Sebastopol, CA--The newest distribution client for O'Reilly Media is Pragmatic Bookshelf, an imprint of The Pragmatic Programmers, LLC. Founded in October, 2003 by Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas, Pragmatic Bookshelf titles have garnered awards and critical acclaim from the start, including a Jolt Productivity Award from Software Development magazine and "perfect 10" reviews for both of their initial offerings from influential programmer sites slashdot.org and JavaRanch. This recognition is all the more impressive because the books have had very limited distribution in retail stores. O'Reilly will expand retail distribution for Pragmatic Programmers, handle direct sales, warehousing, and shipping, plus provide direct marketing and PR support.
"Dave and Andy take an approach to publishing that is very much in sync with the O'Reilly approach," said Laura Baldwin, O'Reilly's COO. "They've been very successful as a two-person company, and we're pleased to help them reach the wider audience they deserve."
"When we needed a company with global reach to help get our products in front of readers, we asked bookstores who they'd recommend. Unanimously, the answer came back 'Use O'Reilly,'" explained Dave Thomas. "Their sales force is the best in the industry, and their management team has a unique mixture of professionalism and flexibility. They're our pragmatic choice."
Partners in a thriving consulting business since 1995, Pragmatic Programmers founders Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas decided to share their accumulated wisdom through The Pragmatic Starter Kit. This series for developer teams covers the fundamentals of successful software development: version control, unit testing, and automation. The first three books, Pragmatic Version Control with CVS, Pragmatic Unit Testing in Java with JUnit, and Pragmatic Unit Testing in C# with NUnit, are now available through O'Reilly. Pragmatic Project Automation will be released in July, 2004.
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About The Pragmatic Programmers
Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas are founders of The Pragmatic Programmers, LLC. They have over 50 years combined experience writing complex software. In 1999 they decided to share some of that experience in their best-selling book The Pragmatic Programmer. Since then, they've combined writing and development careers with four more books, articles in leading magazines, and an international speaking calendar. Their latest venture, The Pragmatic Bookshelf, is a series of books written by developers for developers. The titles continue the well-known Pragmatic style, and have already won awards and rave reviews. As development gets more and more difficult, Dave and Andy will be there with titles to help programmers stay on top of their game.About O’Reilly
O’Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O’Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying “faint signals” from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.