I don't know about other stores (like the Microsoft Press store), but Code is DRM-free on InformIT, in Epub, PDF, and MOBI-- I actually don't think they sell any DRMed eBooks (they personalize and watermark each copy to discourage sharing, but are otherwise unprotected).

The PDF I got from the Microsoft Press Store was watermarked but DRM free.

Thank you! Looks like I'll be buying a second copy :)

This is a really interesting area to explore - thanks for suggesting it! I think that there are quite a few authors who have shown that there is a market for the book as well as for an open source "edition" of the book. My favorite from the past was Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing [1] and perhaps more recent is the very complimentary NAND To Tetris [2]

I would imagine that the hard part is dealing with the publisher and getting them on board with it as well. Added to my list!

[1] https://philip.greenspun.com/panda/

[2] https://www.nand2tetris.org/

My favorite is SICP.

https://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/sicp/full-text/... https://web.mit.edu/6.001/6.037/sicp.pdf

It's worth noting the book comes up on most top-10 CS books and sells exceptionally well. It's been translated into countless languages.

Convincing MIT Press was apparently hard the first time, but after the book sold like hotcakes, future books were easy.

https://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/content/...

Thanks for that example. I had no idea that SICP was now available for free on the web! Do you remember where you heard the story about convincing MIT Press and the outcome? I took a look but couldn't find it.

That might come in handy if this winds up going somewhere.

It's been available for a long time. You can contact the author for the full story. The phone number and office are listed here:

https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/gjs/

Not everything is web-based. :)

I can guarantee the author will not be offended with either a phone call or by someone dropping by. On the other hand, he's less often in the office post-COVID, so it might take a few tries.

Hal probably knows the story better, but he's a bit less drop-in-able. Jerry is super-friendly. (Hal is friendly too, but more random contacts go to /dev/null)

Thanks!

Dropping by would be harder to do, but a dream interview would be to put him in a room with Guido van Rossum to talk about Python and SICP.

I now need to get over my irrational fear of cold calling someone I don't know already (heck, I don't even do that with people that I do know - it's always "what's a good time to call"?)

Jerry and Guido? I think the conversation might be less interesting than you might hope for. SICP is 1984, almost four decades ago now.

If you wanted to talk about robust programming, quantum gravity, differential geometry, education, or a slew of other topics....

As a footnote, I love Python, but someone like Jerry outclasses Guido intellectually. Guido really only did one thing, which is Python. Jerry has done dozens of things.

It's a great thing that Guido has managed to do that one thing - the world would be poorer without it. It's also a great thing that Jerry has done dozens of things - the world would be poorer without them. I see those accomplishments as complementary.

I think you misunderstand my motivations for putting the two of them in the same room. If there's one thing that I've learned over my years in this world, it's that the magic happens between people, not within any one person's mind. There are three "people" in my scenario - Guido, Jerry, and the audience. Somewhere in that conversation, an idea might be sparked.

... well, it has to be the right people. Perhaps it's worth a try, but I'm not sure there would be a spark like that.

If you put Isaac Newton in the same room as George Washington, it'd be two brilliant people, but I'm not sure they'd have much to talk about. They think about different problems.

What might be interesting, come to think of it, would be a Chat Roulette, but populated with these sorts of folks.

I understand what you're trying to go for, but you're treating people like the equivalent of a particle accelerator hoping that by smashing them together at sufficient velocity... that something will come of it.

In practice I find this rarely to be the case unless you as the facilitator are also commensurately cognitively capable (say that three times fast), otherwise you're sort of placing an excessively undue amount of pressure on them.

Also available at https://github.com/sarabander/sicp