Well I’m not the best one to answer that question but to put things in context (there is that word again):
- The book as it stands now will work the smoothest with 1.1.6 (2016-06-03) (through 1.1.9 (2017-05-15) may work as well).
- Meanwhile 1.2.0 released 2016-06-23 - so if you were using the latest version even back then there were some kinks to work out.
- I seem recall that Chris proclaimed in a number of talks that 1.3 isn’t that different from 1.2 (though he may have just been referring to the directory structure).
Also if I’m assessing your development background correctly, there is a chance that you may find the current incarnation of the book less jarring (especially if you slavishly stick to 1.1.6) as the first half of the book is pretty much in your typical “lets build a simple web application” style with all the usual trappings of setting up routing, controllers, etc. - it’s only in the second part of the book where the gears shift more toward the “phoenix is not your application” mindset. The new edition could possibly put “phoenix is not your application” more front and centre.
So it may be an idea to get through 1.1.6 now and then switch gears by giving Designing for Scalability with Erlang/OTP a go (given that you already completed Elixir in Action DSEOs Chapter 2 on Erlang is probably enough). Hopefully by the time you’ve finished that, the Phoenix 1.3 version of the book is available and you can skim through it with your new found understanding of OTP and deep dive into the parts that are new to you.
