Technical Books - do you still use them?

fritter63

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A few years after getting on my "minimalist" kick, I purged all my technical software books. Most were obsolete anyways. I got a monthly subscription to Safari books online which give me access to all their titles on demand.

Still, I find that I rarely use it. Mostly now I just "google" for what I need and find solutions and answers that way.

Anybody else finding the same? I'd thought there'd be areas where I'd need to read a full published book, but just haven't found that happening.
 
I usually use a normal bound book when learning a new technology stack.  A book will have a flow to the information that disconnected web pages likely won't have.  When I moved to iOS development, I picked up "Advanced iOS Development"; excellent book.  It now only gets pulled out for special topics that I know it covered in depth (e.g., push notifications) otherwise StackOverflow is da bomb.  Back in .NET dev days, I pretty much bought anything out of DevelopMentor; their depth and breadth was far more than any sources on the web, including MSDN docs (which I consider some of the best around).
 
If you are learning a new language I think the organized presentation of a book is worthwhile. APIs I generally try to get something more space efficient, say like a PDF. These things change so rapidly that you soon will need an update anyway.

 
andvari said:
If you are learning a new language I think the organized presentation of a book is worthwhile. APIs I generally try to get something more space efficient, say like a PDF. These things change so rapidly that you soon will need an update anyway.

New language? Why do you need anything other than Java?  [poke]
 
Yeah.. what else is there other than Java?

I manage a modest size dev team in my day job and have asked the team to go out, buy any relevant book and send me expense reports.  I have been asking for the past 2 years and not a single expense report thus far.

Based on my sample size of about 30 developers, they do not use the reference books anymore.  Google seems to have replaced it for my team.
 
Lol, the books.

I'm a C# developer. But I've switched over to google for everything. On occasion my manager tries to get us to order books since it's budgeted but we never do.

PaulMarcel said:
zapdafish said:
I used them for target practice  ;D

Who? Java devs?!  [eek]
 
zapdafish said:
Lol, the books.

I'm a C# developer. But I've switched over to google for everything. On occasion my manager tries to get us to order books since it's budgeted but we never do.

PaulMarcel said:
zapdafish said:
I used them for target practice  ;D

Who? Java devs?!  [eek]

Ah, bummer, I had a couple to donate otherwise...  Me? I'm safe. :)
 
fritter63 said:
andvari said:
If you are learning a new language I think the organized presentation of a book is worthwhile. APIs I generally try to get something more space efficient, say like a PDF. These things change so rapidly that you soon will need an update anyway.

New language? Why do you need anything other than Java?   [poke]

To pay for my Festools.
 
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