[falcolas]

> canonical problem in software engineering in at most 500 source lines of code

I'll reserve judgement of the book for when its in a form I can easily read, but this seems to come up on the wrong side of the "less isn't always more" line.

I can implement a lot of logic in 500 lines of code, but I won't be able to go back a month later and understand any of it, at least not without rebuilding the logic from scratch. And I certainly can't also implement the safety checks, corner cases, and tests in that line quota.

I would personally think there is more value in showcasing a single complete and well commented solution instead of a slew of partial solutions with "the error checking left as an exercise to the reader" (I'm not sure if this phrase is in the book, I plucked it from any number of poor college textbooks).

[fermigier]

You probably misread the intent of the book editors and writers. As @debo_ wrote above: "Code golf was strictly discouraged throughout the review process. When authors were faced with implementing functionality poorly to fit more in, we generally cut scope instead."