automateboringstuff3 2024.10.1

Code Doesn’t Rust

Readers often installed the latest versions of third-party packages instead of the versions the book specified. When the third-party packages made backwards-incompatible changes, the book’s code examples wouldn’t work. This doesn’t mean the book is obsolete.

Code doesn’t rust; the old versions of software are as still perfectly capable as they’ve ever been. You should be on top of the latest security updates, but most updates for third-party packages are not security updates. There’s a sort of fear-of-missing-out that grips new programmers into thinking that newness is the only criteria to judge software. This endless reinvention of the wheel is a great way to sell consumers the same old software as new, but it doesn’t mean the software is significant improved.

Learning to code is a wide ocean for a short life. If a newer version of a third-party package has a feature you’d like to use, update to te new version. If not, then the version you are familiar with is fine.

Good luck on your programming journey.