Tutorial creates confusion about slices

[Antoon Pardon]

On 2007-04-24, Michael Bentley <michael at jedimindworks.com> wrote:
>
> On Apr 24, 2007, at 6:35 AM, Antoon Pardon wrote:
>
>> People don't read tutorials in a strictly linear fashion. They can
>> continue to later subjects and then come back here to see how things
>> tie together. So the fact that it is only confusing to those who
>> know more than is already presented doesn't seem a very good reason
>> to leave it in.
>
> Yet they understand that earlier in the document, there is likely to  
> be a less complete coverage of a given topic.  There is in fact, a  
> link on that page that includes a more complete coverage of that  
> topic (which I mentioned to you in an earlier message IIRC).

That there is more complete coverage elsewhere is no good reason
to come with an explanation that suggests things working in
a way that will be contradicted by that more complete coverage.

Even after people have read the more complete coverage it is
still very possible that they will come back to this part of
the text and get the wrong idea of how things work.

A more complete coverage elsewhere is not an adequate remedy
for a tekst suggesting things working differently than they
actually do. Sure in the long run people will figger out how
things actually work and that the explanation given in that
section is totally inadequate for negative steps. But I
prefer that people don't loose too much time figgering out
that a particular explanation only works for particular cases
and not in general.

> Submit a patch if you want it changed.  I'm sure your valuable  
> insights will greatly improve the quality of the python documentation.

Fat chance, if they reason like you.

-- 
Antoon Pardon