Technical proofreaders are a vital part of the book-publishing process. They read the final manuscript for technical accuracy and test all the code shortly before the book goes to typesetting.
A good proofreader will find and help correct all technical errors. A really good one will pick up incorrect implications and unhelpful nuances. A great technical proofreader will provide guidance in terms of style as well as content, helping to hone the manuscript and the author’s point of view. In Eric Lippert we found such a person. As a member of the C# team, we knew from the start that he would provide accurate information—but he was also able to give Jon’s excellent manuscript an extra layer of polish.
We always ask our technical proofreaders for feedback once they’ve completed the review, and for this book we wanted to share some of those comments with you:
This is a gem of a book, both in its details and its overall organization. Every bit of jargon from the specification is used correctly and in context; when Jon needs new terms he makes up good ones...
Where it needs to be simple it is simple, but never simplistic. The majority of my comments were not corrections; rather, they expanded on the history behind a particular design decision, giving ideas for further explorations, and so on.
Jon takes a sensible approach to presenting complex material. The book begins with an “ontogenic” approach, describing the evolution of the language over time. In the section on C#3, he switches to a more “constructivist” approach, describing how we built more complex features (such as query comprehensions) out of more basic features (such as extension methods and lambda expressions).
This choice of book organization is particularly well-suited to high-end users, like Jon himself, who are primarily looking to use the language, but who can do so better when they understand the parts from which it was built...
If I had time to write another book, this is the kind of book I would hope to write. Now I don’t have to, and thank goodness for that!
To see more comments and margin notes made by Eric during the technical review process, as well as responses from Jon, please visit the book’s web page at www.manning.com/CSharpInDepth or www.csharpindepth.com/Notes.aspx.