Free chapter about Python and databases (MySQL and SQLite)

[John Bokma]

Sebastian Bassi <sbassi at clubdelarazon.org> writes:

> On Fri, May 28, 2010 at 12:37 AM, John Bokma <john at castleamber.com> wrote:
>> I feel more than uncomfortable with example code that uses: user="root"
>
> What's wrong with this? It is just an example of connection string.
> The reader will use his/her user/pass/dbname according to their own
> settings.

A bit down you're contradicting yourself: your audience is not familiar
with databases, yet you assume that they will use their own settings?

>> (e.g. p291). I never get why people write a short (IMO) /bad/ intro to
>> databases while there are books out there that do a way better
>
> The intended audience of this book are biologist who may be not
> familiarized with relational databases. Most of my colleagues (at
> least from the bio camp) don't even know that behind most dynamic web
> pages there are databases and I think that most of them will find the
> intro section useful. You can always skip what you know and go to the
> point you want.

My point is that the intro I (speed) read is weak at best. You say
you're doing your audience a favor, but I don't agree.

> I am not sure that price in this kind of book are tied to the number
> of pages. There must be some relation, but this is not the main factor
> affecting price.

Even if it's just a few bucks, it's still money saved [0]. On top of
that I think it's way better to point your audience to good books on the
topic and skip the intro instead of doing a (half hearted IMO) attempt
at it yourself.

>> I would love to see more technical books that start at page 1 with the
>> topic, not with an introduction to the language (170+ pages) and some
> ...
>
> I see where you go, it seems you are not the target audience for this
> book. Anyway I appreciate your feedback.

You're welcome. And to be honest, if the book didn't have those filler
chapters (which they are IMO) I would certainly have been interested in
it. Note that I am not trying to convince you to rewrite your book, but
my bookcase could have 20% more room if technical writers stopped to
write books that tried to introduce their audience to everything but the
kitchen sink [1]. My favourite books are the ones that /don't/ do the
everything but the kitchensink gig, but direct me to other high quality
books.


[0] I've been a technical editor for a book, and got paid by the page.
[1] I mean the books that seem to handle a single specific topic. If I
    buy "Ubuntu up and running" I expect everything, including the
    kitchensink.

-- 
John Bokma                                                               j3b

Hacking & Hiking in Mexico -  http://johnbokma.com/
http://castleamber.com/ - Perl & Python Development