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Comment by mhartl | Hacker News Reader

I linked to the free online version because that feels like the more HN thing to do, but there's also an announcement post that includes a 15% launch discount on ebook sales:

http://news.railstutorial.org/learn-enough-git-ebooks/

I'll plan to be around for a bit this afternoon in case anyone has any questions. I've already gotten a lot of great feedback on Learn Enough™ Git to Be Dangerous, so thanks for all the support!

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Wait... The phrase "Learn Enough" is trademarked? Wtf?

They probably use it for all their books. It would be like "for Dummies" being trademarked, which I feel is pretty reasonable

I've often checked things in USPTO's search system (TESS) to see if they're trademarked before I use them, and this isn't coming up for me. Anyone got any insight(?), as if it is trademarked, all my other searches over the years have been similarly inaccurate and pointless :-D

What you're seeing is the difference between trademarks™ and registered trademarks®. The USPTO lists the latter but not the former. You don't actually have to register a trademark in order to use it, but it's usually a good idea. Which reminds me: now's probably a good time to drop a line to my lawyer…

Aha! Found more info on this topic at http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/basics/register.jsp if anyone's interested.

™ stands for Trademark Pending

® stands for Registered Trademark

Absolutely anyone can create a term and put ™ after it (even if they never actually go through with the actual registration process).

In the United States at least, ™ doesn't mean "pending" per se — you can use ™ even when you have a registered mark, and marks do not need* to be registered to be valid:

> Is registration of my mark required?

> No. You can establish rights in a mark based on legitimate use of the mark.

http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/basics/register.jsp

*: Some countries operate under a first-to-file system, and unregistered trademarks may be at risk even for US-based businesses that operate internationally.

(I am not a laywer and this is not legal advice.)

Sure. In an ideal-sane-world, it just means they're calling "dibs" on using it as a motto or tagline for instructional material.

Even if they have the trademark it's reasonable. You just can't use it for a product that might be confused with theirs by a reasonable person. Do you can still make ice cream called that way or probably even name your next novel like that. Just no tutorials on the tech area.

It also depends if they have registered the trademark on the principal or supplemental registers. Trademarks which are descriptive in nature (such as this one) often can't get on the primary register (though they may after extensive use that results in the mark acquiring a secondary meaning). If a trademark is registered on the supplemental register it doesn't afford the owner the right to exclusive use of that mark - even for similar products. All being on the supplemental register gets you is the right to prevent other similar trademarks being registered.

Awesome! I've recommended your ruby tutorial to lots of newbies. Hands down the best out there. Looks like this is another high quality product.

Do you happen to know/recommend a Python book written in a similar style?

I don't know one in a similar style, but if you're looking to learn Python as a first programming language I highly recommend https://www.udacity.com/courses/cs101

As far as I remember it it had good pacing and by the end of it I could write useful code (albeit initially brutishly ugly code that I will deny ever having written lol).

I'm better known nowadays as a Rubyist, but in fact Python was the first language I really loved, and I have over 100K lines of Python under my belt from my Ph.D. research and my first startup. Our planned intro sequence includes Learn Enough™ Ruby to Be Dangerous, but I'm hoping to design it so that I can quickly make a Python version as well.

Among my peers people usually come from a lower level language to either Python or Ruby but rarely switch from one to the other. What made you switch from Python to Ruby?

Also your book set me on my way with Ruby and Rails. I recommend it at least once a week. Thanks for everything.

What made you switch from Python to Ruby?

Rails. In Python-land, Django hadn't won yet. (My first startup used a half-baked framework I wrote myself on top of Zope. I shudder at the memory.)

Also your book set me on my way with Ruby and Rails. I recommend it at least once a week. Thanks for everything.

You're very welcome! Glad to hear it. :-)

If the Ruby tutorial is any indication, Michael's book will be the best when it comes out. Never gone through any Python tutorials but I've heard good things about: http://www.djangobook.com/en/2.0/index.html, and https://www.twoscoopspress.com/. Take the recommendation with a pinch of salt because I've never done them myself.

Yeah, but these are books for Django, not general python.

Although, that's not a bad way to learn Python. It's how I started.

Given that Michael's book is 90% about using Rails, I understood the asker's question to be related to using the framework more so than the language itself.

Test-Driven Development with Python by Harry Percival is kind of a Python/Django equivalent to the Ruby/Rails Tutorial. http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1234000000754

Thanks! Glad to hear it. :-)

The presentation of this ebook is incredible. Really nicely done. I assume it's custom? :D

Thanks! (I did all the UI)

It is all custom, and the Learn Enough series is using a variation on our web book layout that we created for the parent platform http://www.softcover.io - which is what is hosting the Rails Tutorial.

I actually learned enough git to be dangerous by reading "Learn Rails by Example." And some TDD, and some Heroku, and some Bootstrap, all as side-effects from the main dish. Quite an eye-opener.

Thank you for all your work!

Did they pay Randall Munroe to use his comics? Just curious.

Randall is pretty chill about people using xkcd strips as long as you aren't selling them commercially:

https://xkcd.com/license.html

I do offer ebook sales, but of course I'm not selling the individual strips themselves, and the online version is free. Still, your comment has made me realize it's probably a good idea to double-check, so I'll probably drop Randall a line just to make sure.

Thank you so much for writing these. I already owe a lot to your Rails Tutorial. Any plans to make these available on the iBookstore?

Looks awesome! Thanks so much for making this.

Thanks! By the way, in the collaboration section I wanted to tell people about the option to host their own repos, so of course I put in a link to GitLab:

http://www.learnenough.com/git-tutorial#sec-collaborating

Thanks, I put in a link to your tutorial from our /getting-help section https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com/commit/1fef9f12...

Great, thanks! And linking directly to the commit—now that's thinking Git. :-)

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