[CMake] 4th Edition CMake book now in stock

[Brandon Van Every]

On Feb 5, 2008 4:28 PM, Alan W. Irwin <irwin at beluga.phys.uvic.ca> wrote:
>
> I looked at that site, and there was no mention of an electronic (PDF)
> version.  I far prefer that format since it is friendlier to trees, takes up
> no space in my office, is much easier to search, and I can adjust the size
> of the text when my eyes get tired.

Here's to dead trees!  They rest my eyes, they carry to any physical
location I wish.  Truth be told, I'm not interested in the book as a
reference, but rather to see what to recommend to CMake newbies.

> If you are concerned with short-term money rather than long-term promotion
> of CMake and the potential money that might come from that, then you will
> probably want to distribute an electronic version of your book with reduced
> user freedom. I think such a restricted version would be acceptable so long
> as at minimum the user was free to make backup copies for their own use.

My opinion is that Kitware doesn't need to provide the entire book in
an easily pirated medium.  I do think they need to freely give away
enough documentation to serve as a basic language syntax and command
reference.  I have filed http://cmake.org/Bug/view.php?id=6295 on this
issue.  A CMake newbie needs enough free documentation to become an
intermediate user.  After that, they can choose to RTFM, grep sources,
read mailing list archives, or buy books.  I don't think they need to
get everything that anyone would ever write about CMake for free.


Cheers,
Brandon Van Every