Thank you all for such a warm reception. It did take an insane amount of work for just such a simple idea! (Dont most things?!) Lets see if I can address some of the thoughts here....
First of all I had to make a lot of 'executive' decisions about what would or would not be put in there. I only have so much time to put this together and there can only be so much taught in a 1 semester class. (An unfortunate back injury meant I had 4 weeks lying on the couch to type and edit!) So from my perspective I will be workshopping the material with my students and a day later they will invariably need to be reminded of whether pin or value came first in some command or what a semicolon does. And that is the role of this reference: to fill in the gaps of other resources.
For my class it will be a compliment text to Igoe's Physical Computing and both will be used throughout the class. Phys Comp will cover the bulk of the hardware and concepts while this covers only the basics of the software. With that said I dont think that is much different for most people just starting out. When learning something new, you often collect together as much info from as many angles possible. At least I do. And thats tricky here. I really think taking a class or a workshop is the best way to get started. Direct contact with another human is a good thing. I dont know, but maybe it was intentional not to include the kitchen sink?
I have made the change to Hernando's name, and will consider changing the name of the booklet. It makes sense. I have relooked at the section on Functions and have found some changes to make that will work better (incl. passing values to the function). An appendix on other libraries makes sense too.... maybe later on. When I get back in mid-August I will also look at adding some photos to the appendix section to flesh out the schematics. I would be doing that when presenting to class anyway so it might as well be in the book.
A lot of the other suggestions for more material make sense too but as I was telling Daniel that that begins a whole other project. I would love to one day write that 300 page book that fuses fine art and design with electronics and programming. Sort of Physical Computing crossed with a Christiane Paul's Digital Art. I dont have the time (or the publisher) to do that at the moment. I will keep this fluid though, starting by adding an appendix or two when I get the chance. I can also revist it easily enough as the semester progresses. Ive taught this class before using another micro so it will be interesting this time with the Arduino. Im sure to learn more as I go along.
Thanks again and Ill gladly listen to anything else anyone has to offer.
Cheers,
Brian
//EDIT
I would also like to say I did not intend to replace the reference section here on the website. What is here is great, and from my experience, must have taken quite a few man hours. So what is missing in this version can easily be had by the beginner by simply coming to arduino.cc and starting there. I hope that makes sense...