[Xxfireman]

I find the whole textbook market a scam for college students. How are colleges forcing students to buy the newest textbooks on subjects that have been around since the 1700s. There is no need for an intro calculus book printed in the 21st century.

[Tainnor]

Calculus has changed a lot since 1700. Newton and Leibniz didn't have formal definitions of limits (or alternatively, something like non-standard analysis) readily available.

In terms of content, probably not much has changed in at least the last 50 years, though. Typesetting has definitely improved (old maths texts from before TeX are a bit hard to read), but I'll agree that a text from, say, the 90s is probably just as adequate as one printed today.

[Arnt]

Mine didn't look very good after I'd worked through it. Good shelf life, but 24 years of use? Not a chance.

[rimunroe]

> Mine didn't look very good after I'd worked through it.

Counter-anecdote: other than maybe the odd banged corner, mine are pretty much pristine.

> Good shelf life, but 24 years of use? Not a chance.

Did I miss something in the article? Why would anyone expect them to last for 24 years of continuous usage?

[calciphus]

GP started with the premise "we don't need one printed in the 21st century".

A more generous reading of that argument might be "we don't need one authored in the 21st century", not that textbooks would never need reprinting and last forever through two dozen owners

[Arnt]

I'd have a problem believing that too, because I see that my oldest child's math textbook (for the last year before starting university) is better than my own was. Not very much, but enough to give me the impression that the textbook authors are paying attention to how their work is used and improving it (maybe by <0.1%) in each edition.

[rimunroe]

D'oh! Thanks. I had indeed interpreted the person they were replying to as talking about authorship rather than printing …despite them saying “printed”

[Arnt]

No, one comment up. "No need for a calculus textbook printed after y2k" or words like that. I guess that's 23 years of use if you're pedantic enough, not 24.

A textbook that's gone through five students will have encountered someone like you and also someone like me.