BlaisePascal has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

About five months ago, I bought a copy of Camel II to replace the very aged Pink Camel purchased years ago. A couple of month later, Camel III was released. I'm loathe to buy a new edition so quickly -- just like I was loathe to update my Knuth when the new editions were released a year after I got the old ones.

What am I missing in the new Camel? I know it's 400 pages more, but (briefly!) what's on those 400 pages that isn't in Camel II? How changed is the original 600 pages?

I'm trying to convince myself that it really is worth the $40 to Amazon.com to get the new edition, but I'm going to need some convincing.

So, why is Camel III worth $40 to someone who has Camel II?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
RE: Three camels better than two? (ORA upgrade discount link)
by ybiC (Prior) on Oct 13, 2000 at 20:16 UTC
    This doesn't directly address your question, BlaisePascal, but I seem to recall an O'Reilly policy that discounts purchase price if you already own a prior edition of one of their books.   If I can find details, I post them here in an Update.

    Update: Found it: www.oreilly.com/order/upgrade.html   Provides 30% discount with original title page of older edition.   Dunno how that compares to prices at fatbrain
        cheers,
        Don   (ybiC)
        striving for Perl Adept

[reply]
Re: Three camels better than two?
by clemburg (Curate) on Oct 13, 2000 at 23:06 UTC

    Camel III is totally reorganized and has a lot of new stuff in it. In fact, it is a totally new book. New sections on security, threading, pod, unicode, internals, compilation, debugging, just to name what I remember quickly.

    Especially for the experienced Perl programmer, this is *the* book to buy. Run, don't walk, to your next bookstore!

    Go look at the table of contents at the O'Reilly website for Camel III.

    Christian Lemburg
    Brainbench MVP for Perl
    http://www.brainbench.com

[reply]
Re: Three camels better than two?
by Anonymous Monk on Oct 14, 2000 at 03:34 UTC
    I will always cherish my TC autographed copy of Camel 2, but I will *use* my new Camel 3. Much improved - better organized better as a reference, just plain better all around. I'd say rip out that title page for the O'Reilly discount and bite the bullet!
[reply]
      I wouldn't rip out the title page for the O'Reilly discount -- it seems fatbrain has the same discount, so I can keep the titlepage intact.
[reply]

      I'd say rip out that title page for the O'Reilly discount and bite the bullet!

      ...unless, of course, that's where it's autographed...:-)

[reply]
[reply]

Back to Seekers of Perl Wisdom