Love "Python Cookbook"

[Alex Martelli]

Manuel M. Garcia wrote:

> I love "Python Cookbook" too, but I have one small complaint.  Running
> and reading some of the recipes it was clear the code in the book was
> not tested in an automated way, using something like the module
> "doctest".  So there are tiny errors in variable names, etc.  (I wish

<sigh> you're right -- we didn't test *all* of the code as printed (the
shame...).  I _hope_ the zip you can download from O'Reilly's site with
all the fixes is better (that one is also easier for us to fix if and when
such small errors come to light).

> I had marked up my book, I cannot find the examples now.)  I assume

I wish to... please do let me and/or David Ascher know about ANY
such issue you find...!

> that the code is fixed on the ActivePython site, so people who cut and
> paste from the site instead of typing will have no problem.  Of

I wouldn't be quite as confident (haven't been on the site in earnest for
a while, so i don't know if Activestate's been doing any fixing, though).

> course, many of recipes are short, so a person may decide to type
> instead of cut and paste.
> 
> The excellent quality of the book makes it more of a problem, because
> I imagine from now on all people learning Python will buy "Python
> Cookbook" as one of their first Python books, and little mistakes can
> be very confusing to newbies.

Indeed.  Any such mistake we learn about, we can most easily fix in
a second printing (if the book is as successful as your imagination makes
it, there will be a second printing...)... it's even faster and easier to 
correct them in the scripts' zipfile...


> The book is uniformly fantastic, congratulations to the authors!

Thanks!  But I _do_ feel guilty about any error that may have
slipped by...:-(.  I hope we can fix any such error ASAP...!!!


Alex