I think most of us on HN realize it's gonna take more than a few days and a few pages of reading to truly understand what it takes to create a programming language, not to mention becoming the next Guido or Matz. The table of contents looks more like it's an introduction to the concepts with the added bonus of having working code by the time you're done reading. Don't get me wrong - I think the concept and content look great. It's just that you're telling me I'm going to be Larry Wall by Friday and I know that's not true. The message undercuts the content IMO.

My other gripe is with the price. $40 seems high for a 44-page document. I'd buy it if the price was lower.

BTW - thanks for Thin! Because I know your name and work the content came off as sarcasm to me at first, but I could definitely see how someone without this prior knowledge might think it's a scam. Best of luck with this book; it does truly look cool.

Thanks for the comments, you're right, I'll definitely change the copy on the site.

The copywriting is a little over the top, but my suggestion is for the book itself.

I'd like to see more details. Your sample chapter on Lexers, for example, would be much stronger if you went into more details (maybe 3-4 pages) on how a scanner identifies a token, how it knows when it has reached the end of a word, how it recognizes and handles whitespace, why it's important to keep track of indentation and newlines, what is the difference between keywords and other identifiers, etc. Maybe also give a written explanation describing what each section of your lexer for Awesome is doing.

Please consider this as constructive criticism: I think the book is a good idea, but I also think it needs more meat. I don't know how easy it is to revise it at this time, but I think you'd have better luck if you added more details.

"The copywriting is a little over the top,"

a little?

"Become the next Guido Van Rossum, Matz, Larry Wall or Rasmus Lerdorf by creating your own revolutionary programming language in a few days"

Heh heh!

Lose 120 pounds in six minutes!

...even if you only weight 80 pounds.

I've always wanted to weight -40 pounds; where do I sign up?

I sure do take this as constructive criticism :) The idea of the book is to build a simple language not the strongest or more complete one ever. I'll add more details and change the copy on the site. Thx a lot for the suggestions!

I, for one, enjoyed the humor of the parodying of get rich quick sites. If need be you could put a disclaimer, for those that don't detect the humor in the hyperbole, that the book is a playful introduction rather than a comprehensive tome.