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Subject:
From:
Michael Feldman <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Michael Feldman <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 20 Apr 2000 19:04:25 -0400
Content-Type:
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text/plain (43 lines)
[asked Frank]

> John,
>
> > Like Mike's my publisher also make solutions to all exercises available to
> > instructors.  I also include the solutions in the back of the book to
> about
> > one third of the 560 exercises.
>
> What about the rest of us who are NOT instructors and are also
> NOT students?  It would be nice to have access to the solutions
> to compare against our idea of the implementation, etc.
>
> Frank
>
Here we authors have an obvious dilemma: how do we choose among
the various people we'd release solutions to? Do we make you swear
on a stack of Bibles that you won't ever post them on the net or
otherwise put them into students' hands?

John's textbook, and mine, are designed for college use. We authors are
certainly happy that others enjoy reading the books, but their main
purpose is not so-called "trade books", they are college texts and
marketed as such, and college courses are our main audience. Occasionally,
industrial or military training courses pick up the books as well,
but of course their instructors can gain access to the solutions.

(Aside: industrial courses tend to be more oriented to practitioners
needing to learn Ada; a book aimed at college freshmen or sophomres
would not usually be very interesting to them. Too much repetition
of basic programming concepts, too little Ada.)

An author like me or John would be seriously undercutting our own
ability to influence education - not to mention our primary market -
if we allowed solutions to circulate freely. We would seriously
damage instructors' ability to assign our programming projects
to classes.

Both he and I include, in the book, solutions to some of the exercises
- John more than I - but definitely not all of them.

Mike Feldman

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