There is something "special" about getting hold of a good paper copy of a book - especially when learning new things.

When I was starting out into the world of Perl I was a poor (mostly) student who certainly couldn't afford a PDA or decent Internet connection from home. To that end my only options were thus - get hold of a "real" copy of the books I wanted to read at my leisure in the comfort of home, or try to grab some time between lectures (and crowded computer labs) to go online.
Certainly I believe I would never have got on so well into perl without my (soon to be well worn) copy of "Perl 5 For Dummies" and following that "Perl In A Nutshell". I spend many a happy evening huddled under a duvet in a freezing cold student room, coffee in one hand, book in the other, learning the delights of our fair language.

However, much as I must extol the virtues of the printed word, it isn't the best medium for all situations.
Now knowing the basics pretty well, most of the delving I do into "book" is to look up the odd bit of syntax that I'm fuzzy on or the such like. For this I generally use the O'R Perl Bookshelf CD.
Using such a system can locate the exact bit of text that I'm interested in with a few mouse clicks instead of ages thumbing through the index of a book.

Speaking of the O'R Safari - it's a nice idea if you have the money, but to be honest I'd rather pay £20-30 for a book that will be mine for always, won't cost me anything for the priviledge of letting me keep it on my bookshelf and, most of all, will enable me to scribble in the margins.

To these ends I'd have to summarise thus; Neither medium can fully replace the other. Both have advantages and disadvantages in numerous situations and, of course, the most important factor - personal preference. There are very few things in this world we can get a majority to agree on at the best of times, so I think this one will run for a while.

In reply to Re: Be vewwwy qwiet - weuh hunting camews... by gothic_mallard
in thread Be vewwwy qwiet - weuh hunting camews... by ybiC

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