Re: Out of Print Classic Computer Arch & Compiler Books

hbaker@netcom.com (Henry Baker)
27 Jul 1996 21:19:27 -0400

          From comp.compilers

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Re: Out of Print Classic Computer Arch & Compiler Books mpg@teleport.com (1996-07-26)
Re: Out of Print Classic Computer Arch & Compiler Books hbaker@netcom.com (1996-07-27)
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Re: Out of Print Classic Computer Arch & Compiler Books koopman@cs.cmu.edu (1996-07-31)
Re: Out of Print Classic Computer Arch & Compiler Books paco@dawn.cs.rice.edu (1996-07-31)
Re: Out of Print Classic Computer Arch & Compiler Books henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (1996-08-01)
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From: hbaker@netcom.com (Henry Baker)
Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.compilers
Date: 27 Jul 1996 21:19:27 -0400
Organization: nil
References: <31f61e27.6475492@usenet.interramp.com> <31F8F094.5993@cisco.com> 96-07-189
Keywords: books

> [I was at one point trying to put out a series of reissued computer classics,
> and got as far as getting permissions from Wulf et al., but I couldn't find
> a publisher to do it, and it's pretty risky to do it yourself unless you have
> a whole lot of pre-pub orders, like several thousand. -John]


I have several times tried to interest publishers in some sort of a
'classic hits' of the computer world, with _no_ interest, whatsoever.


Most publishers seem to ascribe to the rock music view of the publishing
world, in which the market drops exponentially with a time constant of
about 3-6 months.


The only distribution they like better is the 'undergraduate infinite
editions' model, in which an undergraduate text like an economics text
goes through a new edition every year, thus wiping out the resale market.
(As a professor of economics once told me, the _questions_ in economics
don't change from year to year, but the _answers_ do!! :-)


----


I have therefore concluded that the Web is the best place for preserving
this kind of information.
--


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