Books: Digital or physical?

[Dan]

And the books are cheaper. Mine is less than £1, and I get a steady stream of sales.

So... Pretty much the same thing you'd get with a publisher after they take their cut, except you sell more of them?

Seems like a good deal. :)

[Stuart]

And the books are cheaper. Mine is less than £1, and I get a steady stream of sales.

So... Pretty much the same thing you'd get with a publisher after they take their cut, except you sell more of them?

Seems like a good deal. :)

I get published in the first place, without having to get an agent, without being told to change things to make it more accessible & commercial, etc. No bullshit, no nonsense. The only problem is I have to self publicise, which I seem to have done ok at.

[Karla]

I like Qt Designer quite a lot. It's the only GUI designer I actually like. It doesn't absolutely position things (like the one of Borland) and doesn't generate ad-hoc code that will break if modified by hand like the one of Microsoft. It doesn't even force colleagues to use IDEs, they just have to modify the UI files written in schema validated XML if they wish.

Yeah I'm going to have to look at Qt Designer again I think. I started writing a GUI by hand but didn't really keep at it.

As for the keyboard, that's an issue for pretty much all of the non-English world. Most of us switch to the US layout to code.

In my last job we were supplied with a US keyboard. I might just end up buying a keyboard myself rather than carry on with the one that came with the new computer.

[Dan]

In my last job we were supplied with a US keyboard. I might just end up buying a keyboard myself rather than carry on with the one that came with the new computer.

Why don't you set a layout that's different than what's written on the keys?

[Delta]

The German layout actually has an extra key, which alters the layout around the enter button and creates a really tiny LShift. Which results in quite a few keys being not only mapped, but located differently. Mostly punctuation.
Interestingly, at my university, they supply an english-only OS in the computer pools to make it more accessible for international students from India, China and other countries, yet they still issue German keyboards.
I think your main problem is that you learned to type on English ones, though. Keys like tilde, backslash and pipe being behind the AltGr modifier are not bad if you learned to use that modifier, and dead keys only really matter for the caret, as other symbols that are also used as accent marks are pretty uncommon unless you do tons of SQL.

[Dan]

I think your main problem is that you learned to type on English ones, though. Keys like tilde, backslash and pipe being behind the AltGr modifier are not bad if you learned to use that modifier, and dead keys only really matter for the caret, as other symbols that are also used as accent marks are pretty uncommon unless you do tons of SQL.

I learned to type on a French Canadian keyboard and think that it makes a huge difference. I really hate using AltGr all the time.

The German keyboard like all the other non-US keyboard is key-wise a superset of the US keyboard. So it's not really an issue to switch to US, all the keys are there (even if some are shorter).

Did you try coding with a US keyboard? You should try.

Also, it helps to set your layout switching per-application instead of globally that way you can have your IDE in US and browser in DE.

[Northman]

I have always loved books. I can't really see myself leaving hard copies and turn towards digital ones. I like turning pages and I like the feel of a new book.
I have trouble reading stuff from my laptop, I can't keep up doing it for long periods of times since I will eventually get a migraine. A bad screen gives one even quicker, but I don't disregard it as not being useful. And it could possibly workout during lectures, since teachers leave their course material on the internet in pdf-form. And printing them work as long as my printingquota isn't reached. Which it is.

So:
Not against it, but I like my books better. 

[Stuart]

Its rather interesting - I'm hearing many of the same kinds of arguments in favour of books that people made for vinyl records twenty years ago.

[Karla]

I have trouble reading stuff from my laptop, I can't keep up doing it for long periods of times since I will eventually get a migraine. A bad screen gives one even quicker,

I have the same trouble now that I am more sensitive to light. I wouldn't even bother trying to use a tablet or laptop for reading books with an active display and I had the same worry as you when I heard about these devices. But a kindle is much easier on the eyes because it's not lit up. It's the same as a book in that you'd be straining your eyes if you were wanting to read it in the half light,.

[Daft]

I still have triuble reading long texts on desktops or laptops. But I've became totally adapted to tablets, got no problems.

[bluetrain]

I love books so much that I recently have had to come to terms with the fact that... Books take space. a lot of space. I have 3 bookshelves in my room and they're totally full. I have books piling up on tables and pretty much everywhere. I have taken a good look on Kindles and it seems really like a good buy. I'm thinking about it, it would help solve my space problem!

But there is absolutely no comparison between a beautiful binded book and a tablet.

[Northman]

I love books so much that I recently have had to come to terms with the fact that... Books take space. a lot of space. I have 3 bookshelves in my room and they're totally full. I have books piling up on tables and pretty much everywhere. I have taken a good look on Kindles and it seems really like a good buy. I'm thinking about it, it would help solve my space problem!

But there is absolutely no comparison between a beautiful binded book and a tablet.

I have few piles on the floor too  and I have tried to fill all available spaces on the bookshelf. But I find that there is something nice in being able to see all the books on the shelf, especially when you go to a friends house and see their bookshelf. You can see his or her reading history and preference in books.
Also, when I need multiple sourcebooks for a paper I can spread those books open on the floor in semicircular fashion.

[nomadicnudist]

Digital.  I never have to fumble with pages on the subway.

[blu333y3s]

Either is good depending on the situation. .. for example I really would have preferred paper books when I was reading in the jacuzzi and on the beach this week . Though as I was travelling the size and weight of a kindle is much more comfortable. 

[Dj1979]

I'm old school.   I prefer physical books, CDs, DVDs etc.   I also like browsing in stores, I think you can stumble across things whilst browsing, online also usually requires searches so you might miss out on something because you didn't know it existed to search for it :)

Plus there is nothing like the smell of a book :)