Python in a Nutshell -- Book vs Web

[Benjamin Kaplan]

On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 7:58 PM, Cameron Laird <claird at lairds.us> wrote:

> In article <
> b2f0ce20-418f-470a-a9e0-ec0d49da3d0c at a8g2000prf.googlegroups.com>,
> Matimus  <mccredie at gmail.com> wrote:
> >On Aug 28, 3:05 pm, "W. eWatson" <notval... at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> >> I read an Amazon of Python in a Nutshell. The first edition is
> supposedly
> >> much like the web site. What web site? The second edition apparently
> adds
> >> more to the book than the web site.
> >
> >O'Reilly seems to just read all of the available documentation and
> >regurgitate it in book form. The "in a nutshell" series being the
> >worst offender. Most of "Python in a Nutshell" tells you the same
> >information that you can find at http://docs.python.org, which is
> >probably "the web site" being referenced.
> >
> >Matt
>
> No.  No, to an almost libelous extent.
>
> As <URL: http://www.unixreview.com/documents/s=7822/ur0303j/ >
> hints, the first edition of *PIAN* included abundant material
> that was found nowhere else.  Senior Tcl developers recognized
> *PIAN*'s unique values to such an extent that they snapped up
> the second edition quickly when it became available.  It's
> simply mistaken to characterize *PIAN* as merely a regurgitation
> of the available documentation; in fact, while hewing to the
> style of its series, it's among the most *original* and well-
> crafted of books on Python.
>
> --


Pointing to an article that you wrote doesn't really prove your point. That
being said, a quick google search finds plenty of reviews that agree with
you. The most common criticism I saw was that the book is not suitable for
beginners.
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