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Hey there, Head First fans. It's been a crazy year for us here at Head First, and we've been working hard to end the year on an amazing, Joe-Frank-and-Jim would-love-this note. You've already seen our latest newsletter, where we've made sample chapters available for our four latest books. But never ones to be satisfied, we've got some more gifts you can put under your tree.
First, and probably most exciting to the little elves here in Head First land, not one, not two, but all of the Head First books are now available as PDFs. Surf on over to this complete list of Head First titles, and check it out. You can buy PDFs of every single one. That's right, now you've got the perfect companion for those 18-hour drives home to visit family... without the heft of 50 pounds of books to weigh you down. You've been asking for it for years, so it's our pleasure to make PDF books available for purchase. Check 'em out, and let us know what you think!
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This is great news. I've been waiting for it for several years.
Excellent ! I've already devoured the hard-copy X-HTML with CSS and the .pdf is fantastic (already purchased it). Now I can study at work and no one will know, ha ha.
Hi Brett - I just spent a few minutes typing in some comments only to lose it because I couldn't read the security text at the bottom 100% correctly and your error-checking script dumped my commnets and brought me back to a blank screen. This after I had already entered (correctly) a different security text block in to preview my comments. Not nice!
Here goes a third attempt.
I just bought the book (published TWO YEARS AGO) and went to the website to find the following statements. I'm a little surprised at the lack of follow-up on these very dated promises. Greg
"Note: THIS CODE WON'T WORK unless you have PHP installed on your machine. We're working on getting some Head-First-style documentation for doing that, but in the meantime you can see this discussion on the Head Rush Ajax forum regarding different easy ways to get PHP.
Download the example files for the entire book: Full download COMING SOON"
I think it's a total rip-off to have ALL 4 upcoming HF titles available as full PDFs for MORE $$, and then N O T have all of them available on SafariOnline.com, where I'm already paying highest subscription rate ($42.99/month).
I also don't think it is right of you (Brett), to announce this here, but then N O T return to your own HF FORUMS to address this missing title (HF PHP & MySQL) since your last visit in mid-November.
And NOW ... on DEC 30... I can order it from AMAZON.COM for $30, in addition to O'Reilly's order-as-PDF for $36, but still not on Safari, and still no word from/about Safari, Head First, nor O'Reilly. :/
Raphaela-
It might surprise you, but thanks for your comments. A couple of notes...
First, apologies for the delay. The entire team is on vacation until the new year (in fact, I'm on vacation right now).
Second, and most importantly, I understand your frustration. All Head First titles will absolutely be on Safari; however, it takes longer to convert our graphic-rich titles to Safari than to any other format (PDFs are literally a button click; Safari is a much more intensive process, to allow for searching, indexing, context-specific links, etc.).
While it would be nice to have all titles available first on Safari, that's simply not possible. The instant we can get a title to the printer, or available via PDF or Rough Cuts, we get those titles out: we want everyone to have access to any format possible as soon as possible. In this case, that means a PDF is available in many cases _before_ the printed book, and the printed book is available _before_ Safari.
Will Head First PHP & MySQL be on Safari soon? Of course... as soon as we can get it converted. But we don't think it's fair to hold up other formats to get it on Safari first. I'm sure you can understand that we haven't chosen a specific order to release things in; rather, we've gotten the book out in as many formats as possible, as quickly as possible.
As to not being on the forums often, you're absolutely right. We (and me in particular) have spent the last three months doing little other than getting all four new titles out before 2008. We made the judgment call that our time was best spent on getting out all four titles, instead of getting, say, three out and being active on forums, blogs, etc. While I know that may seem silly - how much time can posting really take? - we can say, very honestly, that it took every second we all had to make all four titles available for you and everyone else for Christmas.
Hopefully you'll understand our decisions, and see that they don't reflect bias at all; in fact, they reflect us wanting to get books, in every form, into as many hands as possible.
Thanks
Brett
We bought the book last year, I think on Amazon. Will we be able to get the PDF without paying extra for it?
I also purchased a hard copy of several (like 5) of the Head First books before the PDFs became available. I love your books, and I find them to be VERY helpful. As a minimalist, I'd actually prefer the PDFs - especially since I travel often. Can you offer a feature where those who register their hard copies can obtain the PDF for free or at least at a discounted cost? I mean, after all, you do offer bundles for people who want to buy both the PDF and the hard copy, and we didn't have that option when we bought ours.
I would like to second Nicole Baker's request to be able to purchase the PDFs at a discounted price. Two situations for me, one being given the books as presents and the other being the books I purchased.
I currently only can afford to buy either one o the otehr (PDF vs. hardcopy), and for learning purposes I need the hardcopy first. However, in the future I would like to be able to purchase the PDF for travel purposes. This also is an issue since the two books I currently own were gifts, and the price limit only afforded a hardcopy.