7.1. Conventions

Here is some basic information on some notation used throughout the book.

7.1.1. Additional information boxes

Throughout the book, you will encounter four types of information boxes:

Note

Technical Details This kind of box provides deeper technical details about something that was just explained. These technical details are not essential to understanding the concept or skill that precedes this box and are mostly provided for readers who want to dig a bit deeper (especially if you’re the kind of learner who has an easier time understanding new concepts with those lower-level details).

This means that you can usually safely skip these boxes on your first read through a chapter. However, if you do so, we still recommend revisiting these boxes once you become more comfortable with the material.

Warning

Common Pitfalls This kind of box alerts you to common pitfalls that beginners sometimes make. Make sure to read this box so you don’t fall into those pitfalls yourself!

Tip

Debugging Tips As we’ll describe later in the book, debugging issues in your code can sometimes feel like solving a murder mystery where you are both the detective and the murderer. Pinpointing the cause of errors in your code is a skill that takes time to build, so we’ve made sure to include debugging tips throughout the book so you know what to look out for when your code fails in certain ways.

Hint

Note

Notes are used to clarify certain concepts or to call out information that doesn’t fit into any of the above boxes.