Perl Self-Study

Janina Sajka janina at afb.net
Thu Oct 4 12:01:58 EDT 2001


Keith, thanks for reminding us of O'Reilly's excellent support for blind 
readers 
of their books. They really are exemplary.

Since we're on the subject, let me just add a little of my opinion re the 
relative merits of what we can get from O'Reilly.

ASCII is the old reliable that we've known and used for years. It has its 
limitations, of course, and I am sure I needn't belabor them here.

I consider HTML the next step up from ASCII because hyperlinks are 
valuable, and HTML files usually support navigation much better--movement 
from chapter to chapter, etc.

The O'Reilly Safari service goes one better still, and I think it's worth 
exploring for that reason. Not only can you get the contents of books up 
on screen right away, you can also search, using Boulian operators across 
several titles and have the service autogenerate a special presentation 
based on the hits you get.  I think this is a step beyond that could be 
very helpful--especially since it seems to be fully accessible.

On top of it all, O'Reilly is stepping out and offering this service 
without gobs of encryption and all kinds of restrictions technical and 
social--like some other publishers we know of. That's exemploray too, in 
my view, and it deserves notice and praise. And, it sure gets my support. 
Actually makes me feel good about spending a little cash with O'Reilly.


On Thu, 4 Oct 2001, Watson, Keith wrote:

> Janina, (and Amanda, and all)
> 
> Some of you are aware of this, some of you are not. O'Reilly has a program
> called "Books for the Blind". They offer any of their publications to us in
> text format. All you have to do is provide a doctors note certifying that
> you are visually impared/blind and they will provide you any book you want
> via ftp. For more information contact:
> 
> Lenny Mueliner
> 617-499-7440
> len at oreilly.com (may have changed to len at ora.com, not sure)
> 
> Keith
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Janina Sajka [mailto:janina at afb.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2001 9:55 PM
> To: speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> Subject: Re: Perl Self-Study
> 
> 
> Hi, Amanda:
> 
> Get the Perl books from O'Reilly. They're perfect and you can get them on 
> CD ROM in html files from 
> 
> 	http://linux.oreilly.com
> 
> You might also want to try the O'Reilly Safari service. It's a monthly 
> subscription service where you get to keep up to a set number of books 
> available for a particular fee. So much money for 5 books, so much for 10 
> books, etc. And, you get to change your list of books every month. Very 
> cool. Check this out at:
> 
> 	http://safari.oreilly.com
> 
>  On Wed, 3 Oct 2001, Amanda Lee wrote:
> 
> > On the subject of Perl, if anyone has recommendations of soft
> > copy/electronic (etext) resources for teaching oneslf Perl and/or
> > Cornshell, please write me off list.
> > 
> > Thanks!  -  Amanda Lee
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> > 
> 
> 

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina at afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org

Will electronic books surpass print books? Read our white paper,
Surpassing Gutenberg, at http://www.afb.org/ebook.asp

Download a free sample Digital Talking Book edition of Martin Luther
King Jr's inspiring "I Have A Dream" speech at
http://www.afb.org/mlkweb.asp

Learn how to make accessible software at
http://www.afb.org/accessapp.asp





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