Really, you don't understand why a programmer would want a digital version of a programming book in 2014? You don't have to agree, but I'm surprised that someon

Really, you don't understand why a programmer would want a digital version of a programming book in 2014? You don't have to agree, but I'm surprised that someone would claim to not even understand it. I don't think they are in a position to assess it, and I think it is a poor decision, so I don't really respect it. This is like saying only the RIAA are in a position to assess the effect of piracy and using this as rationale to keep something off iTunes. My prediction is that they will soon discover that most of those pirates won't suddenly buy the paper version, and neither will anybody who previously only bought the ebook version. They will also lose a fair bit of the word-of-mouth promotion from anyone who was a fan of the ebook version. This story ends with them eventually caving and releasing an ebook version again, so they're just throwing away sales between now and then, and since release time is when the majority of purchases occur, they'll permanently lose that benefit.