I welcomed Hugh Kenner's Commentary in the November issue. Books are often hard to read on CDs. I also find it annoying that I can't scribble notes in the margins and that CD-ROM publishers often fail to include page numbers or complete bibliographic information. This makes academic citation all but impossible.
On the other hand, cutting and pasting makes quoting large tracks a breeze, and the low cost of CDs is a boon to students like myself.
Wade Riddick
Austin, TX
I was appalled by Kenner's claim that "most books are better left on paper" (than put on CD-ROM). Is the day far off when the cost of a library on CD is less than a comparable one in text? That day is here for subscribers to periodically updated professional libraries in law and medicine. The issue for "the future" is not printed versus electronic books, but locally stored (CD-like) versus transmitted
(superhighway) books. I have some nice slide-rule company stock for naysayers.
R. I. Feigenblatt
Arden, NC
Flexible C++
Matthew Wilson
My approach to software engineering is far more pragmatic than it
is
theoretical--and no language better exemplifies this than C++.
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Books on CD
