Cees de Groot wrote:
> 
> Jarvis, Robert P. (Contingent) <Jarvisb at timken.com> said:
> >For a Squeak book wouldn't it be appropriate to have a mouse or other small
> >rodent on the cover?
> >
> Many strange stories are told about the selection of covers for O'Reilly
> books. One maintains that Tim regularly flies to a lonely planet somewhere in
> a far away nebula where, on a rainy seashore, a hut stands with an old man
> with unsatiable curiosity. Oh no, that's another story.
> 
> Pictures are usually selected according to right-brain associations. So it
> would almost certainly not be a mouse. By the way, it's maybe a bit too soon
> to start discussing cover artwork ;-)

Yes it is, although it's still fun. ;)  Actually, the O'Reilly Programming Python book has an actual picture of a python (a large snake) on the cover, so if there's a logical mascot it seems there is a precedent for putting it on the cover.

I think there's already been an O'Reilly book with a field mouse or somesuch on the cover, so I'd like to see something like a white laboratory mouse.  It would fit in well with Squeak's and Smalltalk's research origins. :)

On a more serious note, if an O'Reilly book is actually going to be written, someone will have to step forward as a potential author... a group of enthusiastic but uncommitted Squeakers isn't going to be sufficient.  Randal Schwartz, author of Learning Perl (one of the most popular O'Reilly books) is a member of this list and has mentioned the possibility of writing an O'Reilly Squeak book in the past, but I thought that the last time he checked, O'Reilly wasn't interested. (although this may have been a few years ago)

- Doug Way
  dway at riskmetrics.com