Re: Announcing the book on the website

[<pl...@pi...>]

On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 08:52:04 +0100, Tait <gnu...@t4...> wrote:

> I'm a little at a loss why the book belongs on the Gnuplot front page
> to begin with. It would seem to rightly be placed on the "Tutorials,
> learning, help" page. In that location, there may be less sensitivity
> about how much space is consumed by the book advertisement.


In principal I would have to agree, it should have a prominent link on  
tutorial page and "other doc" section of the documntation page.

Since it is a commercial offering I agree it is a bit doubious it even  
getting a spot on the homepage.

However the official doc, thorough as it is, is very hard to assimilate.  
It's like reading a Unix reference manual, the info is there you just have  
to find it.  It's not anyone's idea of how to find out how to use a  
computer. It's there for reference.

Having proof read some of the book I really have to say it is extremely  
clear and well written. If I had had just those early chapters when I  
started using gnuplot I would quite simply have saved myself two or three  
weeks to get to a productive state of knowlege.

If anything, it would probably be more appropriate to have a link to the  
book's site where the free chapters are. These are an excellent  
introduction to what gnuplot is and does and the basics of how to get  
flying, condensed into about 20 min careful reading.

For that reason I think an exception should be made to make this available  
 from the homepage

http://www.manning-source.com/books/janert/janert_meapch2.pdf

The free taster can then serve the purpose the publisher intends: getting  
people hooked to buy the book. This link is entirely justifiable from the  
perspective of gnuplot since it speeds access to the program and I believe  
is a great asset to potential and novice users.

I regret that this was not there when I started gnuplotting.

Giving 25% of the homepage to the book and its cover is probably going a  
bit too far unless the publisher wants to sponsor gnuplot!!

regards.