Please Vote: Exercises in TDPL?

[Denis Koroskin]

On Fri, 15 May 2009 17:13:40 +0400, Steven Schveighoffer <schveiguy at yahoo.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 14 May 2009 20:05:04 -0400, Andrei Alexandrescu  
> <SeeWebsiteForEmail at erdani.org> 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.
>>
>> What do you think?
>>
>
> I personally never did exercises unless they were assigned.  Generally  
> when I'm reading a text book on my own, it's to get going on a project.   
> So I'm not interested in solving puzzles :)
>
> But examples are good to help with understanding, so as long as you put  
> the answers in the book, I think it's a good idea.
>
> -Steve

Well, I'd wouldn't recommend putting solutions into a book for a couple of reasons:

1) Most people would jump to answers right after reading the question, without caring to thing a little
2) Good questions deserve good answers (with explanation etc), but it takes time and books size grows significantly
3) Teachers won't be able to use these exercises to teach D in the classes because everyone can cheat by looking at answers

But I do believe that answers are very useful (unless they are no-brainers). I great solution to the problem would be to provide answers on a dedicated web-site. This way you can keep them comprehensive, they won't take up any space in the book, you may even write (and update) them *after* book is shipped.