a better analogy for the warranty discussion?

[Dick Dunn]

jgd at Dixie.Com (John G. DeArmond) writes:
> rcd at ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) writes:
> >...You might use books rather than cars to answer these two analogy
> >breakdowns...
...
> I don't totally agree with the commercial analogy to a book but I'd like to 
> point out that technical books DO obsolete about as fast as software.  I just
> bought the second edition of Comer (TCP/IP) for that very reason.  I bought
> it for the same reason that I upgrade some software, namely, to get new
> features - in this case, new protocol information that has evolved since
> the last writing.

Let me toss out a couple of examples with "book" upgrades.  Both have to do
with PostScript books.

First, there's the new reference manual.  If you've been running with the
old "red book", and you're doing serious PostScript, you need the new ref.
manual.  It's something like 2.5-3 x the size of the old one.  It's got all
of the new operators, more detail on how things work, more information...
all 'round a good deal--and not much more expensive than the old one.  It's
a great deal, and after getting several years' use out of the old red book,
you'd be hard-put to complain about buying the new one.

But on the other hand, there's a revised version of the Type 1 font book
(the "black and white" book).  This is a rather slender manual; it's ex-
pensive compared to its size (presumably because it's pretty esoteric and
not likely to sell very many copies).  The original had been out less than
a year when the revision came along.  Is the revision necessary?  For me,
yes, because there are (said to be) significant corrections.  But it gripes
me that I have to buy an entire new copy (a "new release") because there
were "bugs" in the first release.  The concept of "money back guarantee" or
"free upgrade" doesn't even begin to apply here, nor do I expect it to.

With software (and unlike books or cars), at least an "upgrade" is
possible.
-- 
Dick Dunn     rcd at ico.isc.com -or- ico!rcd       Boulder, CO   (303)449-2870
   ...Relax...don't worry...have a homebrew.