Book review: Ansible, from Beginner to Pro

content/reviews/books/ansible-from-beginner-to-pro.md

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+title = "Ansible: From Beginner to Pro - Michael Heap"
+date = 2020-04-03
+
+[taxonomies]
+tags = {'books", "reviews", "ti", "ansible", "michael heap"]
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+
+[GoodReads Summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29201033-ansible):
+This book is your concise guide to Ansible, the simple way to automate apps
+and IT infrastructure. In less than 250 pages, this book takes you from
+knowing nothing about configuration management to understanding how to use
+Ansible in a professional setting.
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+{{ stars(stars=3) }}
+
+It's kinda hard to put a review on this. I mean, yes, it takes you from the
+basics of Ansible, explaining how to build a playbook, split things into
+roles, adding triggers... the normal Ansible stuff.
+
+The problem lies on the Python part. Ansible is built on top of Python and the
+book mentions the current version of Python: 2.6. Problem is, Python 2.6 was
+released in 2008 and the 2.x series in unsupported at this point. Surely, it's
+a matter of time for this kind of stuff to happen, but still...
+
+Also, it seems the author didn't really know Python. The last part, when
+talking about building your own Ansible module, it uses the long version to
+build dictionaries, `dict(key=value)`, instead of the classic and short
+`{'key': value}`. There is no explanation why use this version instead.
+
+Sure, at this point, it helps beginners with Ansible, but I'm not quite sure
+if the "Pro" part still holds up.