Thanks for your comments. My experiences writing computer books go back to the first wave--back in the 1980s. Everyone was buying their first computer--mine was an Apple II+ and after a while I got a disk drive and didn't have to use my tape recorder to record my programs but could save them on a big 140k floppy. Learning AppleSoft Basic or any kind of BASIC was a pain because the only computer books available back then were generic Basic. This was before Amazon.com, and I remember thinking that I could do a better job than the generic Basic books and wrote a book on AppleSoft that took off 100,000 copies right off the bat. Then I did it again with the first Commodore 64 book 350,000 copies. Then the bottom fell out (for the first time.)

However, it came back again with HyperCard, and with my first earnings from my HyperCard book, I went and bought an airplane. Then it went away again.

However, like the proverbial pendulum it came back like gangbusters with Java (as you noted) and everything Internet. I missed that altogether, but with an early Flash book which was right around the bubble burst, things were good again.

My own opinion is that books like the Head First series represent their own revolution. Smart books, innovatively crafted will always be important.

Kindest regards,
Bill Sanders