Sams Teach Yourself Django in 24 Hours (Sams Teach Yourself in 24 Hours) (ISBN 067232959X) Book Reviews 1-6 Sorted By Most Recent, at VeryWellSaid.com

Too many errors

I would have given this book 4 stars if there had only been one or two errors. However, there are so many errors that it breaks your concentration on learning the Django framework. There are so many errors that I had to dock it 2 stars!

If you don't mind the examples being broken in just about every chapter, this book is worth reading.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-10-20 06:39:54 EST)

06-30-08

(NA)

TY Django, petty good

I give this book a 3. I think the way it is presented and the pace is good. However I think a lot of the errors go beyond just minor typos and cause much confusion and waste of time. On the bright side, figuring out why the code doesn't work and finding the errors in the book was also very instructive and showed to me that Djangos error system is very good.

I would like to find a book that would let you display images in a Django app with the development server, out of the box. Does anyone know how to do it?

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-10-17 08:26:14 EST)

06-07-08

2\2

Good if you can handle the sample code errors

First off, there are a number of code errors in this book. Look at some other reviews of Sam's 24 Hours or 24 Days books and you will find that this is common. Apparently one of the reasons that these books are so inexpensive is that the publisher doesn't spend money on technical reviews. I knew that when I got this book so was not disappointed. I have just enough coding experience that I am able to catch obvious mistakes and not get bogged down by the sample code. I can see why someone who is less experienced might find the book unacceptable. To be fair, the book description does mention that it is for people with some Python background, who should be able to spot mistakes in the text.

On the plus side this book actually does a good job of offering Django basics in a logical and straightforward manner. It is a well thought out and paced tutorial and currently the only one available.

I find the Definitive Guide to be more of a reference book than a training one. If you are already an experienced programmer then skip the Sam's volume. If, like me, you have some background but need a step-by-step primer then this book is pretty good. The not yet released Django Projects book might be better but this is what's here now and it has given me enough of a background that I can understand the more advanced material of the Definitive Guide to Django.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-06-30 06:20:39 EST)

05-02-08

2\2

Great book-good instruction

Sams Teach Yourself Django in 24 Hours (Sams Teach Yourself)

This book helped me to get into the world of back end web development. I have played with html for years, but not done much more than that. With the 24 1-hour lessons in this book, I was able to put together an example server and learn the basic concepts taught. In short, I liked it, and it was a good experience for me.

Some of the other reviews are harsh on some problems in some of the examples. I found one or two, but also found that if I had problems, it was my fault--missing a comma or a semicolon.

The book helped me to understand how Django works, and give me a frameowork from which to build. I am excited to write my own websites using the concepts well taught in this book.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-06-08 05:53:10 EST)

04-22-08

3\3

Other reviews are too critical

I have this book and have read most of it, and I think the 1 star reviews here are overly critical and not really deserved.

Yes, the book has some mistakes in it, but most computer books do. I think this book gives you enough instruction that if a code snippet does have an error in it, you can easily identify what it is and fix it yourself. Also, most code snippets are listed more than once, and if I remember correctly, errors present in one code snippet were not present in the others.

I originally learned Django from the Django project's website, but it lacks in a lot of areas. Some features of the framework are covered really well, and others aren't.

When The Django Book came out, I bought it, read it, and gave it a really good review, but the truth is that is suffers from the same lack of consistent focus that the Django website does; some things are covered well and others are lightly touched upon.

I think that is where this book comes in. For me anyway, it filled in some of the missing pieces and clarified some aspects of Django that had been a bit hazy for me before.

None of the other documentation or currently published books provide you with a complete view of Django, and neither does this one. It does, however, provide pieces to the puzzle that the other documentation doesn't. Therefore, I would not write it off as some reviewers have. It does provide value.

(Review Data Last Updated: 2008-05-03 06:05:02 EST)

04-14-08

1\1

If you want to learn django, skip this book