Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!ucbvax!bloom-beacon!ora!tim From: tim@ora.com (Tim O'Reilly) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: docs for lex/yacc Summary: The tale grows in the telling Message-ID: <1991Mar28.160129.16004@ora.com> Date: 28 Mar 91 16:01:29 GMT References: <10321@uwm.edu> <1991Mar19.231319.1323@cbnewse.att.com> <126609@uunet.UU.NET> Distribution: usa Organization: O'Reilly and Associates Inc., Cambridge MA Lines: 34 In article <126609@uunet.UU.NET>, rbj@uunet.UU.NET (Root Boy Jim) writes: > > NO! DON'T BUY THIS. NOT EVEN FROM US. IT'S A PIECE OF SHIT. > > So says Vern Paxson (author of flex) in his ;login: book review. > > To be honest, I haven't looked at the book myself. But I > have never read such a bad review in my entire life, and I am > surprised that ORA would put out such trash. If you haven't read the book yourself, please don't repeat what other people say about it, or at least use their own words, rather than magnifying them as you did. The book does have its problems, which we unfortunately didn't uncover until too late, but we've also had enough positive feedback from people whom it has helped that we've decided to leave it out there while it is undergoing substantial revision. Most of the minor errors that Vern cited have already been fixed in the current printing; the major flaws in the approach take more time. I will point out that I have read such a bad review before! A review in ;login trashed Managing UUCP a couple of months before UUNET started handing it out to new customers. The book has gone on to help many thousands of people, and is the one source that people tend to point to for help with UUCP. As far as I'm concerned, you can always trust the technical competence, but not always the judgement of what is useful to other people, of the reviewers who write for ;login. -- Tim O'Reilly @ O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. Publishers of Nutshell Handbooks 632 Petaluma Avenue, Sebastopol, CA 95472 707-829-8512, 800-338-6887 (in CA 800-533-6887), FAX 707-829-0104 Internet: tim@ora.com UUCP: uunet!ora!tim