safari

[David Mertz]

|> yes Safari seems ok , you get a few days for free to browse but it's
|> not totally free.I think the electronic version should be free.Some

|safari is only free for two weeks; then, if you like the service it
|gives you, you can choose to continue a (paid) subscription.

FWIW, my book, _Text Processing in Python_ (http://gnosis.cx/TPiP) is,
has been, and will remain freely accessible in electronic form for all
readers--even those who have not paid for anything.  I really buy into
the "information wants to be free" schtick.

That said, the book is also copyrighted by Addison Wesley; so my
principles are limited by their discretion.  For example, I wanted to
make a PDF version of my book available, but only to buyers of the
dead-tree version.  Well, without AW to consider, I might have wanted to
do so on an unlimited basis, but I thought that was a compromise.  I
even had in mind a little system for using a "What's the first word on
page NNN?" quiz to authorize downloads.

Sadly, AW strongly pooh-pooh'd this idea.  I think they're wrong, but
they think leaking a PDF would kill international sales.  Obviously,
there -is- a point that testing readers of the original download doesn't
really prevent redistribution of the file.  But IMO, the so-called
"pirates" wouldn't be likely buyers anyway.

Ah well... personally, I like the ASCII version better for electronic
access than I would a PDF (well, it's -do- actually...  I myself have
the PDF perfectly available on my computer :-)).  When I want to remind
myself of a some function arguments or the like, grep does a really
quick job of reminding me about what I took the effort to research
during writing (of course the standard documentation is likewise useful,
but sometimes I like my own phrasing better...  I wrote it, after all
*wink*).

Yours, David...

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