Hi, Charles,

I am a big fan of eBooks, especially for technical books which usually go stale and need an update every 6 months or so.  I have both a Kindle 2 and an iPad, and while I can’t say that either of them is perfect, they are both useful in different scenarios.

The Kindle 2 is often frustrating for books with lots of code.   When dealing with code samples, there are usually two approaches in a flowed eReader, and neither is ideal.   First, you can take a snapshot of perfectly formatted text.   This works well on a larger screen like the iPad or Kindle DX, but even with glasses the type is too small on a device the size of the Kindle 2 or Sony eReader.   The other approach is to allow the code to flow like the text, but use a different font.   While this works better on a smaller device, it means that the formatting is lost and meaningful indentions are no longer meaningful.

The Art of Unit Testing took the snapshot approach, so I had to read it on my iPad to make sense of the code samples.   I took advantage of the offer below and can report that the Entity Framework, 2^nd Ed. uses the more legible, but still sometimes frustrating text flow approach.   It still uses snapshots for images of the model and table designers, but I was able to make out the text on these images on the Kindle 2.   There also seems to be a lot more text than code in few pages that I’ve skimmed of the EF, 2^nd ed. book, so maybe it matters less than other books anyway.

The iPad often works better for technical books mainly due to its larger size.   The screen is clear enough to read, whether it is the iBook, Kindle, or one of the PDF reader apps.   I scoffed a bit when I heard people say that the LCD screen would create more eyestrain, after all I stare at an LCD all day already, right?  However, after using both and even switching off on some books, I will attest that eInk is noticeably easier on the eyes, which you are probably more likely to notice after staring at an LCD all day.   It isn’t enough strain to avoid using it, but for plain text (not code) I definitely prefer eInk.

I have considered the Kindle DX, but at some point you have to draw the line on the number of devices you’re willing to carry through the security line, so for now it would require a significant difference for me to justify replacing one of the devices.   If you want an eReader and can only afford one, I would probably recommend the DX for any developer.

I’m sharing this a bit more broadly since I think that my experience might be of interest to others looking to take advantage of eBooks.  My apologies if it is spam to some of you.

Erik Wynne Stepp | http://meetup.com/silverlight

From: [address removed] [mailto:[address removed]] On Behalf Of Charles Albert
Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2010 9:37 AM
To: [address removed]
Subject: RE: [nyaltnet] Offer: Programming Entity Framework, 2nd Ed. for $10.00

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