Saying goodbye to one Dave at PragProg, and welcoming back another!

I would definitely echo all of the above!

@Dave is such a genuine, thoughtful and smart person so I’ll genuinely be sorry to see him go. But I know he will be moving on to something equally special so I’m super excited for him in that regard! Please keep in touch Dave, and thank you not only for being a friend and a supporter of Devtalk, but for being such an all round lovely human being too- the world definitely needs more people like you in it! :orange_heart:


And for Dave Thomas…

Welcome back @PragDave!

I can imagine you’re buzzing with ideas and I’m sure I’m not the only one who can’t wait to see where you’ll be taking PragProg. Dave Rankin (and @Andy before him), Margaret, Erica, Pat, Janet, and all your editors and authors (and the Gerbils!) have been doing a wonderful job in your absence and I’m sure they’re equally excited about what the future holds. Good luck in this new chapter and please don’t hesitate to let us know if you need our help with anything :blush:

In terms of feedback and wishlists I’d say one of the things I love most about PragProg books is the quality of your material - in an age where there is information overload and we’re bombarded with so many options I really appreciate how your books have always been reliable ways to learn and keep up to date on dev topics. Please don’t change this.

Another thing I’ve grown to appreciate is how many of your books now factor readers of tablets and e-devices like Kindles. I wrote more about this in my review of Programming Ecto but it’s small things like code blocks being repeated immediately before or after being spoken about so you’re not having to flick through lots of pages (which is a bit of a pain in Kindles, less so on iPads) that makes a big difference for those using those devices.

Not sure if this one is possible, but it would be awesome if there was a way to carry through highlights and bookmarks to new editions if possible. These days I read my books using the Apple Books app because I love how any highlights or notes I make automatically sync to all my devices, it would be even more awesome if they could be imported into newer versions of books as often books in beta will get several releases by the time you are finished reading them,

Another thing I have wondered is whether you have thought about researching new ways of teaching with modern life in mind. I’ve read a number of times that people now (especially younger people) have significantly shorter attention spans due to the way our minds have been moulded by modern social media/internet use, and I’ve wondered how this might have impacted book readers. Must admit I do find it harder to get through a book myself now - I find it takes a lot more discipline and technique to get a good reading session in (I use techniques such as clearing my mind through meditation before reading). I think a survey of customers past and present, asking how reading habits have changed could be very insightful to you, which in turn could result into something that could help make your books more accessible to those of us with our ‘modern’ minds. Genuinely curious to hear whether anyone else or anyone on the PragProg team have thought about this!

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