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O'Reilly Gives Away Free Programming Ebooks (oreilly.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the digital-documents dept.

An anonymous Slashdot reader writes: There's now a section on OReilly.com offering free ebooks about computer programming. There's four free Java ebooks and seven about Python, as well as an "Other" section which contains ebooks like C++ Today, Swift Pocket Reference, and Why Rust? But there's also some broader categories for Open Source and Software Architecture ebooks, as well as separate sections for their free ebooks about Data, Security, Web Development, and the Internet of Things.

4 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. URLs by Ann+Coulter · · Score: 5, Informative

    Just do these regex replacements on the URLs:
    curl 'http://www.oreilly.com/programming/free/' | grep '\.csp' | sed 's/^.*href="//' | sed 's/free\/\(.*\).csp">/free\/\1.pdf/'

    http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program... http://www.oreilly.com/program...

    1. Re:URLs by NotInHere · · Score: 5, Informative

      Seems above command doesn't download all files. This one does:

      curl 'http://www.oreilly.com/programming/free/' | grep '\.csp' | sed 's/^.*href="//' | sed 's/free\/\(.*\).csp.*">/free\/files\/\1.pdf/' | tr -d '\r' | xargs wget

      Usual disclaimers apply, ask your lawyer before doing this kind of stuff, etc etc.

  2. Re:Surprised they didn't do this sooner by myid · · Score: 3, Informative

    As far as I know, O'Reilly hasn't given away many free books. (Maybe they're changing that now.) But they've sold ebooks at a 50% discount.

    You can request to be put on their email list. Then most days, you'll get an email that tells you that one or more books are on sale for 50% off for one day.

    Also 3 or 4 times a year, they email you, telling you that for a few days, all ebooks, or all ebooks on a particular subject, are on sale for 50%. If I want to get an ebook, but I'm in no hurry to get it, I wait for those sales to get it.

    When you get a book on sale this way, you have to type in the discount code that's mentioned in their email.

  3. Re:Who needs books? by g01d4 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I find online resources are best when you're staring at code on a monitor looking for specifics. Books are best when you're offline, browsing information you might not otherwise search for.