Developerâs Notebooks try to communicate different information than most books, and as a result, are organized differently. They do indeed have chapters, but thatâs about as far as the similarity between a notebook and a traditional programming book goes. First, youâll find that all the headings in each chapter are organized around a specific task. Youâll note that we said task, not concept. Thatâs one of the important things to get about these booksâthey are first and foremost about doing something. Each of these headings represents a single lab. A lab is just what it sounds likeâsteps to accomplish a specific goal. In fact, thatâs the first heading youâll see under each lab: âHow do I do that?â This is the central question of each lab, and youâll find lots of down-and-dirty code and detail in these sections.
Some labs have some things not to do (ever played around with potassium in high school chemistry?), helping you avoid common pitfalls. Some labs give you a good reason for caring about the topic in the first place; we call this the âWhy do I care?â section, for obvious reasons. For those times when code samples donât clearly communicate whatâs going on, youâll find a âWhat just happenedâ section. Itâs in these sections that youâll find concepts and theoryâbut even then, they are tightly focused on the task at hand, not explanation for the sake of page count. Finally, many labs offer alternatives, and address common questions about different approaches to similar problems. These are the âWhat about...â sections, which will help give each task some context within the programming big picture.
And one last thingâon many pages, youâll find notes scrawled in the margins of the page. These arenât for decoration; they contain tips, tricks, insights from the developers of a product, and sometimes even a little humor, just to keep you going. These notes represent part of the overall communication flowâgetting you as close to reading the mind of the developer-author as we can. Hopefully theyâll get you that much closer to feeling like you are indeed learning from a master.
And most of all, rememberâthese books are...
All Lab, No Lecture
âBrett McLaughlin, Series Creator
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