It would have been a pleasant bonus if the code had been exemplary but it was not and we can all live with that. Nor should an author think that reviewers waste their time by hunting for mistakes with which to beat them up. If a book has mistakes on virtually every page, no reviewer is going to spend time picking on them all, and no editor would publish the result of such a detailed inspection. One way in which technical books are different from books written for entertainment is that we only need one book on a subject. Once I have found a good book on a technical topic, I cease being in the market for other books on the same subject.
Leisure books are quite different.
They are written to entertain and as such they can freely rework old plots, indeed readers often enjoy such because of the familiarity, with perhaps a new twist to the basic plot. I need a constant supply of Science Fiction novels, but I only want one good book on, for example, learning Python. Unfortunately many authors are blinded by what they think is a novel approach and fail to get the basics right. I would welcome readers ideas on what, for them, are the essentials of a good technical book. Last Update - 11 August 2001.