** UnhandledExceptionEventHandler :: OFFICIAL LC / CHATTER THREAD **

[Zurvan]

I like to read a book, then do some examples and use the web to help me through problems

I find the book clues me in to what's possible & some concepts I may not be aware of (especially with a new language), that I can then recall & look up later when I have a problem that might suit them.

[kyleb]

I generally don't require books to get through stuff. I have PHP in a Nutshell at my desk because it's nice to flip through it for functions, but I prefer php.net almost always.

I only need books for extremely complex and boring stuff. Like Java.

[wellju]

There's obviously gems that are only available online and more up to date.

I was referring to "the definite guide" Shoe Lace mentioned.

I got some "definite guides" in my shelf from 2002 that are as valid and up to date as it gets.

The thing is, why I'm advocating those books so much is not an affiliation with the publisher but what you can get from them.
It's the things you don't care about and you wouldn't ever look up that you have to read anyways in some way.

These books are not fully replaceable by web content, at least for my interests.
It also probably heavily depends on your field of interest. Turbo Pascal != Facebook marketing

Additionally, we're in the wordpress area of the web, shortly after google struggled so long with unbearable search results because of SEO specialists linkfarms so that literally everyone can publish his bs on the web.

I'm looking for the opinion of certain people on certain topics, and they often prefer to earn some money for their books instead of blogging the real content.
That's what I meant with top notch and free does not compute.

Or maybe I just turned into an "old" guy moaning at the youngsters on my lawn.

Note to self: Next time explain before, not try to justify after posting

Maybe we can revive the worst thread of this subforum so far and use it as a linkdump.

Originally Posted by TheIrishThug

This. Programming books don't work for me. I need get down and dirty and work on a project to understand how things work. When I get stuck, it's to the internet.

You read the book before, so you don't get stuck that often and refrain to post your issue on SO and get it solved without learning anything from it. Especially if you're under development pressure from your company, that's natural.
Of course you can use SO as learning tool to improve, but most of the time it's just homework or time pressure :/

But people often ask how they can stand out, and being very selective about the method you gather information (and not only the content itself) is one of the aspects imo.

[TheIrishThug]

Originally Posted by kyleb

I only need books for extremely complex and boring stuff. Like Java.

Buzz-zing!

Originally Posted by wellju

You read the book before, so you don't get stuck that often and refrain to post your issue on SO and get it solved without learning anything from it. Especially if you're under development pressure from your company, that's natural.
Of course you can use SO as learning tool to improve, but most of the time it's just homework or time pressure :/

But people often ask how they can stand out, and being very selective about the method you gather information (and not only the content itself) is one of the aspects imo.

I agree that a lot of people use SO just get their code working and never go there for anything else. However, there is tons of value on the site that people can tap into. I'm on the site daily and have only ever asked a handful of questions. Reading peoples questions, answers and attempting make answers yourself is a very productive process. I always try to read a few questions about something related to a language I use, but doesn't happen to be about how I am using it.

[Zurvan]

Books are useful because they tell you about things you didn't know existed, and thus never would have known to search for

[clowntable]

Recruiting thread was the worst AINEC

[kyleb]

no way there was a sick burn in that thread that made it all worthwhile

[clowntable]

Also I don't want to hate on books in general. There's some books in my techbook collection that I'd always buy no matter what. "The C Programming Language" is the best tech book I have ever read and "TCP/IP Illustrated" belongs on every bookshelve if you ever think you'll be in contact with networking of any sort.
Then there's stuff like "Code Complete" which I like to reread every now and then.

I enjoy reading real books a lot more than reading stuff online because I won't be tempted to distract myself if I sit down with a book.

For library and language references I generally prefer online stuff, for short recipes I also prefer online stuff. I do own a bunch of books that are fairly dated and of questionabl use these days

[Shoe Lace]

The definitive couchdb book doesn't cost money. They are charging on the o'reily site but the author of couchdb released it for free. Buying it is kind of like donating to them. That's why I asked for similar JS books, I have no intentions in buying a book.

Reading the documentation is never a bad idea but usually I only use it when I'm looking for something specific. When I did most of my work in PHP I found those docs to be useful; search for a function, see a quick example and optionally browse community solutions, not too shabby.

On the other hand, learning JS (to create server side code w/ node) probably can't be learned in a similar fashion. I know a lot of the functions already but most of my JS work up until now has been hacking around with the DOM and Googling for specific things when I get stuck (not really learning). I figured a book that wasn't tied in too close to the DOM would have been a good idea to read because this seems a lot more like theory than just parroting random example code.

What other high quality online resources do you use besides the docs and SO?

[clowntable]

Buying books is never a bad idea though. Spend 30$/month on a book and read it and you'll have expanded your horizon quite a bit in one year for a mere 360$. Beats every university out there by a good margin imo.

[wellju]

You can set off the book costs against tax liability, at least where I live.
My ex-employer got us all 400$ amazon gift coupons for books at christmas we obviously spent for video games and 2 books to show off at the desk.

"One book a month" is one of the best habits in life one could have imo.

Maybe that reading books stuff is a Euro thing and I surf the internet too little

I also don't see anything wrong with donating to someone who helped your career tremendously.

Maybe it's these 10$ donations that keep people on publishing their content for free without getting greedy, but still have the feeling that their work has some value.

[kyleb]

I donate to projects all the time because I know what it's like to work on an open source project and get some help on it. Feels awesome.

[greg nice]

quick q

i have a basic site for my app with a download link, feature list, measly documentation. i plan on taking it commercial soon. first, i want to put up some support forums. i was planning on just using some basic forum software such as phpbb.

however i just found out about www.OSQA.net which is basically a stackoverflow clone. i really like this type of community, but i'm just not sure which would be more appropriate for a support forum type thing. a typical "topic/reply" forum thread system, or a "question/answer" type thing. they are similar but have a distinctly different feel

any thoughts?

[TheIrishThug]

It depends on how frequently someone from the community would be the one to post the "right answer". What makes SO thrive is that people are motivated by reputation to post good answers in hopes to get up votes and check marks. If your product is something that a community would be able to do that, it might be a good idea. But there needs to be an install base for the community to exist and be productive.

In contrast, if the forum is going to be more people showing up reporting problems and then other people saying "that happened to me to", that's not really answering the question. That is more of a discussion about an issue. And for a while, until other people become very familiar with the product, you will be the one showing up with the authoritative answers. That lends itself better to a forum.

[kerowo]

4 openings at my company with a $10k referral bonus. I wish I had smarter friends...