[OT] pdf version of C unleashed ?

[Peetah_junkmail]

Hi,

i tried to contact Richard Heathfield, one of the authors of C unleashed,
through the mail provided on the web site of the book
(http://users.powernet.co.uk/eton/unleashed/), but I've been granted with
an unexisting username from the mail server.
As this book has its origin in this group, I'm trying here .
I have bought this big book one year ago, but it's really not compatible
with the advantage of working with a lapop. Therefore I would like to know
if there is a way to get a pdf version, given that I am able to provide a
proof of purchase.

Again sorry for being off topic, but as I don't want to leech on P2P
networks for illegal copies, this place is my last chance.

Thanks

Peetah

 

[Allin Cottrell]

i tried to contact Richard Heathfield, one of the authors of C unleashed,
through the mail provided on the web site of the book
(http://users.powernet.co.uk/eton/unleashed/), but I've been granted with
an unexisting username from the mail server.
As this book has its origin in this group, I'm trying here .
I have bought this big book one year ago, but it's really not compatible
with the advantage of working with a lapop. Therefore I would like to know
if there is a way to get a pdf version, given that I am able to provide a
proof of purchase.

You might try contacting Ben Pfaff, who was a contributor to the book
and who posts here regularly.

I'm not sure what has happened to Richard Heathfield. I miss his
contributions to c.l.c. About a year ago (maybe, very roughly) I
raised the question here, and at some point got a reply from RH
himself. He seemed to be OK, I think, but not ready to participate
in any further public discussions of C until further notice.

Allin Cottrell

 

[Dave Vandervies]

I'm not sure what has happened to Richard Heathfield. I miss his
contributions to c.l.c. About a year ago (maybe, very roughly) I
raised the question here, and at some point got a reply from RH
himself. He seemed to be OK, I think, but not ready to participate
in any further public discussions of C until further notice.

My recollection is that he wasn't willing to participate in usenet
discussions until he had a reliable way to be reached out-of-band,
which he didn't at the time. In any case, he appeared to still be
reading CLC at the time, and 'twouldn't surprise me if he still is.

(So he's probably seen the OP's question. Your suggestion to contact
Ben Pfaff is also worth following up. I suspect the short answer is
"No", though.)


dave

 

[Ben Pfaff]

You might try contacting Ben Pfaff, who was a contributor to the book
and who posts here regularly.

I don't know of any PDF version of C Unleashed. I don't even
have a PDF version of my chapter.

 

[Randy Howard]

I'm not sure what has happened to Richard Heathfield. I miss his
contributions to c.l.c.

You do? You need to pay more attention. It's bleeding obvious to
some that he isn't missing.

He seemed to be OK, I think, but not ready to participate
in any further public discussions of C until further notice.

Well, he may have forgot about giving notice, at least not the
direct kind.

 

[Keith Thompson]

You do? You need to pay more attention. It's bleeding obvious to
some that he isn't missing.

Apparently I need to pay more attention as well, since I have no idea
what you're talking about.

 

[Chris Williams]

Apparently I need to pay more attention as well, since I have no idea
what you're talking about.

Well, Brits all keep things fairly close to themselves.

-Chris

 

[CBFalconer]

Apparently I need to pay more attention as well, since I have no
idea what you're talking about.

Well, we have fairly strong theories, which have been neither
confirmed nor denied. There seems to be a consensus that we do not
make direct statements on the subject, thus preserving the
Heathfieldian privacy and options.

 

[Randy Howard]

Apparently I need to pay more attention as well, since I have no idea
what you're talking about.

Apparently so. Think sockpuppet, but without the usual negative
connotation.

 

[Mark McIntyre]

You do? You need to pay more attention. It's bleeding obvious to
some that he isn't missing.

Now you've done it - everyone and his dog will be trying to work out which
pseudunym he is...

 

[Mark McIntyre]

Hi,

I have bought this big book one year ago, but it's really not compatible
with the advantage of working with a lapop. Therefore I would like to know
if there is a way to get a pdf version, given that I am able to provide a
proof of purchase.

The best people to contact would be the publishers, not the authors. Its
EXTREMELY unlikely they'll be prepared to ship a PDF, unless they're
already gearing up for secure e-book formats.

 

[Keith Thompson]

Apparently so. Think sockpuppet, but without the usual negative
connotation.

If someone wanted to enlighten me by e-mail, I promise not to post
such enlightenment to the group.

 

[Jesse Meyer]

I don't know of any PDF version of C Unleashed. I don't even
have a PDF version of my chapter.

Semi-OT Rant: Since piracy will happen anyways, I wish publishers would
get their act together and package a disk with the book's text on it in
HTML/PDF/PS format. I want something that I can keep on a computer and
call up whenever I need to.

 

[CBFalconer]

The best people to contact would be the publishers, not the
authors. Its EXTREMELY unlikely they'll be prepared to ship a PDF,
unless they're already gearing up for secure e-book formats.

Actually making such versions freely available seems to be good
business for some. See:

<http://www.baen.com/library/>

I suspect that attaching a CDR to each book, with the full
contents, would not harm sales. In fact, it might enhance them for
such people as peetah. People who want paper will still want
paper, and may even be encouraged to get it by reading from a pdf
or ps or html version. The html version would be preferred, since
it is easily searched with text utilities, and is most adaptive to
screen and paper sizes. The minor disadvantage (not present with a
CDR version) is that pictures and diagrams have to be separate
files. See how baen does it.

 

[Keith Thompson]

Actually making such versions freely available seems to be good
business for some. See:

<http://www.baen.com/library/>

I suspect that attaching a CDR to each book, with the full
contents, would not harm sales. In fact, it might enhance them for
such people as peetah. People who want paper will still want
paper, and may even be encouraged to get it by reading from a pdf
or ps or html version. The html version would be preferred, since
it is easily searched with text utilities, and is most adaptive to
screen and paper sizes. The minor disadvantage (not present with a
CDR version) is that pictures and diagrams have to be separate
files. See how baen does it.

O'Reilly has a series of "CD Bookshelves". Each one is a CD-ROM
containing half a dozen or so complete books, along with one of them
in hardcover.

The ones that are reference books are particularly nice to have in
HTML format. I can look something up with a few keystrokes rather
than having to leaf through a book that's probably at the office if
I'm at home, or vice versa.

 

[Eric Sosman]

Semi-OT Rant: Since piracy will happen anyways, I wish publishers would
get their act together and package a disk with the book's text on it in
HTML/PDF/PS format. I want something that I can keep on a computer and
call up whenever I need to.

Rates of change are important, even if asymptotically
meaningless. Don't agree? Consider: You will die. Is it
worth postponing the inevitable?

 

[Allin Cottrell]

You do? You need to pay more attention. It's bleeding obvious to
some that he isn't missing.


Well, he may have forgot about giving notice, at least not the
direct kind.

Hmm. c.l.c. is a high-traffic ng. I don't have a killfile, but I
readily confess that I tend to read postings from names that I
know, and know to be worth reading, and pass by many others.

I used to look out for the Heathfield or rjh moniker. If Richard
is posting under other names, well, I haven't caught on and have
missed his pearls of wisdom. My loss, but probably not only mine.

Allin Cottrell

 

[Jesse Meyer]

Rates of change are important, even if asymptotically
meaningless. Don't agree? Consider: You will die. Is it
worth postponing the inevitable?

As an experiment, look for bookwarez for technical books in the usual
places. When I tried it, I couldn't find 'C Unleashed'[1] but I found a
fair share of technical books about coding c. That results in a loss
sale for 'C Unleashed' if there was going to be a sale.

Publishers would lose more sales to casual copying if they did release
the CDs, but publishers would gain sales as well due to added
functionality. I believe that the gain offsets the loss. But its a
matter of opinion.

[1] It may be my lack of skill, I don't warez, so I may be looking in
the wrong places.

 

[Mark McIntyre]

Actually making such versions freely available seems to be good
business for some.

Perhaps. ISO / ANSI do it for instance, if we're being ob-topical!

On the other hand, with all due respect to them, Baen Books are not exactly
an internationally reknowned name in the same league as Sams.

I suspect that attaching a CDR to each book, with the full
contents, would not harm sales. In fact, it might enhance them for
such people as peetah.

And I suspect that the pubslisher's lawyers would point out that a PDF or
html version could be trivially pirated. This might be fine for pulp
fiction but for $50 tomes.... ICBW of course.

See how baen does it.

I don't need to - I actively use a couple of e-book publishers to buy stuff
for my Palm.

 

[DHOLLINGSWORTH2]

I wish they'd crank out products that were easy enough to use, that I didn't
need any literature!