NullPointerFactory

I was browsing around the tech book section of Barnes & Noble last weekend - just seeing if anything would pique my interest. And something did: a wonderful essay by Martin Fowler demonstrating various internal DSL techniques. The essay was in The ThoughtWorks Anthology. Sadly, though, the essay and I could were not to forge a long and tender computer-side relationship, because the remainder of this almost-$40-volume (at least based on a two-minute flip-through) seemed like the typical holier-than-thou “always test” and “use CI” preachery that seemingly hangs off the tip of every other ThoughtWorker’s tongue.

Having bought two other anthologies under the Pragmatic Programmers brand (the two No Fluff Just Stuff volumes) I’m starting to notice a familiar strategy – distill two or three strong hits, fill the remaining space with fluff, and make people buy the whole thing or nothing at all. That’s right – just like the music industry circa 1995. And we know how that cookie (or business model) crumbles – with middle fingers held high toward the record labels, customers flocked to Napster & friends, and gave the industry a simple ultimatum… either we buy what we want, or we buy nothing. Today, ITunes outsells every other music reseller in the US – thank God the industry listened.

Pragmatic Programmers have the same thing coming to them. If they think the task of finding their books on P2P networks bears even a modicum of difficulty, they should slap themselves silly for their ignorance. Don’t get me wrong – I neither commit nor encourage piracy of any kind. In fact, I’d love nothing more than to pay a few dollars for Fowler’s essay. Will they take my few dollars? Or will they follow the music industry’s late nineties collision course and get nothing?