[Lazarus] English lazarus book available.

Hans-Peter Diettrich DrDiettrich1 at aol.com
Tue May 31 21:10:56 CEST 2011


michael.vancanneyt at wisa.be schrieb:

>>> The main argument contra - as I recall it - was that PDFs can be 
>>> illegally
>>> copied, and this was used to wipe away all the possible advantages.
>>
>> That's true only for people that make their living from writing and 
>> selling books. When a program/project is available for free, why 
>> shouldn't the documentation come for free as well? There is no real 
>> need that the book writers should earn money, while the coders should 
>> not.
> 
> Publishing a book costs money. Be it in PDF or printed.

I don't see such costs. Webspace is needed for the documentation as well 
as for the project itself, and an advertisement can be put into the 
project's homepage.

Selling copies is more complicated, but not a real cost factor.


> The editor makes his/her living from publishing books. It is her initiative
> to publish this. The book is not the documentation of Lazarus.

I don't see a need for publishers nowadays, when everything can be done 
over the web. In former times publishing was expensive, and required 
more expertise, machinery, infrastructure, connections and management 
than nowadays. What remains is readily offered by companies, which 
handle the storage, advertising and payments for binaries, like programs 
or eBooks. They only ask for a percentage for every sale, so that the 
income is diminuished, but other (lost) investments are not required.

> As an analogy:
> PHP is free. The documentation of PHP is free. But there exist many 
> books about PHP. You must pay for these books.

This is why I thought about selling documentation on FPC/Lazarus, as 
kind of an service. There is nothing bad or unethic about selling 
services, which fill the gap between a "naked" project and its users. 
The real advantages, offered by such an service, determine how much a 
user is willing to pay for it.

DoDi





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