I now refer to an Amazon review on a scripting language:
spoiler
Don’t purchase the first edition of this book if you are new to coding.
The technical editor missed a number of errors or mistakes in the example code. I have experience coding multiple scripting languages, so I recognize mistakes in the book and can remedy them in my own code and continue the lesson. Beginners, however, will type the example code and the output won’t match the book and they won’t have the experience to know why.
I found and identified something like five errors in the first three chapters. In chapter four, there is an error that will cause the reader to get no output while the book shows five lines of text as the output. Again, a seasoned coder from another language will be able to identify the cause and then look for the right command to plug in, but a first-time or very green learner will just be frustrated.
All that said, this is an excellent book for someone who understands the concepts of scripting languages and just wants exposure to the PowerShell way of doing things. The author writes clearly and competently. Would recommend whole-heartedly to any who are comfortable in other languages.
People write books. People are imperfect. People write imperfect books. It’s not hard to copy / pasta the wrong notes when assembling the bones of a book.
I now refer to an Amazon review on a scripting language:
spoiler
Don’t purchase the first edition of this book if you are new to coding.
The technical editor missed a number of errors or mistakes in the example code. I have experience coding multiple scripting languages, so I recognize mistakes in the book and can remedy them in my own code and continue the lesson. Beginners, however, will type the example code and the output won’t match the book and they won’t have the experience to know why.
I found and identified something like five errors in the first three chapters. In chapter four, there is an error that will cause the reader to get no output while the book shows five lines of text as the output. Again, a seasoned coder from another language will be able to identify the cause and then look for the right command to plug in, but a first-time or very green learner will just be frustrated.
All that said, this is an excellent book for someone who understands the concepts of scripting languages and just wants exposure to the PowerShell way of doing things. The author writes clearly and competently. Would recommend whole-heartedly to any who are comfortable in other languages.
How would a programming book have that kind of mistakes? Do they manually type the code, and output separately?
Any semi-competent programmer will copy paste the code to the terminal and copy the output.
And any competent programmer will make sure the output is auto generated from the code so there’s no mistakes.
People write books. People are imperfect. People write imperfect books. It’s not hard to copy / pasta the wrong notes when assembling the bones of a book.