books have older edition that can be found for free or ...easily..
Good luck .
I am a lecturer in a university (mathematician): students do call me "professor".
I download all my math books off russian ftp sites. I would buy a book only if I can't download it.
I sometimes buy physical copies of non-math books - mostly to enjoy reading them on paper, especially as that saves me from the distraction of my computer. My math books are too important - I need the search command all the time - so a physical copy rarely makes sense.
I do not consider downloading a book for free (independent of copyright or other laws) to be immoral or to be theft.
I simply do not care if other people think that "pirating" a book is a bad thing. I believe myself to be a moral person: I look badly on people throwing garbage on the street or on people talking loud in the bus, and even more so on serious violations of order or crimes that have nothing to do with copyright. I simply do not think that copyright laws are just and I choose to not follow them (so long as there is no risk of being caught).
In case you are wondering about my colleagues' stand on the issue: it was my department chair who showed me two of the three russian websites I have used for downloading books.
***
When I was starting to study, I attempted to actually buy a very valuable to me book. The book was "print on demand", so I ordered it on amazon, paying a sum which I no longer remember.
In the meantime, since I actually needed the book for my work, I found it scanned on the russian ftp sites and downloaded it, feeling happy that, independent of the letter of the law, I did the "morally right" thing and paid for the book (back at the time I thought violating copyright was bad).
About a month later I received a message - it must have been in the mail because I can't find it in my email archive - saying that it was not possible to print the book and that unfortunately amazon cannot send it to me and they have to refund me.
***
All math and related materials I ever wrote are available completely for free to the entire world. This includes 4 published articles and 2 preprints, a thesis, about 150k lines of LaTeX on teaching-related subjects (mostly Calculus) and about 100k lines of C++ code.
I download all my math books off russian ftp sites. I would buy a book only if I can't download it.
I sometimes buy physical copies of non-math books - mostly to enjoy reading them on paper, especially as that saves me from the distraction of my computer. My math books are too important - I need the search command all the time - so a physical copy rarely makes sense.
I do not consider downloading a book for free (independent of copyright or other laws) to be immoral or to be theft.
I simply do not care if other people think that "pirating" a book is a bad thing. I believe myself to be a moral person: I look badly on people throwing garbage on the street or on people talking loud in the bus, and even more so on serious violations of order or crimes that have nothing to do with copyright. I simply do not think that copyright laws are just and I choose to not follow them (so long as there is no risk of being caught).
In case you are wondering about my colleagues' stand on the issue: it was my department chair who showed me two of the three russian websites I have used for downloading books.
***
When I was starting to study, I attempted to actually buy a very valuable to me book. The book was "print on demand", so I ordered it on amazon, paying a sum which I no longer remember.
In the meantime, since I actually needed the book for my work, I found it scanned on the russian ftp sites and downloaded it, feeling happy that, independent of the letter of the law, I did the "morally right" thing and paid for the book (back at the time I thought violating copyright was bad).
About a month later I received a message - it must have been in the mail because I can't find it in my email archive - saying that it was not possible to print the book and that unfortunately amazon cannot send it to me and they have to refund me.
***
All math and related materials I ever wrote are available completely for free to the entire world. This includes 4 published articles and 2 preprints, a thesis, about 150k lines of LaTeX on teaching-related subjects (mostly Calculus) and about 100k lines of C++ code.
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So if violating copyright is not a morally wrong thing, is this not the chain of events:
Person writes book. This takes a long time and a lot of effort.
Person sells book in order to make a living/have another source of income.
Book becomes available for free online.
Everyone pirates book rather than buying it.
Author gets no money from book.
Author does not write another book because they got no money from their previous book.
People in general stop writing books because they are getting enough income because more and more people are pirating.
And yes I know you released your things for free, but not everyone can afford to put the time and effort into something like a big book if they aren't going to get something back for it.
This reminds me of that story which is used to teach children that each small contribution matters:
There's a person with a skin condition which can only be cured by having a bath in milk. The person asks all their friends to put some milk in their bath (because the person doesn't have any). Each friend thinks to themselves "It would be easier for me to give a little water and because everyone else gives milk, it won't matter". Everyone does this. The person with the skin condition dies because there was no milk.
tl;dr Pirating only does not cause a problem because there are people who don't pirate. Once everyone does, the production of books/materials to be pirated will plummet.
Person writes book. This takes a long time and a lot of effort.
Person sells book in order to make a living/have another source of income.
Book becomes available for free online.
Everyone pirates book rather than buying it.
Author gets no money from book.
Author does not write another book because they got no money from their previous book.
People in general stop writing books because they are getting enough income because more and more people are pirating.
And yes I know you released your things for free, but not everyone can afford to put the time and effort into something like a big book if they aren't going to get something back for it.
This reminds me of that story which is used to teach children that each small contribution matters:
There's a person with a skin condition which can only be cured by having a bath in milk. The person asks all their friends to put some milk in their bath (because the person doesn't have any). Each friend thinks to themselves "It would be easier for me to give a little water and because everyone else gives milk, it won't matter". Everyone does this. The person with the skin condition dies because there was no milk.
tl;dr Pirating only does not cause a problem because there are people who don't pirate. Once everyone does, the production of books/materials to be pirated will plummet.
@shadowmouse
I believe that nowadays most books are being pirated. So, has book production plummeted? This is an honest question: I really don't know the answer to it - and I am not sure you do.
For what I can observe, at least in the field of math teaching materials, the number of books has skyrocketed.
As far as making money from selling books: I have little experience (essentially, I have inquired a little into it because I was contacted with an offer to write one). Only a tiny proportion of authors can make a living from selling a book via publishers. The majority of the income goes to the publisher. The reason why authors write books, and especially textbooks, is the glory, pride and joy of being an author.
Should you sell your book in person, copyright offers very little practical protection (if you sell 2k copies of your book you can't really afford to sue anyone).
A real way to make a living by writing nowadays is by blog posts - essentially offer all your writing completely for free - and make a living from the commercials and other related activities on your site. This is also an effective way to sell an actual book: you make a few excellent posts and then offer a link to the book for people who want to read more. If you expect to have 1 million copies, you could write: "I ask for an optional donation payment of 10 USD for each reader, this is completely optional, only if you want to support me.". If one out of 100 readers buys your book (only 10USD), you will have still made 100k dollars from your book.
Another real way to make a living (in the case of music but I am sure it can be done in all creative fields) is through music sites like bandcamp.com (listen for free, pay for extra options such as downloading the mp3 files).
I believe that nowadays most books are being pirated. So, has book production plummeted? This is an honest question: I really don't know the answer to it - and I am not sure you do.
For what I can observe, at least in the field of math teaching materials, the number of books has skyrocketed.
As far as making money from selling books: I have little experience (essentially, I have inquired a little into it because I was contacted with an offer to write one). Only a tiny proportion of authors can make a living from selling a book via publishers. The majority of the income goes to the publisher. The reason why authors write books, and especially textbooks, is the glory, pride and joy of being an author.
Should you sell your book in person, copyright offers very little practical protection (if you sell 2k copies of your book you can't really afford to sue anyone).
A real way to make a living by writing nowadays is by blog posts - essentially offer all your writing completely for free - and make a living from the commercials and other related activities on your site. This is also an effective way to sell an actual book: you make a few excellent posts and then offer a link to the book for people who want to read more. If you expect to have 1 million copies, you could write: "I ask for an optional donation payment of 10 USD for each reader, this is completely optional, only if you want to support me.". If one out of 100 readers buys your book (only 10USD), you will have still made 100k dollars from your book.
Another real way to make a living (in the case of music but I am sure it can be done in all creative fields) is through music sites like bandcamp.com (listen for free, pay for extra options such as downloading the mp3 files).
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| So, has book production plummeted? |
| Should you sell your book in person, copyright offers very little practical protection (if you sell 2k copies of your book you can't really afford to sue anyone). |
| If one out of 100 readers buys your book (only 10USD), you will have still made 100k dollars from your book. |
What people who do not expect to be really popular? What about advertisments? Illustration? Typesetting? You will easily spend those 100k on preparing your book alone.
Donationware way of distribution has some merits, but is not suited for everyone.
Copyright laws are abomination right now, but it does not mean that they should be cancelled right now. Instead efforts should be spent to stop main copyright advocats and gradually rework copyright laws (especially in digital area).
For my present math materials:
I do all the illustrations and typesetting myself. The book writing offer I got asked me to do it myself too. Note that I am a mathematician - lots of heavy duty formulas - our page arrangement can get to be really difficult (more difficult than biologists for example - my wife is one and I can compare). I do all the typesetting, indexing, bibliography, illustrations, and so do all my colleagues.
This semester I will be teaching by a free calculus textbook:
http://www.apexcalculus.com/downloads/
Mr Hartmann (the author of the book) has illustrations that are top-notch quality (he has interactive 3d graphics when viewed with adobe acrobat! That **beats** the quality the publishers can offer).
He did all the graphics and typesetting himself. Yes, he offers his LaTeX source code for free, on github, with a creative commons(!) non-commercial license.
If we get the math textbook publishing companies to go bankrupt, I will be one of the first people to wish good riddance of them (my reasons for being mad at them: exorbitant non-affordable prices combined with awful, deliberately low, quality of mathematics).
****
Conversion rate of 0.2%: so, sell 1million copies 10 USD each and get 20k income - a pretty good deal if you ask me. A top-notch author would sell a lot more than 1 million.
****
I agree. However I think one can similarly argue that copyright law is not suited for everyone. I would agree that copyright law makes some limited sense in entertainment literature, but in my opinion it makes zero sense for technical literature/manuals/textbooks, etc.
I do all the illustrations and typesetting myself. The book writing offer I got asked me to do it myself too. Note that I am a mathematician - lots of heavy duty formulas - our page arrangement can get to be really difficult (more difficult than biologists for example - my wife is one and I can compare). I do all the typesetting, indexing, bibliography, illustrations, and so do all my colleagues.
This semester I will be teaching by a free calculus textbook:
http://www.apexcalculus.com/downloads/
Mr Hartmann (the author of the book) has illustrations that are top-notch quality (he has interactive 3d graphics when viewed with adobe acrobat! That **beats** the quality the publishers can offer).
He did all the graphics and typesetting himself. Yes, he offers his LaTeX source code for free, on github, with a creative commons(!) non-commercial license.
If we get the math textbook publishing companies to go bankrupt, I will be one of the first people to wish good riddance of them (my reasons for being mad at them: exorbitant non-affordable prices combined with awful, deliberately low, quality of mathematics).
****
Conversion rate of 0.2%: so, sell 1million copies 10 USD each and get 20k income - a pretty good deal if you ask me. A top-notch author would sell a lot more than 1 million.
****
| Donationware is not suited for everyone |
I agree. However I think one can similarly argue that copyright law is not suited for everyone. I would agree that copyright law makes some limited sense in entertainment literature, but in my opinion it makes zero sense for technical literature/manuals/textbooks, etc.
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I have yet to meet a math professor that sees math textbooks with any sort of good will (most go out of their way to make you not have to buy the book), so it doesn't surprise me.
Mind you, when publishing companies re-publish a book under a new edition when they just changed the numbers around, that's rather sleazy.
Mind you, when publishing companies re-publish a book under a new edition when they just changed the numbers around, that's rather sleazy.
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