Crazy ideas for book indexing
I'm looking through Apache access logs, trying to remember what HTTP code 301 is.
I have O'Reilly's HTTP: The Definitive Guide. I look in the index, and I see that 301 is aggregated with
300-399 status codes, 61-64, 502
Why not spell out all the codes?
301 status code, 61, 502
302 status code, 61, 502
303 status code, 62, 502
For that matter, why not have the index include the answer I want?
301 status code: Moved Permanently, 61, 502
I could have the answer right there, without having to go any further.
Further, the book has more than 600 pages, so I could even be able to look on page 301 and find out. It could have a footnote on the bottom of page 301 saying "301: Moved Permanently. Turn to pages 61-64, 502 for more information."
Alas, I think that Chris Shifflet's purple HTTP book is half the pages, so that wouldn't do there.
not to discourage better indexing of books, but for this /particular/ example, I still find myself doing
(similarly with errnos, etc.)
or perl -MHTTP::Status -E 'say status_message($ARGV[0])' 301
I have to agree with you that condensing the ranges like they do is pure laziness and not useful when, like yourself, you are looking for what a specific code means.
If they didn't have it on hand, a quick google search would turn up the w3c page that contains all of them and their explanations.