Hi Kevin, In a crazy way: this is good news! I was worried that you had talked to lots of users and they all told you "we are stuck with 0.23 because ...". That would have meant a lot of work for the scikit-learn maintaienrs.
If it is "just" because writing a book and getting it shipped is a boat load of work, then that is good news (for the scikit-learn maintainers). Good luck with the book!! I'll keep reading (not just the intro section) T On Thu, 12 Mar 2026 at 15:47, Kevin Markham <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Tim, > > That's a great question. Thank you for asking and giving me the > opportunity to explain! > > The book actually began as a video course, which I started working on in > 2020. I locked down most of the code examples that year (using 0.23.2), and > thought I would be able to publish the course in 2021. > > However, the script writing and recording and editing took far longer than > expected, plus there were long breaks while I worked on other projects, and > ultimately I was not able to publish the course until 2024. Many > scikit-learn updates had occurred by the time I was recording the later > chapters, but I couldn't afford (time-wise) to re-record and re-edit the > earlier chapters. I felt it was critical that the course used one > consistent scikit-learn version, so it remained at 0.23.2. > > Because I received such great feedback about the video course, I decided > (in 2025) to convert the course into a book. Even though Quarto did much of > the heavy lifting, it still took hundreds of hours to turn 7.5 hours of > video into a published book with four formats (website, EPUB, ebook PDF, > print-ready PDF). > > I would have loved to update the scikit-learn version (and incorporate > newer features) while writing, but I knew that if I committed to updating > the content (rather than just adapting it from video to text), the book > would never get done. > > I do assume that readers of the book will be using a much more modern > version of scikit-learn, and in fact 98% of the code in the book is still > correct today. For the last 2%, I mention the relevant API changes within > the text. > > In short, the decision to use 0.23.2 is a legacy of the process I took to > get here, not a strategic choice, and I'd much rather have used the latest > version! I'm deeply grateful for the work that continues to go into > scikit-learn development, and I continue to personally benefit from the > latest changes. > > Ultimately this book is a passion project, and I expect to make very > little money from it. But I sincerely hope that I can find the passion (and > time!) to publish a second edition that incorporates the latest features! > > Thanks again, > Kevin > > > On Mar 12, 2026 at 3:11:12 AM, Tim Head via scikit-learn < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Hi Kevin, >> >> out of interest, how did you decide to use scikit-learn v0.23 in the >> book? I was surprised by that because it is a fairly old version. Lots of >> effort has gone into scikit-learn since then, so understanding why people >> choose (or are forced to?) use such old versions would be useful. >> >> T >> >> On Wed, 11 Mar 2026 at 22:38, Kevin Markham <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Hi Thomas, >>> >>> Thank you so much for your suggestion! I’d love to include that (and >>> many of the other newer features) in a future edition of the book, assuming >>> there’s enough interest! >>> >>> Best, >>> Kevin >>> >>> >>> On Mar 11, 2026 at 3:33:31 PM, Thomas Fan via scikit-learn < >>> [email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> Thank you for sharing! >>>> >>>> In the “Tuning the decision threshold” section, scikit-learn now has a >>>> TunedThresholdClassifierCV! >>>> It could be worthwhile to include in the second edition. 😆 >>>> >>>> 3.3. Tuning the decision threshold for class prediction >>>> <https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/classification_threshold.html#tunedthresholdclassifiercv> >>>> scikit-learn.org >>>> <https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/classification_threshold.html#tunedthresholdclassifiercv> >>>> [image: favicon.ico] >>>> <https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/classification_threshold.html#tunedthresholdclassifiercv> >>>> <https://scikit-learn.org/stable/modules/classification_threshold.html#tunedthresholdclassifiercv> >>>> >>>> Best, >>>> Thomas >>>> >>>> On Mar 11, 2026, at 10:30 AM, Kevin Markham <[email protected]> >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>> Hello scikit-learn community! >>>> >>>> Last week I published a new book called “Master Machine Learning with >>>> scikit-learn”, and as my gift to the community, I’ve made it free to read >>>> online (with no ads and no registration required): >>>> >>>> https://mlbook.dataschool.io >>>> >>>> I designed it to be a “practitioner’s handbook" for the effective use >>>> of scikit-learn, covering many practical topics that I’ve not seen covered >>>> elsewhere. I hope that it fills a useful role in the ecosystem of >>>> scikit-learn educational resources, and perhaps even plays a tiny role in >>>> ensuring the long-term success of the library. (I’ve already heard from two >>>> teachers who would like to use the book in their classrooms, which is great >>>> news!) >>>> >>>> If you're a current or former Core Contributor, I would be honored to >>>> send you a free paperback copy as a token of my appreciation. Just reply to >>>> me (not the list!) with your mailing address and I’ll ship you a copy from >>>> Amazon. (It’s already available in a dozen countries, and I’m actively >>>> working to expand distribution elsewhere.) >>>> >>>> Thanks! >>>> Kevin >>>> >>>> P.S. In case you’re curious, I used Quarto to output the book website, >>>> ebook (PDF and EPUB), and paperback from a single set of source files. >>>> Quarto is amazing!!! >>>> >>>> Kevin Markham >>>> Founder, Data School >>>> ML book on Amazon: https://geni.us/MasterML >>>> Data Science courses: https://courses.dataschool.io >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> scikit-learn mailing list -- [email protected] >>>> To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] >>>> https://mail.python.org/mailman3//lists/scikit-learn.python.org >>>> Member address: [email protected] >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> scikit-learn mailing list -- [email protected] >>>> To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] >>>> https://mail.python.org/mailman3//lists/scikit-learn.python.org >>>> Member address: [email protected] >>>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> scikit-learn mailing list -- [email protected] >>> To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] >>> https://mail.python.org/mailman3//lists/scikit-learn.python.org >>> Member address: [email protected] >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> scikit-learn mailing list -- [email protected] >> To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] >> https://mail.python.org/mailman3//lists/scikit-learn.python.org >> Member address: [email protected] >> > _______________________________________________ > scikit-learn mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > https://mail.python.org/mailman3//lists/scikit-learn.python.org > Member address: [email protected] >
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