I was actually thinking about buying one of these two books awhile ago, so accidentally finding it as a freely downloadable book was a nice touch.

• Dive Into Python: Python from Novice to Pro
• PHP 5 Power Programming, by Derick Rethans and Andi Gutmans

You can probably tell which book I was interested in from the bolded names. Either way, I've been looking for a good way to get into Python as well and I think the other book is a great start. I hope others will also get something out of this!

Thanks!

The second one is only a sample chapter, isn't it?

The first one has always been free, similar to the PHP book on Hudzilla I believe. The PHP 5 Power Programming link is in fact the entire book, the only difference is that the ebook has fruity page decorations. I like how they originally sold and and now it's free, it's like saying that you might as well pirate their books in the first place.

@Rikki: There's a sample chapter download, and a book download. Gotta find the proper link.

@IAIHMB: I agree with this. The book is copyright 2004, and I think they should have waited another year (3 in total) before releasing it as an eBook. Three years is a long time in relation to technology, and since PHP6 will be all the rage simetime in 2007 (or is it slated for 2008?), this book will be a bit less useful, though the concepts still are important.

O'Reilly waits either 3 or 5 years before releasing their books as eBooks (once they're out of publication) and I think that's probably the best bet.

It could be that their sales just weren't as good as they hoped too. Who knows.

Hell, the first search result for "PHP 5 Power Programming" is the ebook itself. Something doesn't seem kosher here, even on the Prentice Hall website you can only get it in dead tree format or on Oreilly's Safari Bookshelf. Ah well, that was the only book that I actually liked from them, and it's collecting dust anyways.

Wow, great book!

Thanks a lot!

If you or anyone have knowledge of anything else like this, feel free to share.!