Joel Spolsky wrote about an interesting limitation that he encountered when choosing a cover design for his book:
“And although they would not put a doggie on the cover of my book as I requested, because a certain other book publisher threatens to sue his competitors when they put anything animal like within 90 feet of their covers, their graphic designer worked overtime to create underground cover art called “User Interface Design for Doggies” complete with three golden retrievers, which they framed and sent to me. All in all a classy operation and highly recommended if you’re thinking of writing a computer book.”
The publisher is, of course, O’Reilly Media
“Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects.”
Well, with some books it’s clear – a spider for a webmaster book and a python for a Python book, for instance. But why does the Perl book have a camel? Wouldn’t an oyster make a lot more sense?
Update: Joe Grossberg commented that camel was chosen “because Perl uses camelCase for capitalizing variables”. John (website or last name not included) said that “camel was picked for Perl because of the quip that it was a ‘horse designed by a committee’”. I like John’s version much better :)
Joe also started a Wikipedia article on the subject.
One of the more understandable conventions is using Javan animals on Java-related books. For instance, the Java book has a Javan tiger and the JavaScript book has a Javan rhino.
O’Reilly colophons rarely give too much insight into why that particular animal was chosen for the cover, but sometimes you might read between the lines:
“Like the crustaceans after which they are named, crab spiders walk sideways or backwards. They feed on bees and other pollenizing insects, often laying in wait for them by hiding on flowers.”
“Both male and female pythons retain vestiges of their ancestral hind legs. The male python uses these vestiges, or spurs, when courting a female”
“Folklore has long held that the horn of the rhinoceros possesses magical and aphrodisiacal powers, and that humans who gain possession of the horns will gain those powers, also.”
“Tigers are the largest of all cats, weighing up to 660 pounds and with a body length of up to 9 feet. They are solitary animals, and, unlike lions, hunt alone.
…
There are some tigers, however, who have developed a taste for human flesh. This is a particularly bad problem in an area of India and Bangladesh called the Sunderbans.”
The ironic thing is, Javan tigers are extinct and there are only about 100 Javan rhinos remaining. Is that a dig at these languages?
One of the most ironic, yet clearly unintentional choices was that of a stingray for the cover of ASP.NET in a Nutshell.
How is a stingray for ASP.NET ironic? There’s some connection I’m missing…
That was right around the time when a stingray killed Steve Irvin.
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The camel is because Perl uses camelCase for capitalizing variables. The llama is similar to a small camel (“Learning Perl”).
The original Java series was objects (but no one “got it”).
The Oracle series is insects (bugs?).
The “Annoyances” series is a bunch of toads and frogs (a plague reference?).
“C” is for Cow or Chipmunk (C++).
Some, though, I think are just arbitrary — why is Learning Python a mouse?
Don’t know if you care, but this does not render correctly through lj rss feed.
http://syndicated.livejournal.com/dprogrammer_rss/68908.html
Ah, thank you. Should be fixed now.
Why is a stingray an ironic choice of animal for the ASP.NET book? Unless Steve Irwin was a famous ASP.NET programmer I don’t see the irony.
Also: I presume they chose a mouse for the Learning Python book because mice get consumed by pythons.
Well, at the time stingrays were perceived as slow and peaceful creatures with a poisonous, but not lethal stinger. Now they are notorious crocodile hunter killers.
O’Reilly Microsoft-related books usually have benign creatures – shrimp, catfish, etc.
I always thought the camel was picked for Perl because of the quip that it was a ‘horse designed by a committee’.
This is the best explanation yet :)
I have the Win98 Annoyances book. It had a particularly horrifying image of a toad with it’s growing child burrowing through the skin of it’s back.
I thought that was a clear editorial comment.
Hey man, you have no clue about programming, U have no clue about Perl or Camels.
Camels are pretty nice animals, they are very cute and useful, however, they are also very mean and nasty animals. Just like perl..
See you should be dead programmer, you are definitely not a programmer. I have seen ur code, You suck man..