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From: lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Re: Perl Reference Manual
Message-ID: <9038@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
Date: 7 Aug 90 00:20:42 GMT
References: <1990Aug2.103054@czar.Princeton.EDU> <1990Aug2.182625.28021@iwarp.intel.com> <1990Aug5.115930.10276@pegasus.com> <2311@polari.UUCP> <1990Aug6.170217.20065@iwarp.intel.com> <5611@muffin.cme.nist.gov>
Reply-To: lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Lines: 23

In article <5611@muffin.cme.nist.gov> libes@cme.nist.gov (Don Libes) writes:
: Anyway, I resent these "advertisements" which are clearly only for
: profit.  (Well, one is ok, but to see this commercial so frequently is
: annoying - even more so because the product doesn't exist yet.)

Actually, we just "advertise" to keep up our enthusiasm for writing.
If we get other people excited then we have to stay excited too...  :-)

Mind you, it wouldn't BOTHER me if it sold 200,000 copies the first year,
but I 'ave me doubts about that.

Actually, though, I don't much consider the "advertising" in comp.lang.perl
to be commercial activity.  It's pretty much preaching to the converted.
In fact, the more you've read comp.lang.perl, the less likely you are
to need the book in the first place.  Most of the "advertising" is more
like a status report to the SA's who keep getting asked "Is there
a book describing this thing you keep pushing?  When's it coming out?"

And a little bit of it is just our excitement tinging what we say.

And I'm sure a little of it is just plain old-fashioned bragging...  :-)

Larry