in reply to HOP now or HOP later?

If you look closely at the errata list, you will see that almost all the "errors" are actually completely trivial matters, like "at the end of the line, ))}); should be )) });", or a missing comma in the text.

All technical books contain a large number of this sort of error. You would probably never notice most of them unless they were pointed out. One of the drawbacks of having a public errata page is that it points out all the errors, and that makes people aware of them; then people wonder if perhaps the book has an unusually large number of errors compareed to other books. But no; other books have the same number of errors. You just aren't aware of them, because they don't have public errata pages. If I weren't so compulsive about listing absolutely every trivial little spacing error on the web pages, you would probably not have heard that HOP had a lot of errors.

Both printings are extremely good quality, and the differences between the first and second printings are trivial.

--
Mark Dominus
Perl Paraphernalia

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: HOP now or HOP later?
by xdg (Monsignor) on Sep 01, 2005 at 16:31 UTC

    I know most tech books (and textbooks) have errors. That said, I really dislike keeping an errata sheet and cross-referencing. I really don't mind formatting errors, but from what I've heard, the content of the book is pretty deep. And the list of "substantial technical" errors in the first edition seemed long -- so I was curious if people really thought it mattered. I wouldn't want to get lost following some intricate example only to find out that I'm lost because of an error. With the second printing out, I think I'm going to focus on finding a copy.

    To that end, any suggestions on a reliable source for the second printing? I've checked three big bookstores here in NYC; two didn't have it and one had three copies of the first printing. Has anyone gotten the second printing from an online source or are they still shipping first printings?

    -xdg

    Code written by xdg and posted on PerlMonks is public domain. It is provided as is with no warranties, express or implied, of any kind. Posted code may not have been tested. Use of posted code is at your own risk.

[reply]

      I wouldn't want to get lost following some intricate example only to find out that I'm lost because of an error.

      I'm only 2/3 of the way into it (first printing, no less), but so far the scenario you describe hasn't happened for me.

      the lowliest monk

[reply]
      xdg asks:
      any suggestions on a reliable source for the second printing?
      I don't know for sure, but I imagine that if you ordered it from the MKP web site (here) you would get a second printing, or if you were really worried about it, you could call them up and specifically request one.

      While this might work, I think it would be a waste of time. As I said before, the first and second printings are nearly identical.

      --
      Mark Dominus
      Perl Paraphernalia

[reply]
Re^2: HOP now or HOP later?
by blazar (Canon) on Sep 01, 2005 at 14:31 UTC
    But no; other books have the same number of errors.
    or at least (approximately) the same density, I guess...
[reply]

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