I wouldn't want to be the publisher betting on a 73 year old with a history of missing deadlines hitting one in nine years time.
And then, from the site:
---
After Volume 5 has been completed, I will revise Volumes 1--3 again to bring them up to date. In particular, the new material for those volumes that has been issued in beta-test fascicles will be incorporated at that time.
Then I will publish a ``reader's digest'' edition of Volumes 1--5, condensing the most important material into a single book.
And after Volumes 1--5 are done, God willing, I plan to publish Volume 6 (the theory of context-free languages) and Volume 7 (Compiler techniques), but only if the things I want to say about those topics are still relevant and still haven't been said. Volumes 1--5 represent the central core of computer programming for sequential machines; the subjects of Volumes 6 and 7 are important but more specialized.
---
Which would all be wonderful, but seems possibly overoptimistic. Sadly.
And then, from the site:
---
After Volume 5 has been completed, I will revise Volumes 1--3 again to bring them up to date. In particular, the new material for those volumes that has been issued in beta-test fascicles will be incorporated at that time.
Then I will publish a ``reader's digest'' edition of Volumes 1--5, condensing the most important material into a single book.
And after Volumes 1--5 are done, God willing, I plan to publish Volume 6 (the theory of context-free languages) and Volume 7 (Compiler techniques), but only if the things I want to say about those topics are still relevant and still haven't been said. Volumes 1--5 represent the central core of computer programming for sequential machines; the subjects of Volumes 6 and 7 are important but more specialized. ---
Which would all be wonderful, but seems possibly overoptimistic. Sadly.