First off, kudos to those involved for publishing this book online with a GNU Free Document License1. Nice to see that reaching a wider audience takes priority over making a quick buck or two.
The first two chapters of the book are currently located at http://www.djangobook.com/. Check out its extremely slick comments system while you’re there.
A per-block comment system is an idea I toyed with for awhile, but I never figured out a reasonable interface for it. The Django Book does it very elegantly—I was more wow-ed by the UI design than the tech side of it to be honest. Linux + Firefox 1.5 users will get a warning dialog box – just hit “continue” instead of “stop script”. Firefox 2 handles the page just fine.
My only gripe with the book is that I wish it was written backwards! I’ve worked with Django for a while now, so I’d have a lot more to gain from the more advanced chapters. Will definitely keep tabs on the chapters as they come in though for a fresh perspective on things.
Those of you wanting to get your feet wet, don’t wait for the book. The official documentation on the project site is more than adequate.
1 Which reminds me – I really need to put a Creative Commons notice in my template.
