Chapter 3: Why are the answers in the exercises files?

[SamKacer]

Started going through the book today and looking through the exercises for chapter 3, list.scala in particular, I noticed that the answers are left out for some exercises and for some they are pasted in instead of the unimplemented function signatures.

I expected the exercises files to be skeleton code for filling in with our answers and then if needed we could look up the answers in the answerkey directory. Why are they already in the exercise file? Doesn't that spoil the learning experience?

[otto-dev]

I coincidentally opened this issue while I was reading the same chapter myself (I'm a student of the book as well).

I believe the exercise code looks exactly like it is supposed to look, as only the "examples" from the book have their implementation provided.

The book makes a distinction between examples and exercises. The examples, which are used for explanatory purposes in the book, are already provided. They have lost most of their value as exercises since the book reveals and talks about the code. Then the book follows up with exercises for the reader to implement - those are the functions with their implementation missing.

So examples: already implemented. Exercises: left to the reader.