How This Book Is Checked¶
A book that teaches with numbers has to get its numbers right. This page says where the book's numbers, figures and references come from, and what is checked before a change is published.
Printed Output Comes From Real Runs¶
The terminal windows in the chapters show what the book's own scripts printed, copied from a real run. Every script that trains a model or samples text sets its random seed first, and Chapter 1 installs a fixed version of PyTorch, so a reader who runs a script should see the numbers the chapter shows.
The Notebooks Are Run on Every Change¶
Every chapter has a notebook that runs in a browser. Before a change is published, an automated build runs the chapter code in 15 of the 17 notebooks and stops if any of it fails. The two it leaves out are the chapters that train the model, which take too long to run on every change. The same test runs them on request.
The Slides Are Checked Too¶
Two scripts check every lecture deck. The first makes sure each deck carries its goals, its key terms, an assignment and its references, and that no slide holds more than 85 words of prose. The second tests every rendered slide for text that runs off the page.
Figures¶
The diagrams follow one house style, and a script checks it: the color palette, the grid, at most six words in a shape, type no smaller than 12 points and no overlapping shapes. The charts are drawn by code from real program output. All 70 figures in the chapters carry a text description for readers who use a screen reader.
References¶
Every reference is kept in one table, with the details taken from the publisher's own record. A script writes the references into the chapters in APA style, so a reference is never typed twice.
The Data and the Test Machine¶
The training text is checked against a fingerprint before it is used, so every reader trains on the same file. The book was written and tested on a business laptop from 2020 with no graphics card. The full training run took about 20 to 30 minutes there.
Corrections¶
The book is corrected in place, and each page shows the date it last changed. If you find an error, write to hello@jackluu.io or open an issue.