A crucial hook that the system uses to uniquely identify “things” is the URL of their homepage. The logic goes like this: if someone says that a certain thing has a homepage at a certain URL, and someone else says that another thing (which may or may not be the same thing as the first thing) also has a homepage at the same URL, then we can infer that the two things are the same. This is a feature not a bug, and massively increases the ability to link data on the web. However, the issue is that only homepages which uniquely identify specific things should be used in the homepage field.

Unfortunately the DWWS homepage does not distinguish between the first and the second editions, at least it doesn’t provide different URIs/URLs for each. Is there any chance of creating separate pages (or at least separate URLs, whatever you choose to put at the end of them), maybe along the lines of:
http://www.zeldman.com/dwws/1e and http://www.zeldman.com/dwws/2e ? This would seem in keeping with the ethos of your post.

(Of course one could argue that http://www.zeldman.com/dwws/ refers to the abstract work DWWS, and therefore both editions deserve one homepage. However given that there are substantial changes between the two editions, one could also argue they constitute different works…)

Anyway, would be interested to hear what you think, and looking forward to being able to write my review of the (uniquely identified ;) first edition.

Cheers, Tom.

http://www.amazon.de/Webdesign-mit-Webstandards-Grenzenlos-kompatibel/dp/3827324378/sr=8-2/qid=1163654251/ref=sr_1_2/302-6964664-4252825?ie=UTF8&s=books

That was quite a fast translation!

However maybe amazon will take it on board, rather than leave it up to stupid consumers with colour blindness!

Oh don’t know if you remember the whole saga, but needless to say we are both happy and enjoying the book, wink wink, nudge nudge! lol

The second edition is clearly labeled. The first edition isn’t. No first edition ever is. That’s because publishers have no way of knowing if a given book will come out in a second edition one day. It’s like the old joke where the newcomer on the bus asks, “How many stops until Maple Street?” and the helpful longtime resident answers, “Just watch me and get off one stop before I do.”

It would be funny and gutsy to write a book with the words “First Edition” in its title. But that kind of hubris would almost guarantee failure, unless Jon Stewart were the author.

If Amazon (and other online retailers) were to immediately stop selling first editions as soon as they have second editions to sell, it would prevent accidental first-edition purchases from happening. Your friend wouldn’t have bought the first edition if Amazon wasn’t still selling it.

Consumer logic says first editions should stop being sold the moment second editions are available, but business logic dictates otherwise.

Good luck with your book!

The problem could be solved via a checkbox. If the book contains a reasonable amount of new content, the publisher checks the box while submitting the book to Amazon for distribution. (The checkbox could say something like, “This is a substantially revised edition.”)

If the box is checked, then the second edition is treated in the way I’ve suggested here. If it’s not, then Amazon knows the edition is only marginally different from a previous version, and the old comments can linger indefinitely.

In your example, a new edition of Walden might contain a new introductory essay, and perhaps a few corrections to errata in previous editions. These changes wouldn’t invalidate previous comments about the merits of Thoreau’s book. Amazon was probably thinking about that kind of second edition when it set up its multi-edition comment-handling rules.

A really good book that I can and will recommend to anyone involved in web site development.

For what it’s worth – I didn’t order it from Amazon.com but from a smaller tech-book company. A couple of bucks more than Amazon.com’s price but well worth it.

On a side note the first edition is like a bible to me and I seem to have turned into some sort of evangelist concerning DWWS and can’t recommend it enough. Congrats on the second edition.

Part I’s updates have to do with changes in the industry, many of them exciting and positive, a few not so much. If you keep up, you’re probably aware of many of these issues, although you might connect the dots differently from me.

The net is thrown wider, focusing not only on web design and its technological and semantic underpinnings, but also on important emerging ideas and trends that are powered by standards. Awareness of these ideas (ideas that excite your marketing department, let’s say) and their connection to standards may make it easier to sell standards to your colleagues, boss, and clients.

Part II’s changes have to do with “better best practices” that have emerged since DWWS 1e — for instance, a more accessible image replacement technique than Fahrner. Unobtrustive scripting is unobtrusively introduced, and neat-o (but obtrusive) techniques from the first edition are swept into the dustbin. More browser bugs and workarounds are known today, so more are listed and described. The examination of accessibility is updated as well, although most of it remains the same, as the WAI and Section 508 guidelines haven’t officially changed. There’s some discussion of WCAG 2, but if you follow W3C discussions or read A List Apart you’re probably up on it.

If you’re on a tight budget and if you closely follow current web standards discussions and tutorials, you may not need the second edition for yourself.

The question to ask is, if a colleague who is less enlightened than you walks into your office and asks about web standards, do you want to lend him or her an outdated book or an up-to-date one?