(\_ -> Phil Varner)

The ever-observant Pro JavaFX Platform. So far, the content of the book is very good. The problem I have is with it's packaging.

The main reasons to buy ebooks (e.g., PDF) over dead-tree books are that you can keyword search them and cut-and-paste the code examples. However, Apress (a subsidiary of Springer-Verlag) has decided to disable this. Most of the text can be cut-and-pasted, but the code samples cannot. None of the text is searchable.

When I contacted Apress about this, I got this courteous but useless response:

Hi Phil,

Thanks for contacting Apress Customer Support.

We're sorry about the inconvenience when trying to cut and paste code samples. One way around this though is to use the snapshot tool in Adobe Acrobat.

Using the snapshot tool, simply drag the tool around the area of code you want to cut and paste and take a snapshot and then you'll be able to past that code into word as an image.

Please contact us if you have questions concerning any of our other books.

Thanks,
Apress Customer Support

Since NetBeans has the new "paste an image to text feature", this is great (sarcasm). The decision to publish their books with these restrictions (including password protection) was an intentional one, so there should be some explicit policy on why this is that their customer support reps can refer to — otherwise they're stuck making useless recommendations like the above and discouraging customers from buying Apress ebooks in the future. But, it's probably not very appealing for them to explictly say "we don't trust our customers, so we've decided to annoy the honest ones."

I have a few Pragmatic Press books, which do allow full searching and cut and paste. Their model of ebook publishing is that they trust their customers and simply generate a PDF for you that has your name and email on each page. Totally non-intrusive to honest users, and enough to discourage marginally dishonest ones. A much better model, and one I hope Apress will soon adopt.

The other day, I had an NLS bug to respond to, and realized I didn't know how numbers were formatted for any locales other than English and French. Quick, to the JVM:

ar    3,141.59
   ar_AE    3,141.59
   ar_BH    3,141.59
   ar_DZ    3,141.59
   ar_EG    3,141.59
   ar_IQ    3,141.59
   ar_JO    3,141.59
   ar_KW    3,141.59
   ar_LB    3,141.59
   ar_LY    3,141.59
   ar_MA    3,141.59
   ar_OM    3,141.59
   ar_QA    3,141.59
   ar_SA    3,141.59
   ar_SD    3,141.59
   ar_SY    3,141.59
   ar_TN    3,141.59
   ar_YE    3,141.59
be    3 141,59
   be_BY    3 141,59
bg    3 141,59
   bg_BG    3 141,59
ca    3.141,59
   ca_ES    3.141,59
cs    3 141,59
   cs_CZ    3 141,59
da    3.141,59
   da_DK    3.141,59
de    3.141,59
   de_AT    3.141,59
   de_CH    3'141.59
   de_DE    3.141,59
   de_LU    3.141,59
el    3.141,59
   el_CY    3.141,59
   el_GR    3.141,59
en    3,141.59
   en_AU    3,141.59
   en_CA    3,141.59
   en_GB    3,141.59
   en_IE    3,141.59
   en_IN    3,141.59
   en_MT    3,141.59
   en_NZ    3,141.59
   en_PH    3,141.59
   en_SG    3,141.59
   en_US    3,141.59
   en_ZA    3,141.59
es    3.141,59
   es_AR    3.141,59
   es_BO    3.141,59
   es_CL    3.141,59
   es_CO    3.141,59
   es_CR    3,141.59
   es_DO    3,141.59
   es_EC    3.141,59
   es_ES    3.141,59
   es_GT    3,141.59
   es_HN    3,141.59
   es_MX    3,141.59
   es_NI    3,141.59
   es_PA    3,141.59
   es_PE    3.141,59
   es_PR    3,141.59
   es_PY    3.141,59
   es_SV    3,141.59
   es_US    3,141.59
   es_UY    3.141,59
   es_VE    3.141,59
et    3 141,59
   et_EE    3 141,59
fi    3 141,59
   fi_FI    3 141,59
fr    3 141,59
   fr_BE    3.141,59
   fr_CA    3 141,59
   fr_CH    3'141.59
   fr_FR    3 141,59
   fr_LU    3 141,59
ga    3,141.59
   ga_IE    3,141.59
   hi_IN    ?,???.??
hr    3.141,59
   hr_HR    3.141,59
hu    3 141,59
   hu_HU    3 141,59
in    3.141,59
   in_ID    3.141,59
is    3.141,59
   is_IS    3.141,59
it    3.141,59
   it_CH    3'141.59
   it_IT    3.141,59
iw    3,141.59
   iw_IL    3,141.59
ja    3,141.59
   ja_JP    3,141.59
   ja_JP_JP    3,141.59
ko    3,141.59
   ko_KR    3,141.59
lt    3 141,59
   lt_LT    3 141,59
lv    3 141,59
   lv_LV    3 141,59
mk    3.141,59
   mk_MK    3.141,59
ms    3,141.59
   ms_MY    3,141.59
mt    3,141.59
   mt_MT    3,141.59
nl    3.141,59
   nl_BE    3.141,59
   nl_NL    3.141,59
no    3 141,59
   no_NO    3 141,59
   no_NO_NY    3 141,59
pl    3 141,59
   pl_PL    3 141,59
pt    3.141,59
   pt_BR    3.141,59
   pt_PT    3.141,59
ro    3.141,59
   ro_RO    3.141,59
ru    3 141,59
   ru_RU    3 141,59
sk    3 141,59
   sk_SK    3 141,59
sl    3.141,59
   sl_SI    3.141,59
sq    3.141,59
   sq_AL    3.141,59
sr    3.141,59
   sr_BA    3.141,59
   sr_CS    3.141,59
   sr_ME    3.141,59
   sr_RS    3.141,59
sv    3 141,59
   sv_SE    3 141,59
th    3,141.59
   th_TH    3,141.59
   th_TH_TH    ?,???.??
tr    3.141,59
   tr_TR    3.141,59
uk    3.141,59
   uk_UA    3.141,59
vi    3.141,59
   vi_VN    3.141,59
zh    3,141.59
   zh_CN    3,141.59
   zh_HK    3,141.59
   zh_SG    3,141.59
   zh_TW    3,141.59

Code for generating it:

import java.text.NumberFormat;
import java.util.Locale;
import java.util.Set;
import java.util.TreeSet;

public class Class1 {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
       Set list = new TreeSet();
       for (Locale locale : Locale.getAvailableLocales())
           list.add(locale + "\t" + NumberFormat.getInstance(locale).format(3141.59));
       for (String s : list) {
           if (s.contains("_")) System.out.println("\t" + s);
           else System.out.println(s);
       }
   }
}