Re: Book REview

[sxc@itd.dsto.gov.au]

In article <3190CEC1.5799@io.com>, Dave Jones  <davedave@io.com> wrote:
>Personally, I think that it is wise to make a textbook culturally specific.  
>The use of culturally specific examples helps to hold student attention and 
>makes for a superior textbook.  

That is a matter of opinion ... 

Outside of the USA, I'd expect culturally non-specific examples to be
marginally more interesting to CS1 students ... and substantially less
grating!  

If I had been an American undergraduate, I might be irritated by the
suggestion that my attention span was so short that I needed to be
pandered to with culturally specific examples.  As an Australian
undergraduate, I certainly would have been!

>Perhaps, Mr. O'Keefe should contact 
>Addison-Wesley about creating an Australian edition.  For that matter, I 
>would think that the Australians are perfectly capable of writing their 
>own textbook.

Richard is not stupid.  He knows that it would be a waste of time.
And you should realise this too ... given your next paragraph.

>Mr. O'Keefe also needs to realize the economics of the situation.  Australia 
>has a tiny population (about 18 million) and a trivial GDP (about US$340 
>billion).

Gee thanks ... it's >>so<< nice to have a non-Australian imply that my 
country is trivial!
 
>It would be very very unwise for Addison-Wesley to risk a position in the US 
>market in order to increase their position in the Australian market.  I 
>would not expect there to be any changes in the book until people in larger 
>countries start complaining.

While the market for Australianised Ada books is obviously tiny, the
market for Internationalised Ada books is huge.  Australia, Canada,
India, New Zealand, South Africa, UK, much of continental Europe,
South East Asia, Africa, etc.

BTW: I think Richard should keep quiet about teaching Australian
students to write internationalised software.  How is the Australian
software industry going to maintain it's edge if we broadcast our
trade secrets?

:-) :-)

-- Steve