As a fan of David's earlier Picaxe booklets, I see his new book as being a great aid when wrestling with applications for these dirt cheap microcontroller darlings. The book works at many levels, since with beginner, intermediate, & experienced sections it should appeal to schools as well as being a good reference for old hands, hobbyists and -gasp- even engineers.
Wearing my photo journalist's hat & given the A1 technology now available, at least a few PICTURES would have been appreciated, since layout circuits are just simple line drawings akin to those in his earlier "Mechatronics" booklets. Perhaps things more in the style of the Rev.Ed .pdfs would have better caught the eye? This is naturally both an initial marketing AND educational end user issue- kids steaming in classrooms during Australian heatwaves need stimulating.
I'd personally have whipped up a bit of early can do enthusiasm as well (photos of pre teens robots, "girls can do anything" smart traffic lights,old codgers with balloon wireless weather telemetry etc -all with "it works" smiles), but then that's -ahem- my own style!
Since many texts now come with a back cover CD, or are perhaps web linked for copy & paste downloads, users will be faced with -argh!- raw code entry as neither are included. Although of course this will be educational,longer programs (such as David's great phone exchange) really need more productive linking, as typos will surely otherwise arise. I well recall pages of games code listings in early 1980s computer mags (VIC-20, Spectrum etc)that lead to keyboard angst & weary eyes...
All up I'd say every electronics class, school and library should have a copy. Perhaps the biggest compliment I can make is that this book is one I should have perhaps rustled up myself!
Stan. SWAN ( author of numerous "Silicon Chip" Picaxe articles 2003-5)