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On 12/10/2011 15:48, Roberto Ierusalimschy wrote:

The book gives us more than pocket money


Good, you deserve it!

> (although not enough for a 50

foot yacht yet).


Perhaps a 50 inch one, then...


In fact, buying books is a very good way to contribute
to the project. So, currently we have no plans to put newer editions
free online.


Too bad, but understandable.


Alexander has reasons for his complain. Many people arrive at the book
through Google, frequently landing right on a particular page. No amount
of warning in the main page will help. And the outdated information may
be a real source of noise.
Yes, but putting it online was probably a very good idea, helping spreading usage of Lua, I think. Starving programmers can get the info, wealthy ones get an idea of what they will have and buy the 2nd ed. book.
(I got my copy from my Amazon Gift list, from somebody I helped in a programming, non-Lua domain.)
In a similar idea, Odersky & al. have put the 1st ed. of Programming in Scala online shortly after the 2nd ed. was out. Outdated information too (was for Scala 2.7, lot of changes in 2.8) but still a valuable source of info, and a good ad for the 2nd ed. 


To remove PiL 1 from the site seems a too radical "solution"
Indeed! At least for the above reasons. And you would get unofficial 2nd hand copies circulating, in HTML, PDF or CHM incarnations... 


Another would be to add a
generic warning (maybe with a link to the "Incompatibilities" section of
the manual and adds for the second edition ;) at the top of every page.
Yes, a generally good idea. I suppose you meant "ads for the 2nd ed.", which is a fair move. :-) 

--
Philippe Lhoste
--  (near) Paris -- France
--  http://Phi.Lho.free.fr
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