FreeRTOS PDF Book properties

ljose wrote on Tuesday, February 26, 2013:

I plan to purchase the FreeRTOS Tutorial book online. But I went through some discussions where it was brought to light that there were some limitations to the PDF copies. I would like to decide if it is preferable to go with the printable or non-printable version.
It will really help if somebody could post an image of the properties page of the PDF book(both printable & non-printable).

Similar to the one given below

rtel wrote on Tuesday, February 26, 2013:

If you would like a copy I suggest just purchasing the non-printable copy, then if it does not meet your needs, contacting me to get it updated to the printable copy.  Or, wait until I am back in the office next week and I will post just the table of “allowed” “not allowed” without having to first upload an image and then link to it.

If you are worried about not being able to cut and paste code out of the text then be aware that the book comes with a zip file that contains all the code.  It is much easier to copy code from the provided source files than it is from a pdf file.

Regards.

mdkendall wrote on Wednesday, February 27, 2013:

When I bought the “Using the FreeRTOS Real Time Kernel” book as a PDF the following things were not clear to me until after I had bought it:

(1). Due to the encryption used, you must use Adobe Reader X or greater to open it.
(2). The file is protected with a password equal to the email address you used to place the order. This must be entered every time you open the file.
(3). Every page is watermarked with the same email address.
(4) You cannot copy and paste.

(1) is unfortunate because I prefer the interface of Reader 8 and this forced me into an unwelcome upgrade, but it’s not a big deal. (2) is a pain, especially if you inadvertently use a long email address. Had I known I would have used a shorter one. (3) is ugly, and had I known I would have used an email address associated with work, rather than a personal one. (4) is tedious, not only for code samples (which are available separately) but also for quoting snippets to colleague, on forums, etc. Several times on this forum I have had to retype a sentence I could have just copied from the book (in fact, I tried copying the “Using the FreeRTOS Real Time Kernel” title and pasting it in the first paragraph of this message before remembering I couldn’t and having to retype it).

If I was doing it again I think I would just buy a paper copy.

rtel wrote on Wednesday, February 27, 2013:

Yes, it is very regrettable that any security is needed at all, but experience shows that unfortunately it is.  The reasons why have been documented in this forum before so I won’t repeat them now, but keep in mind that without the security which has necessarily got tighter as time goes on (for example, the watermark used to be at the top of the page, but people used to crop the page to remove it, hence it was moved to the middle, etc.), the books would not exist and would not be updated in the future.  In fact, without the contribution they make to the (not insignificant) costs, FreeRTOS probably would not be developed so actively and provided to the community for free (which always makes me wonder why people put so much effort into hacking these things).

Regards.

ljose wrote on Wednesday, February 27, 2013:

Thanks for all the inputs. I might as well go with the printable version. Does the watermark also appear when printed?