I write all my books using LaTeX. Parts of LaTeX are (at first) confusing.
Recently, I had a moment of despair when my LaTeX processing tools no longer worked.
Don't panic. Gather the data.
If the logs aren't good enough to reveal what's going on, fix the logs.
Q: "Can you recommend books that are good for a beginner wanting to learn python?"
Me: "Depends on the person’s background..."
Q: "They has a deep background in the problem domain. Recently they've been doing a lot of reporting and analytics using SQL."
Okay. That's excellent.
One of the …
more ...I'm working on revisions to Python 3 Object-Oriented Programming. Meanwhile, I have big news on Packt's end-of-year promotions.
I’m always striving to make the knowledge in Python Real-World Projects, as useful as possible. That’s why I’m so excited about Packt’s $9.99 End-of-Year Sale! This adds …
more ...Big Announcement: the 2024.8 version of Unlearning SQL, and the 2024.9 version of Pivot to Python are available from booksellers online. Both are revised and all the code tested with Python 3.12.
This book shows you how to translate essential SQL concepts into the Python …
Let's say you want to self-publish an ebook and a print-on-demand paperback book.
This isn't impossible, nor is it particularly easy. Here's what I've learned.
You've got two obvious paths to make sure your EPUB book and your print-on-demand book match:
Book (pre) Announcement:
Stand-alone document files for tech writing are awful. They should not be used as widely as they are.
We used to call editors like MS-Word WYSIWYG -- What You See Is What You Get. Once upon a time, an editor that immediately presented the final rendered doc …
Want a book with dozens of project ideas?
Each has a description, and approach, and deliverables. It's a lot like ordinary development work, but with some detailed guidance from the author. (And no deadline imposed by your team lead or manager.)
These are projects you can do. You can post …
more ...It's hard to write shameless promotional material.
I already wrote the books, isn't that bold enough?
It isn't, though.
Packt’s Head of Product, Oli Huggins, said: “We believe in helping to serve and support the global developer community. By selling our eBooks and Videos for $5, we hope to …more ...
Check out https://www.pythonpodcast.com/steven-lott-learn-to-code-episode-283/. This was a fun conversation on Python and learning.
We didn't talk about my books in detail. Instead, we talked about learning and what it takes to get closer to mastery.
It's a thing I worry about. I suspect other writers worry about …
more ...