Date: September 2002
From: Paul S R Chisholm
To: Ask Tim
Subject: Which XP Book? (And the Architecture of an O'Reilly Book Series)
You guys generally do a great job, not only of getting great books out, but of having exactly one great book on a subject. For example: one Perl language reference, one Perl tutorial, one Perl CGI book, one Perl/Tk book. If I know what I need, I know what to get.
But now I'm torn, or confused, or something. Windows XP in a Nutshell came out in April; in May, you published Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual. One's for both Home and Professional, one's just for Home; that difference won't kill me. But which is for whom?
--PSRC, who has yet to find a good XP book smaller or lighter than my laptop.
Paul,
It used to be our goal to have one and only one book on a subject, and we agonized over our first decision to do otherwise when we published Learning Perl as a precursor to Programming Perl. That was back in 1993. Since then, what we've tried to do is make sure that all our books complement each other, such that readers, if they so choose, can buy all of them without feeling they've wasted a lot of money.
And so, if you look at our various series, you'll now see an "architecture," if you will. We like to start with some kind of core book that is complete and authoritative for a technology (e.g., Programming Perl). If the technology is difficult, we may then add a "Learning" book; and if it is large and complex, one or more advanced books. So, as you've noted, we've done specific books on applications of Perl (Perl for System Administration), specific topics in Perl (Mastering Regular Expressions), as well as for various Perl extensions or modules (CGI, Perl/Tk, and so on). We also do "In a Nutshell" books, which are designed to be compact references that collect the pure lookup information that might occupy a whole series of tutorial books. There are some other complementary approaches as well: the Cookbooks (a la the Perl Cookbook, the Java Cookbook, and the Access Cookbook) provide "recipes"--specific problem-solving techniques. And we've been putting out a new series of books called "Essentials" (e.g., .Net Framework Essentials and C# Essentials) that are designed to give "tire kickers" a quick look at a new technology. Our original thinking was that the Essentials book on a subject would be short and let us get quickly to market while it's still early in the technology adoption cycle, and that the material would then migrate into a larger, more comprehensive book. But they've proven so popular that we're keeping them around.
Related Reading: The Value of a Book Series
In the case of Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual and Windows XP in a Nutshell, the water appears to be muddied because Pogue Press is a separate imprint, and isn't as clearly a part of the O'Reilly brand architecture. David Pogue's Missing Manuals are targeted at more of a consumer audience than typical O'Reilly books, which are mostly aimed at computer industry professionals (programmers, system administrators) and power users. Nonetheless, we are doing our best to minimize overlap. David has an incredible way of teaching the ins and outs of a system and turning ordinary users into power users--the kind of people who can then use more advanced O'Reilly books.
Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual is a tutorial book for users (though it can also be used for reference); Windows XP in a Nutshell is a reference book, pure and simple. If you are already very comfortable with Windows and just need a detailed reference on new features in XP, Windows XP in a Nutshell is the book for you. If you want a more gradual introduction, buy the Missing Manual. Then when you're done, buy the In a Nutshell as well, because it contains down and dirty details about every program in Windows XP, as well as more advanced topics such as Windows Script Host, Registry Editing, and so on.
Tim
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