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PBP in German out of print - solutions?

by LanX (Saint)
on Sep 11, 2017 at 12:57 UTC ( [id://1199092]=perlmeditation: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

Hi

I'm in the perverted situation that I want to equip my team with prints of Perl Best Practices and the German version is not only out of print, but O'Reilly is even not providing an eBook Version.

In Germany it's legal to photocopy books which got out of print after two years.

My best idea at the moment is to resort to copying relevant chapters of the German version and buying same amount of English version as compensation for bad conscience.

What you think?

PS: My colleagues do speak some kind of English but I don't want to accept the loss of productivity here.

Cheers Rolf
(addicted to the Perl Programming Language and ☆☆☆☆ :)
Je suis Charlie!

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: PBP in German out of print - solutions?
by afoken (Chancellor) on Sep 11, 2017 at 19:54 UTC
    My colleagues do speak some kind of English but I don't want to accept the loss of productivity here.

    That's why I prefer the original over a translated version. I've never read a translated version of PBP, so I can't judge the quality of the translation. But I've read a sufficient ammount of other technical documentation to know that a lossless translation is very rare, and really good translations are almost as rare.

    To make things worse, translations take time. Having a good translation available that is as up-to-date as the original, and is released at the same time, is rare.

    Translators add errors, like any author does, that's inevitable. But then, they also add errors because they don't understand all of the fine details. See below for an example.

    Technical terms are pandora's box for translators. You can do only wrong. If you translate, and have to invent a new word, or reuse an existing word that did not have that meaning before, experts will have a hard time understanding what you mean. If you keep the technical term, only experts will understand you.


    My favorite mis-translation is from the german MS-DOS 4.01 manual, in the chapter for DRIVER.SYS. DRIVER.SYS supports "exotic" floppy drives, and it accepts a /C parameter.

    The german translation consists of some unreadable garbage mentioning "Zeilenwechseloption". "Zeilenwechsel" is something associated with type writers or impact printers, the manual or automatic transition ("wechsel") from one row ("Zeile") of text to the next. Carriage return plus line feed. "Option" is used very similar to the english "option", something optional, that you can order for extra money.

    How does that fit to a floppy drive?

    Alexander

    --
    Today I will gladly share my knowledge and experience, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so". ;-)
      Sorry this is mostly irrelevant for me, the book is very good in German, O'Reilly is employing pretty professional translators.

      And it's a tech book, not Futurama with multiple levels of non translatable irony.

      Cheers Rolf
      (addicted to the Perl Programming Language and ☆☆☆☆ :)
      Je suis Charlie!

        the book is very good in German

        Matter of taste, I guess, but I gave away my copy of PBP in german. The translation not only bristled my eyebrows, beard, top and bottom hair, but curled up all my nails as well.

        Your colleagues should improve their english to prevent loss of productivity by shitty translations.

        perl -le'print map{pack c,($-++?1:13)+ord}split//,ESEL'
Re: PBP in German out of print - solutions?
by reisinge (Hermit) on Sep 11, 2017 at 14:55 UTC
      Yeah, thanks.

      And for further information, there is a commented representation from Randal Schwartz on Slideshare (with his point of view, which I often share)

      Cheers Rolf
      (addicted to the Perl Programming Language and ☆☆☆☆ :)
      Je suis Charlie!

Re: PBP in German out of print - solutions?
by Anonymous Monk on Sep 11, 2017 at 13:13 UTC
    Did you ask O'Reilly if they could provide one? There might be demand that they are not aware of, and "publishing an eBook costs them nothing." Surely they have the XML files lying around there someplace . . .
      No, how is this best done?

      Update

      To be honest I doubt just talking to an official phone contact will simply lead to an instant eBook publication.

      update

      I wouldn't be surprised if posting here is the most efficient way to contact "them".

      Cheers Rolf
      (addicted to the Perl Programming Language and ☆☆☆☆ :)
      Je suis Charlie!

        I agree with the AM - contacting O'Reilly does seem like the best option here. Alternatively take your German copy out of Germany and do some scanning ... but that's not scaleable either.
        As I understand it, O'Reilly ceased publishing true eBooks, only the "Safari" online version seems to be available. I don't understand how they're working really; Oreilly.fr closed doors in 2008, and since then none of the many French O'Reilly books are available, in any form.Not even eBooks (which they must have the rights for, and the files somewhere). Go figure...
Re: PBP in German out of print - solutions?
by Mr. Muskrat (Canon) on Sep 11, 2017 at 16:10 UTC
Re: PBP in German out of print - solutions?
by Anonymous Monk on Sep 11, 2017 at 13:09 UTC
    Buy used
      Buying used is twice as expensive* and not scalable.

      Cheers Rolf
      (addicted to the Perl Programming Language and ☆☆☆☆ :)
      Je suis Charlie!

      *) or even far more

        Scaleable ?

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