The author of this particular book made his choice based on his experience teaching the course. While, of course no one can stop you from criticising his choice, on any day, I'd respect his opinion more than that of an angry internet commenter as he (the author of the book) has more invested in it _and_ has given free resource to the community after putting a lot of work into it.
I mostly agree with your sentiment. But I don't necessarily see it as a question of respecting one opinion more than the other. The author of the book didn't make a statement like "books without solutions are universally" better or anything.
But he did make it clear that he optimized for one particular audience (his students at Illinois) over another possible audience (self-learners). And on that, he totally has the right to make that choice. It's unfortunate that some commentators ignored that point, or choose to be critical anyway.
OTOH, just because something is free doesn't mean that people can't criticize, IMO. The question just kinda becomes "what's the point of the criticism?" If one doesn't find this book useful, they're under no obligation to use it. And the author isn't likely to change his position based on a few grouchy Internet commentators.
Personally I appreciate what the author has done and am glad his book is out there. Do I prefer books with solutions in general? Yes. Does that matter in this particular context? No.
> If one doesn't find this book useful, they're under no obligation to use it. And the author isn't likely to change his position based on a few grouchy Internet commentators.
Yes this is what I don't understand. Why are there so many critical posts about this particular decision? Why didn't those users just close their browser tab and move on with life? They are bring offered a free resource, it doesn't meet their needs/desires, they choose to complain. It seems very rude to me. The few who have suggested alternatives are contributing.
