[Typo Patrol]: Typos & Similar Errors in Concept Exercise instructions, stub docstrings, & exemplar docstrings.

[Yrahcaz7]

As per this forum post, this issue will be a collection of all typos and similar errors I find from now on, grouped by exercise/concept.

Concept Exercises

• Locomotive Engineer (addressed in PR 4173):

  details

  • Typos in the docstrings in the stub:
    • Line 8 has an indentation of 7 spaces instead of 8.
    • Line 21 and 59 are missing the : that is normally in between the type and description of parameters.
    • On line 34, the parameter description "arbitrary number of stops." is not capitalized. Line 62 (list[tuple]: the list of rows of wagons.) is the same.
    • On line 59, the wagons_rows parameter is said to be of type list[tuple], but it is actually of type list[list[tuple]]. The return type has the same problem (line 62).
  • The exemplar solution's docstrings have most of these issues too, as well as an extra period at the end of line 11.
  • Typos in hints.md:
    • Line 5 has incorrect grammar, it should probably be something along these lines instead: "To extract multiple arguments in the function parameters, you can pack them with the *args operator for list or tuples or **kwargs for keyword-based arguments." This replaces "parameters so can you" with "parameters, you can".
    • The comma on line 14 isn't necessary and probably isn't grammatical anyway.
    • Line 31 isn't grammatical, it should be something along these lines instead: "zip(*iterators) can be used to transpose a nested list." This replaces "can use used" with "can be used".
  • Level three headers in the introduction render as normal text instead of headers in the website's code editor. Affected headers: "Deep unpacking", "Unpacking a list/tuple with *", "Unpacking a dictionary", "Packing a dictionary with **", "Unpacking into function calls". This might just be an issue with the website, though.

• Little Sister's Essay (addressed in PR 4172):

  details

  • Typos in the docstrings in the stub and the exemplar:
    • Line 34 has an indentation of 4 spaces instead of 8.
    • Line 34 also has 2 spaces in between the type and description instead of 1.

• Currency Exchange (addressed in PR 4178):

  details

  • Typos in the docstrings in the stub and the exemplar:
    • The example for get_change() on line 45 (line 43 in the exemplar) has a period before the >>>, unlike all the other examples.

• Little Sister's Vocabulary (addressed in PR 4172):

  details

  • Typos in the docstrings in the stub and the exemplar:
    • Lines 24-25 and 28-29 are wrapped unnaturally much before the normal wrap point.
  • Typos in hints.md:
    • Section "3. Remove a suffix from a word" (lines 25-27) has code that isn't surrounded by backticks, e.g. "'beautiful'[:-3] == 'beauti'" should be 'beautiful'[:-3] == 'beauti'

• Black Jack (addressed in PR 4171):

  details

  • Typos in the docstrings in the stub and the exemplar:
    • Line 15 has two double-spaces.
    • On line 37 (46 in the exemplar), the tuple type is mentioned, but it capitalizes it as "Tuple".

• Card Games (addressed in PR 4171):

  details

  • Typos in the docstrings in the stub and the exemplar:
    • Lines 11 and 24 have 2 spaces in between the type and description instead of 1.
    • Line 38 has an extra space in between the parameter name and the type.

• Making the Grade (addressed in PR 4175):

  details

  • Typos in the docstrings in the stub and the exemplar:
    • Lines 38 and 72 (lines 45 and 88 in the exemplar) have 2 spaces in between the type and description instead of 1.
    • Line 48 (line 60 in the exemplar) seems to have a remnant of the old format: highest: int - instead of highest (int):
    • Not sure if this is intentional or not: Line 8 has list[float|int] type, which is equivalent to list[float].
  • Typos in hints.md:
    • Lines 5 and 6 have the same sentence structure, but line 5 does not have a comma while line 6 does.
    • Line 8 mentions the range syntax, but the stop placeholder is not surrounded by angled brackets: range(<start>, stop, <step>) should be range(<start>, <stop>, <step>).
    • Line 13 is missing the parentheses on the append method: <list>.append should be <list>.append().
    • Not sure if this is intentional or not: Line 25 has two hyphens in a row instead of an em-dash.

• Tisbury Treasure Hunt (addressed in PR 4175):

  details

  • Typos in the docstrings in the stub and the exemplar:
    • Line 34 has 2 spaces in between the type and description instead of 1.
  • Typos in hints.md
    • Line 6 has an incorrect capitalization: "sequence Types" should be "sequence types".
    • Line 25 says "Pythons" when it should be "Python's" in that context.

• Ellen's Alien Game (addressed in PR 4176):

  details

  • Typos in introduction.md:
    • Lines 185 and 212 have an extra space between return and self.
  • Typos in instructions.md:
    • Lines 33-38 have strange line spacing that makes the 3 look disconnected from the >>> alien.health. The # Initialized health value. comment should probably be before the >>> alien.health, or at least the blank line in-between should be removed. (If the comment location is changed, the same change should probably be applied to the case at lines 106-108 as well.)
    • Line 123 is missing the ... at the beginning of the line to indicate that it is a continuation of the >>>.
  • Typos in the stub:
    • Lines 9 and 11 have an extra space between the attribute type and description.
    • Line 24 has an extra space between (Student): and Create.
  • Typos in the docstrings in the exemplar:
    • Lines 9, 11, 32, 34, and 62 have an extra space between the attribute type and description.
    • Line 98 has an indentation of 7 spaces instead of 8.
    • Line 98 also has an extra period at the end.
  • Typos in hints.md:
    • Line 23 has code that is split into two separate portions instead of unified: "self.<attribute> = <new attribute value>" should be "self.<attribute> = <new attribute value>".
    • On the last line (line 42), the sentence ends without any punctuation.

• Plane Tickets (addressed in PR 4180):

  details

  • Typos in instructions.md:
    • Line 78 has incorrect grammar, it should probably be something along these lines instead: "They want you to create a system that creates a unique ticket that is a 12 character long string code for identification." This replaces "is 12 characters long string" with "is a 12 character long string".
    • Line 81 is confusing, it should probably be something along these lines instead: "The rest of the code is filled with 0s." This replaces "is appended by 0s" with "is filled with 0s".
  • Typos in the docstrings in the stub and the exemplar:
    • On line 37 (line 42 in the exemplar), "example" is misspelled as "exampl".
    • Lines 42 and 56 (line 74 in the exemplar) are only single empty lines in between function definitions, when elsewhere in the file (and in the track as a whole) there are always two blank lines in between functions.

Concept Docs

• Classes (addressed in PR 4176):

  details

  • Typos in about.md:
    • The footnote on lines 188 and 191 is a bit confusing, so it would be better if the link was just on line 188. Even if it is kept how it is, the stray underscore on line 191 should be removed.
    • Lines 243 and 270 have an extra space between return and self.

• Strings (addressed in PR 4172):

  details

  • Typos in introduction.md:
    • On line 13, "Pythons" should be "Python's".
  • Typos in about.md:
    • On line 7, "Pythons" should be "Python's".
    • Line 12 has incorrect grammar, it should probably be something along these lines instead: "Strings can be concatenated with <str> + <other str> or <str>.join(<iterable>), as well as split via <str>.split(<separator>). They also offer multiple formatting, assembly, and templating options."
    • Line 104 mentions the slice syntax, but the stop placeholder is not surrounded by angled brackets: <str>[<start>:stop:<step>] should be <str>[<start>:<stop>:<step>].

• Basics (addressed in PR 4179):

  details

  • Typos in introduction.md:
    • Line 63 has a comma before an & instead of a space.
    • The comment on line 75 is not capitalized and has no space after the #.
    • On line 107, it says "The details of None will be covered in a later exercise." However, there is no exercise for the None concept, so it should say "The details of None will be covered in a later concept."
  • Typos in about.md:
    • On line 105, "functions.," has a period before the comma.
    • Line 117 has a comma before the & even though it isn't a list of items.
    • The comment on line 129 is not capitalized and has no space after the #.
    • On line 160, it says "The details of None will be covered in a later exercise." However, there is no exercise for the None concept, so it should say "The details of None will be covered in a later concept."
    • Line 211 is missing the ... at the beginning of the line to indicate that it is a continuation of the >>>.
    • Not sure if this is intentional or not: On line 75 and 242, there is no >>> before the import statement.
    • Not sure if this is intentional or not: Lines 276 and 288 are unnecessary empty lines at the beginning and end of a code block. Other code blocks don't seem to have empty lines like this.

• Numbers (addressed in PR 4178):

  details

  • Typos in about.md:
    • Line 138 mentions the round() syntax, but the number placeholder is not surrounded by angled brackets: round(number, <decimal_places>) should be round(<number>, <decimal_places>).

• Bools (addressed in PR 4178):

  details

  • Typos in about.md:
    • Lines 25, 28, 48, 51, 54, 57, 60, 63, 66, 98, 101, 109, and 112 are missing the space in between >>> and the expression.
    • The literals on line 116 are not surrounded with backticks. It should probably be "(such as 1, '', [], or {})".

• Conditionals (addressed in PR 4179):

  details

  • Typos in introduction.md:
    • Lines 61 to 70 are missing the ... at the beginning of the line to indicate that they are a continuation of the >>>.
  • Typos in about.md:
    • Lines 62 to 71, 86 to 93, 107 to 117, and 155 to 158 are missing the ... at the beginning of the line to indicate that they are a continuation of the >>>.
    • Line 133 has code syntax that is split into separate portions instead of unified: "<value if True> if <conditional test> else <value if False>" should probably be "<value if True> if <conditional test> else <value if False>"
    • The code in the code block on lines 153 to 178 says "Falsey", while the previous paragraph spelled it as "falsy".
    • Not sure if this is intentional or not: Line 60 is an unnecessary empty line at the beginning of a code block. Other code blocks don't seem to have an empty line like this.

• Comparisons (addressed in PR 4171):

  details

  • Typos in about.md:
    • Line 149 has code syntax that is split into separate portions instead of unified: "x < y and y <= z" should probably be "x < y and y <= z"
    • Lines 183 and 221 has a redundant empty >>> statement.
    • Not sure if this is intentional or not: Line 15 says "if and only if" while line 16 only says "if". (This is also present in introduction.md.)

• String Methods (addressed in PR 4172):

  details

  • Typos in about.md:
    • Line 9 has incorrect grammar, it should probably be something along these lines instead: "Strings can be concatenated with <str> + <other str> or <str>.join(<iterable>), as well as split via <str>.split(<separator>). They also offer multiple formatting, assembly, and templating options."
    • The syntaxes on line 15 are missing the <str>. that the other ones have. For example, startswith(<substr>) would be <str>.startswith(<substr>).
    • Line 36 has >> instead of >>>.
    • Line 120 has an unparsed :star: emoji.
    • On line 147, it says "Python also supports regular expressions via the re module, which will be covered in a future exercise." However, there is no exercise for the Regular Expressions concept, so it should say "Python also supports regular expressions via the re module, which will be covered in a future concept."

• Lists (addressed in PR 4171):

  details

  • Typos in about.md:
    • Lines 52 to 60 and 68 to 71 are missing the ... at the beginning of the line to indicate that they are a continuation of the >>>.
    • Line 177 mentions the slice syntax, but the start and stop placeholders are not surrounded by angled brackets: <list>[start:stop] should be <list>[<start>:<stop>].
    • Not sure if this is intentional or not: Line 338 has strange spacing, it would look nicer if it was game_grid = [[0]*8]*8 or game_grid = [[0]*8] * 8.

• List Methods (addressed in PR 4179):

  details

  • Typos in about.md:
    • Line 14 has a extra/stray underscore: "(at minimum_)".
    • Line 50 has an extra period at the end; there is one on both sides of the closing parenthesis. The sentence is also extremely long, the part in parentheses should probably be its own sentence.

• Loops (addressed in PR 4175):

  details

  • Typos in about.md:
    • Lines 34 and 98 are unnecessary empty lines at the beginning of a code block. Other code blocks don't seem to have an empty line like this.
    • Lines 179 and 181 have an indentation of 7 spaces when it should be 8.
    • Line 205 is an empty line. If this is intentional, it should have a ... to indicate it is a continuation of the >>>.
    • Either lines 206 to 209 should have an indentation of 1 space instead of 0, or lines 228 and 229 should have an indentation of 0 spaces when it should be 1.
    • Line 230 has an indentation of 3 spaces when it should be 4.
    • Not sure if this is intentional or not: The code block on lines 154 to 167 don't use the >>> syntax like all of the others.

• Tuples (addressed in PR 4175):

  details

  • Typos in about.md:
    • Line 84 has <element)1> instead of <element_1>.
    • Line 105 should probably have a comma after "which unpacks each tuple".
    • Lines 125, 175, 177, 186, and 208 are unnecessary empty lines at the beginning or end of a code block. Other code blocks don't seem to have an empty line like this.
    • Lines 126, 149, and 176 have a space before the closing parenthesis.
    • Lines 152 and 161 are empty lines in the middle of a >>>/... block. They should either be removed or replaced with a ....
    • Line 160 is missing a space between the last + operator and string: +".".
    • Lines 188 to 192 and lines 195 to 200 have extreme over-indentation.

• Dicts (addressed in PR 4177):

  details

  • Typos in introduction.md:
    • On line 7, keys are mentioned as "Keys". This should probably be changed to "Keys" or "keys".
    • Line 9 says "lists, dicts, or sets". For consistency, this should be "lists, dicts, or sets".
  • Typos in about.md:
    • On line 6, keys are mentioned as "Keys". This should probably be changed to "Keys" or "keys".
    • Line 8 says "lists, dicts, or sets". For consistency, this should be "lists, dicts, or sets".
    • Line 23 is missing a space between "class" and "method".
    • The wording in line 24 is odd, it should probably be "Using" instead of "Creating".
    • The list on lines 23 to 27 has a period at the end of the last item, but not the other items. All items should be consistent with ending in punctuation versus not.
    • Lines 39, 58, 59, 63 to 65, 153 to 155, and 216 to 220 are missing the ... to indicate that the line is a continuation of the >>>.
    • For consistency with the previous lines, the "dicts" on line 48 should be "dicts".
    • For the code block on lines 75 to 106, decreasing the amount of spaces used to indicate indentation levels would greatly increase readability. It's practically incomprehensible on the website because of the over-indentation and wrapping.
    • On line 188, the .pop() syntax is mentioned, but the dict placeholder does not have angled brackets: dict.pop(<key>, <default value>) should be <dict>.pop(<key>, <default value>).
    • Line 211 has incorrect grammar: "You can also use the del statement to remove a single or multiple entries." This should be changed to be something like the following: "You can also use the del statement to remove one or multiple entries." This changes "a single" to "one".
    • Line 212 misspells "KeyError" as "KeError".
    • Lines 248 and 260 have a >>> when it should be a ....
    • Line 248 does not have a space between the # and the comment.
    • Line 278 has a stray comma.

• Dict Methods:

  • Typos in about.md:
    • On line 4, "dicts" should be "dicts".
    • Lines 7 to 14 have many missing angled brackets. This is also present in introduction.md.
    • Line 10 has a stray period.
    • Lines 19, 22, and 23 are missing angled brackets around the key placeholders.
    • On line 22, "KeyError" should probably be "KeyError".
    • Line 41 is missing angled brackets around the iterable placeholder.
    • Some lines are missing the ... to indicate that the line is a continuation of the >>>. These lines are 60, 61, 90, 91, 129, 130, 153, 154, 156, 157, 170 to 174, 177, 178, 199, 200, 203, 204, 221, 222, 244 to 248, 281 to 284, 303, and 319 to 329.
    • There is a stray space on line 139 between print() and its argument. It was probably supposed to be before the print as indentation.
    • Line 169 has extra spaces between the = and the {.
    • Lines 336 and 339 do not have spaces in between the # and the comment.
    • Not sure if this is intentional or not: Lines 74 and 77 are empty lines around the error traceback.

• Sets:

  • Typos in both introduction.md and about.md:
    • On line 6, frozensets should be frozenset.
    • Line 12 is missing a comma at the end.
    • Line 15 should probably have a period at the end.
  • Typos in just about.md:
    • Some lines are missing the ... to indicate that the line is a continuation of the >>>. These lines are 46, 47, 68, 74, 113, 114, 123, 124, 190, 194 to 203, 285, 288, 317, 343 to 354, 357, 377 to 379, 382 to 384, 387 to 390, 436, 437, 440, 441, 444, 445, 448 to 451, and 454.
    • On line 177, "sets or frozensets" should be "sets or frozensets".
    • On line 182, "sets" should be "set's".
    • Lines 278 and 280 have incorrect backtick placement:
      • Line 278 should be "A set is a proper subset if (<set> <= <other_set>) AND (<set> != <other_set>) for the < operator."
      • Line 280 should be "A set is a proper superset if (<set> >= <other_set>) AND (<set> != <other_set>) for the > operator."
    • Line 339 is missing spaces and the - operator in between ... and <other set n>.
    • Line 373 is missing the & operator in between ... and <other set n>.

• Unpacking and Multiple Assignment:

  • Typos in about.md:
    • On line 11, "lists/tuples" should be "lists/tuples". (Also present in introduction.md).
    • Line 76 does not have correct grammar, this could be fixed by adding an "a" in between "unpack the elements of" and "list/tuple/dictionary".
    • On line 97, "values" should be "value's".

• Generators:

  • about.md:
    • Line 40 is a bit confusing: "Generators may be used in place of most iterables in Python. This includes functions or objects that require an iterable/iterator as an argument." I think it should strictly state that generators are a type of iterator, and that they can be used anywhere that expects an iterable/iterator, just not a specific type of iterable/iterator like a list. This is cleared up in the "Difference between iterables and generators" section, but that section is only a side note in Plane Tickets.

• Binary, Octal, and Hexadecimal:

  • Typos in introduction.md:
    • The top header is not title cased.
  • Typos in about.md:
    • Line 21 does not seem grammatical. It should probably be: "So if we want to represent the number 6 in binary, it would be 110."
    • Lines 44, 151, and 188 have a redundant comment.
    • The code blocks on lines 80 to 88, 133 to 135, 165 to 167, and 202 to 204 do not acutally end, they are missing the triple backticks at the end. This messes up the formatting of the following headers and paragraphs.
    • The header on line 178 should be a level 2 header, not a level 3 one. Right now, the "Hexadecimal" header is under the "Octal" header, which seems unintentional.
    • On line 185, "int" should be "ints".
    • Line 193 has a single hyphen ("-") instead of an em-dash ("—"). The grammar on this line is also a little strange, it should probably end with "operations with them." instead of just "operations."

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[BethanyG]

Tempted to play with making sub-issues here ... but probably can't afford the "yak shaving" distraction.

[BethanyG]

In going back through the Mechamuch exercise, I realized there were typos in the hints.md file as well. I DO NOT want to add to the workload (so feel free to skip these if you want), but thought I'd point you to that file as well as a source of .... 🐛 🐛 🐛 . 😄 You can find the hints.md files under the .docs directory ( https://github.com/exercism/python/blob/main/exercises/concept/<exercise name>/.docs/hints.md.)

[BethanyG]

Not sure if this is intentional or not: Line 25 has two hyphens in a row instead of an em-dash.

..just proof I'm not a bot or AI model. Purportedly, em-dashes are a sign of AI. 😆

I am particularly offended by this bit of AI accusation, but agree an em-dash should go there. 😄

[Yrahcaz7]

While I was at it, I looked through the hints.md files for all of the exercises that I already had entries for in the issue. A few of them had some typos and I added those to the list.

I'll probably leave the list as-is for now until I finish learning mode.

[Yrahcaz7]

I finished the Ellen's Alien Game and Plane Tickets exercises (though still waiting for a mentor on Plane Tickets) and added the typos I found in those to the list.

I haven't read through all the concept docs after I completed the respective exercises, though, so there might still be some unfound typos in those.

[Yrahcaz7]

Since I'm finding quite a few typos in the concept docs, I separated those out into a different header. The post is becoming quite a big text wall now 😅.