jans@tekgvs.GVS.TEK.COM (Jan Steinman) (09/24/88)
<I have recently started reading "The Waite Group's C++ programming"... Some of the examples are bugged and will never work or even compile... The book is incomplete and... very vague... Why don't authors follow an accepted practice of actually trying to compile their examples before incuding them in the main text?> Because Waite doesn't treat its authors well, and can't attract the best. (This is not meant as an insult to any individual author who may have published through Waite.) He commissioned me to do a chapter. I sent an outline and called several times for advice, but never got any feedback or style guide. ("Read our other books", which I did, was as close as I got to instruction on what was wanted.) I put about 40 hours in three days (took a Friday off from work, even!) into an 8000 word chapter with 6 figures and tables on deadline, and sent it Federal Express. When I still hadn't heard from him two weeks later, I called: "Oh, I'm sorry. It really wasn't at all what we were looking for." BULLSHIT!!! I will never buy a Waite book, and encourage potential Waite authors to proceed with caution! On the other hand, I've found M&T (regardless of their other flaws) to be good to work for, editorially. I got a signed contract, good direction, and was able to have two chapters accepted on first draft. (Waite wouldn't give me a contract. "Too close to deadline!", he said. Poor planning is a better way to put it!) :::::: Software Productivity Technologies -- Experiment Manager Project :::::: :::::: Jan Steinman N7JDB Box 500, MS 50-383 (w)503/627-5881 :::::: :::::: jans@tekcrl.TEK.COM Beaverton, OR 97077 (h)503/657-7703 ::::::