Errata in Programming Books?

WgT2 asks: "I recently have set my mind to learning to code PHP. Not being a programmer, yet, I went out and got myself a book on the subject from a very trusted, at least in my eyes, publisher (and they still still are). So far so good. However once I got down to trying the code out myself I have found too much errata for someone who has just scratched the surface in learning the ins and outs of programming. I was wondering just how common place Slashdot readers have found errata in the code examples of programming books they have purchased?"

Comments

It's very common

[Hanashi]

It's quite common to find errors in technical books. Some of them are simply typos, others are more complex. In the process of producing a book, the text goes through several hands. The author writes it, of course, then various editors all have their fingers in it. Generally they make it better (that's a plug, if my editors are reading 8-) but sometimes mistakes happen. Overall, writing a book is just such an enormous amount of work and there are so many people involved, mistakes are a given.

Many (most?) books publish errata on their web pages or on their publisher's site. I've even got a few books that had printed errata folded up and stuck into the cover. I don't mind seeing a reasonable number of errors in a book, especially a very technically dense book, as long as I see that the author and/or publisher makes the errata sheets easily available. After all, we're all only human.

One Recent Problem

[TheWanderingHermit]

I haven't done any programming in over a decade. I recently had to start learning a lot of new information and bought several stacks of books. I found the O'Reilly books to be VERY helpful. In the past I always found Sam's to be informative and helpful as well, but I found Sam's MySQL in 24 Hours to be rather frustrating because of little errors here and there.

Above and beyond the errors, I don't know if it's because the book is a "in 21 Days" format or not, but I've found it rather frustrating and useless in the long run because it does not work well as a reference book and it seems there is A LOT that has been left out.

I will not likely buy another book in any "in 21 Days" or "in 24 Hours" or any similar format again. While they may provide a quick intro, it seems to be a week format if you plan to continue in the subject.

Look to the publisher's site

[babbage]

Most (all?) of the publishers today will have a web site dedicated to each title, and the better ones (all again?) will have an errata page somewhere in there. Look for it. Consider basing purchasing decisions on the presence & quality of that errata page:

• If it has such a page, and it's short (all books will have at least some typos -- that's life), then you're in good shape.
• If it looks like the errata page is updated often, that's also a good sign -- it means the publisher is paying attention. That may be even better.
• If it has an errata page, and it's really long, then maybe the book is just sub-par: be careful here.
• If it has no errata page, the publisher is lying, or hasn't gotten around to it yet: be careful here, too.

I don't know which book you got, but O'Reilly's Programming PHP has its own confirmed and unconfirmed errata pages. If this is the book you've got, feel free to go over the corrections noted on these pages and jot them down in your copy -- I've done that with a couple of my books, and would have missed many of the glitches without that hint. If you see an error that isn't on this page, O'Reilly offers a error submission form that you can use for that book (and others of course) -- so use it! If the publisher doesn't find out about these mistakes, they aren't going to get fixed. A good publisher will offer revised printings -- not that that helps you once you've got a copy, but it will prevent other learners from having to hit the same obstacles you did. :-)

You can't, unfortunately, expect books to be perfect & pristine. (Well, maybe Knuth's books, but everyone else has to deal with typos & thinkos :-). You can, however, and should expect the publisher to own up to their little mistakes and offer you corrections on their site. Go find that info and get the fixes into your copy and you'll be a happier camper.

May not be coding in the book

[Merlin_1102]

Personally I have come across few typing errors in books (then again I RARELY try any of the code they offer in books). I personally have several PHP books and if you are just starting to learn PHP please be aware that the language goes through like 4 updates a month or something like that. I remember when I first tried to learn PHP I attempted some of the code and it would not work. This was because from the time the book was published to the time I got it the PHP language had changed. Some of the defaults were changed etc... so things did not work the way i intended them to (changing it so all variables were not global by default drove me nuts until I firgured out what was wrong).

Basically the point I am trying to make is that with PHP some times the problem may not be with errors in the code, but may be with the fact that the language has changed and no longer supports what you are trying to do... Having saying this if you cannot get a "Hello World" Program to work then I would be a bit suspicious as to whats wrong.