
Free Printed Copies of "Version Control by Example" - rw140
http://www.ericsink.com/entries/vcbe_print_edition_free.html
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wmat
What a great idea. Will future updates be available as well? Perhaps in a DVCS
for easy access?

I'd be a happy man if ALL tech books lived in a DVCS. Users could fork it,
push updates, fixes, etc. and the author could integrate changes as they see
fit. No more searching for errata URLs, simply update your repository.

I'd even pay for this.

A great example of where this idea could be really useful is with Linux books
like 'Linux Device Drivers', or 'Understanding the Linux Kernel'. These books
are often out of date at the time they're published. I'd happily pay for
access to them in a repository somewhere.

This is not unlike how the Pragmatic Bookshelf (<http://pragprog.com/)works>
today with the exception that you have to wait for new book versions to become
available, then regenerate them in your e-version format of choice. It'd be
much more useful if the community of users could contribute back to the book
source repository at their leisure.

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dsr_
There are these things called wikis... some books are even published that way.

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prestia
I'd love to request a copy, but the District of Columbia is not an option in
the state field. I know we're not technically a state, but we're still people!

I actually have this problem more often than I should. It is especially
painful when I'm trying to _pay_ for a product. Tip to all web developers:
Make sure DC is an option in your signup/order forms.

~~~
ericsink
I just wanted to make sure none of those crooks in Congress got a free copy of
my book, but I keep forgetting that other people live there too.

:-)

Seriously, sorry for the oversight. We'll fix this.

~~~
drieddust
Why you are not offering a paid eBook format? I am sure people would like to
pay you for the eBook version.

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shabda
> Heck, people often pay more per click on AdWords than it costs to print and
> ship a book.

Wow. Such a great way to spend money, and I think it would get them some great
ROI.

(They are launching their new SCM veracity.)

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dspillett
I certainly didn't know it existed until now (though I was aware of the book
in no-trees-were-harmed form) and we are currently assessing our ongoing needs
regarding version control (it works, but we _really_ need to move onto
something more modern at some point soon), so they've at least bought a little
mindshare here, and I doubt we are at all unique in that regard.

It'll be interesting to see how this works out for them if we get a follow-up
article further down the line.

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antonp
Would be great if you guys would report back with a ROI type report on this pr
stunt. Wish you all the best!

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vimalg2
I reside in India. My request went through without a hitch (Opera11.50/Linux).

I think this is great idea for a version control book. I work in a dual-vcs
environment (Hg, git - Work, personal)

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epicureanideal
Really great idea. I checked out the ToC before ordering and I like the way it
offers a comparison of the major existing version control systems and then
includes in the comparison at the end the new version control system. So
basically it's useful to anyone who is thinking about moving to a new VCS and
"happens to mention" the author's VCS. I'd pay for that any day, but instead
I'll just recommend the book to everybody I know... which is probably what
they want...

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presto8
I picked up a copy of this book at OSCON a few weeks ago. It's well-written,
humorous, and a great overview of Mercurial and Git and a good introduction to
Veracity.

If you have been using Mercurial or Git for a while, there won't be much new
in here, but it is an enjoyable and quick read. And it could come in handy for
converting those holdouts on your team still using Subversion (or, like a few
people I work with, no version control at all!).

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barnaby
Fantastic! Thanks for doing this because some of our devs barely use SVN in my
office and it would be great if they became more aware of the benefits of
version control. I've used git on previous projects and love the distributed
model, hopefully having this as a good reading option in our office will help
improve us all.

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pseale
Smart Bear does the same thing: <http://smartbear.com/best-kept-secrets-of-
peer-code-review/> \- I received a free (paper) book after attending a session
about peer code review.

I still haven't read the book, but that's a whole different discussion.

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john2x
My request went through (Philippines) :) I hope it comes. I'd like to show my
workmates the beauty of version control and what they're missing.

There's a free online version (also PDF)
<http://www.ericsink.com/vcbe/index.html>

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pholbrook
It's worth mentioning that you can also read the book for free online:
<http://www.ericsink.com/vcbe/index.html>

Take a look and decide if it's something you like to have in paper form.

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ck2
Since I cannot control-F a book, I'll save a tree and stick with the PDF.

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kleer0
Looks like an interesting book. Were you taken to another page when clicking
"Request a book"? For me, the page was reloaded and my answers to questions
1-8 were deselected.

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corin_
I got taken to a page saying:

 _"Thank you for requesting a copy of "Version Control by Example".

"Before your request can be processed, you will need to verify your email
address. You will be receiving an email from us shortly with instructions to
verify your request."_

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kailashbadu
Was that surprising ?

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corin_
Well the person who I replied to said he got no confirmation and the form just
reloaded, so I told him that he should see a confirmation page and showed him
what to expect. Did you not bother reading the comment I was replying to?

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cfn
I submitted twice using different browsers and both times the form came back
empty except for the address. No sign of any error or missing fields. The PDF
will be then.

~~~
ericsink
Apologies to folks having difficulty. Book requests are still coming in, so
the system is definitely operational. We'll be investigating the problems this
morning. For now, my only guess is that it is related to the load, so I
suggest you keep trying.

~~~
pasbesoin
Also, under question 2), one has to double-click the textbox following the
"Other" choice, in order to give the textbox focus and gain a working
insertion point.

You should give the form a good going over. It starts to, erm, not be
confidence inspiring.

Nonetheless, looking forward to having a look. I decided to request a dead-
tree version as sometimes having one at hand allows me to pay attention at
times I otherwise wouldn't.

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bhamnav
Doesn't seem to work, no matter which browser I use. Maybe it doesn't like UK
addresses?

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dspillett
It didn't seem to complain with my (UK) address, and I got the "confirm your
email address" mail through and that link worked fine. This was one or two
hours ago though, so there may be a new bug or the page (or the DB behind it)
may be under sudden load if the link has hit high volume sites like slashdot.

I'd report it to them if I were you, though _please_ make the bug report much
more detailed than "it didn't work"...

~~~
bhamnav
Don't worry, I filed an extensive bug report, like a true-hacker-style.

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dspillett
There is no "hacker style" to filing a good bug report. But I have a bee in my
bonnet about bad ones - I often get the equivalent of dropping a car off at
the garage for repair with just a note that "it makes a noise".

~~~
bhamnav
HAHA!

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superchink
The form seems to be failing to load. Did we break it?

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mrgoldenbrown
firefox on XP here, and I couldn't submit the form either.

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MostAwesomeDude
The author donated an entire box (!) of this book to our students. The book
itself is well-written, which is surprising considering that it appears aimed
at selling people on Veracity. But, to be fair, after comparing Veracity to
Perforce, I am sold on Veracity too. :3

Even if you don't care about enterprisy VCS, this book covers three
established community-based VCSes in a really great way. Get a copy, put it on
your shelf, give it a read.

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raju
Awesome! Just ordered a copy.

