Please Vote: Exercises in TDPL?

[Nick Sabalausky]

"Andrei Alexandrescu" <SeeWebsiteForEmail at erdani.org> wrote in message 
news:guibjc$2rha$1 at digitalmars.com...
>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.
>
> What do you think?
>
>

Cons: I've never been much of a fan of them. Rarely look at them, and never 
do them. But more than that, I find opening a book and seeing of bunch of 
"exercises" and "end of chapter quizzes" rather off-putting. It typically 
makes a book come across as highly academic, and one of the (many) major 
problems with academia and academic texts is their tendency to follow a 
style of "Let's take their money (and double the price (or more) from what 
would typically be reasonable), and not actually give them any real 
information except (if we feel like it) some "info" that's incomplete, 
poorly explained, etc." I can come up with plenty of questions and problems 
on my own. If I buy a book (or take a class), it's because I want *answers* 
and *information*. If I want to work through it all on my own (and, hell, 
sometimes I do), then I can do that without f&*%^&* putting down the money 
for a book/class in the first place.

Pros: "pretty darn cool exercise ideas", coming from Andrei? That does sound 
interesting. Color me intrigued.

I'd say if you can do it without making it come across like an academic text 
at a flip-through, then go ahead. But don't go overboard, and definitely 
don't add those stupid/patronizing "exercises" that are really just 
questions which are blatantly answered earlier in the chapter (I hate 
those). An exercise is an exercise, but rewriting the same damn material in 
question form is just a waste of ink, paper and the reader's patience.

Sorry...got a little carried away there... ;)