Should Eiffel books be free?

[Hank Lenzi]

Hello - 

Sorry, guys, I don't mean to be a provocateur or anything, but, just looking at the Smalltalk community, as you probably know, there's been a sort of rebirth with Pharo Smalltlak, and one of the thing they did was free all the out-of-print books for downloading. Have you seen that? From my personal POV it's fine, I've ordered all that I could lay my credit card hands on -  I've been on the hunt for old Eiffel books. There's books on Design Patterns, Design by Contract, etc, that know one knows about!  The few that bought them way back when are probably skillful Eiffel programmers by now. But, you know, what if there's people out there who don't have the resources? These books are not selling much anyhow, and maybe there's newcomers who want to read them...With the GPLed version, on so many platforms, why NOT use Eiffel? And then, when you're ready, maybe it's time to buy the proprietary license (it's quite affordable - I asked). All in all, it seems to me to be a win-win situation, if old titles were to be made available. To increase Eiffel mindshare, you know?

Just an idea, don't want to start an incendiary thread, but I look at the Smalltalk community and I think they did they right thing. Just a thought. Please, I don't mean to offend anyone out there or come across as someone as giving Moral High Ground lessons on what one should or should not do. I'm thinking about "why don't more people program in Eiffel", that's all, and I'm thinking that maybe it's got something to do with lack of access to good and diverse learning material. "The more, the better", that's all. If you still get royalties, PLEASE, keep on keepin' on!

Cheers, 

--- Hank 

[Finnian Reilly]

I've been on the hunt for old Eiffel books. There's books on Design Patterns, Design by Contract, etc, that know one knows about!  The few that bought them way back when are probably skillful Eiffel programmers by now.

 

Hi Hank,

It's good that you mention this. I have a number of Eiffel books I am not using, some of which were passed onto me by other Eiffel programmers. I have attached photos of the back covers. If anyone wants them, they can send me the cost of the postage on Paypal and I will mail them.

1. Eiffel the Language (Meyer)
   
2. Reusable Software, the base object-orientated component libraries (Meyer)
3. Object-orientated programming in Eiffel, second edition (Thomas & Weedon)
4. Seamless Object-Orientated Software Architecture: Analysis and design of reliable systems (Kim Walden, Jean-Marc Nerson)
   

regards

Finnian