Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
A chunky fragment of TDPL will hit Rough Cuts soon enough. I'm pondering
whether I should be adding exercises to the book. Some books have them,
some don't.
Pros: As I'm writing, I've come up with some pretty darn cool exercise
ideas.
Cons: The book gets larger, takes longer to write, and I never solved
the exercises in the books I've read, but then I'm just weird.
Well, you're not the average reader. :-)
Reasons for including excercises
o they're really needed for those who actually /study/ the stuff
o K&R, Stroustrup, Knuth had them!! Nobody's ever complained
o when reading stuff /new/ to you, they're needed
o the only way to get schools and unviersities to use the book
o make them well, and it'll double the value of the book
o increases sales and revenue
o some learn by doing, especially the not-supertalented
o no excercises is an "obvious omission", attracts competitors
Reasons against excercises
o they take longer to write, if done well
o you may need to test some of the excercises on people
o done sloppily they'll reduce the value of the book
o the answers need to explain stuff, not only be a listing
The more people buy the book, the more money you get. And for us, the
more D gets recognition inside and outside the academia, the better!!
As a teacher, I'd never choose one without excercises. (Hell, then I'd
have to invent them all, not just some. If that's a chore to you, it
sure is a drag for the teacher!)
IMO, it is *utterly* important that the book is usable in universities.
The better universities pick it up, the others follow, and eventually we
may have a chance of having D taught as the first computing language.
(It certainly is better for that than the others, IMNSHO.)
People also tend to have a mother tongue, even with computer languages.
In 5..10 years, we want D to be *The* language, right?
PS: write in the preface that you'd love teacher comments. You won't
regret it, come time for the second edition!! You'll want to /maintain/
the head start you got, by refining the quality.
