Who fancies a community effort to write a book?

[GM]

Any thoughts on writing style? I've started putting down a few bits and pieces (so far only on database type stuff), and I was wondering how the group intends to write. So far, for me, it's been coming out in quite a narrative style, in the first person plural ("Let's look at our tables - we've got...", "Why should we design in this way?..."). Before doing too much more, I thought it'd be a better idea to check how we want the book to read - is it to be a "dry" technical manual type of book, or is it going to be a more "human", narrative type of book? At least if we can decide this it will make the editors' job easier if we all start in a vaguely similar style.

[Oren]

Any thoughts on writing style? I've started putting down a few bits and pieces (so far only on database type stuff), and I was wondering how the group intends to write. So far, for me, it's been coming out in quite a narrative style, in the first person plural ("Let's look at our tables - we've got...", "Why should we design in this way?..."). Before doing too much more, I thought it'd be a better idea to check how we want the book to read - is it to be a "dry" technical manual type of book, or is it going to be a more "human", narrative type of book? At least if we can decide this it will make the editors' job easier if we all start in a vaguely similar style.

I'd say more "human".

Even though I read all the posts on this topic I can't remember all of them (heck it's 16 pages already), so I'm sorry if someone has already suggested what I'm going to suggest...
I believe we need a "Code Layout/Convention" chapter... Something like phpBB's Coding Guidelines

For example I prefer this:

Syntax: [ Download ] [ Hide ]

Syntax: [ Download ] [ Show ]

function my_function()

{

        // Code goes here

}

Over this:

Syntax: [ Download ] [ Hide ]

Syntax: [ Download ] [ Show ]

function my_function() {

        // Code goes here

}

Another convention is to use uppercase letters for constant names, and there many others...

[Chris Corbyn]

A usergroup and forum have been created for this endevour. Chris, d11wtq, is the owner of said usergroup. The board is, right now, only visible to that group and the moderators. If the group wishes to change this visibility or permissions layout, that is fine. This is just a starting point.

w00t! Cheers buddy

EDIT | Later today (I'm at work right now) I'll create some stickies for what the project is about and it's objective. I'll then try to split off posts from this mammoth thread for discussion on "Contents" and "Licensing/Copyright".

EDIT 2 | For anybody who can't see the forum and unsure how to become a member of the group just go to "Usergroups" at the top of the page, select the "Community Composition Contributors" group and subscribe to it... I'll approve them regularly and once you're approved you'll have access to the Board.

[MarK (CZ)]

I must have missed this topic..
I would of course love to help as I can, although I'm not sure if my programming skills are good enough to teach someone But if there's any work I could be able to help with, I'd be glad to do so.

[RobertGonzalez]

EDIT | Later today (I'm at work right now) I'll create some stickies for what the project is about and it's objective. I'll then try to split off posts from this mammoth thread for discussion on "Contents" and "Licensing/Copyright".

EDIT 2 | For anybody who can't see the forum and unsure how to become a member of the group just go to "Usergroups" at the top of the page, select the "Community Composition Contributors" group and subscribe to it... I'll approve them regularly and once you're approved you'll have access to the Board.

Sorry d11, I may have overstepped my bounds. I created two posts in the BK forum. One for licensing, the other for copyright. I was thinking that we may want a thread for suggestions, style, included topics, etc. If I went overboard, please moderate accordingly.

PS I hadn't read this before posting in that forum. I apologize if I got ahead of myself.

[Chris Corbyn]

EDIT | Later today (I'm at work right now) I'll create some stickies for what the project is about and it's objective. I'll then try to split off posts from this mammoth thread for discussion on "Contents" and "Licensing/Copyright".

EDIT 2 | For anybody who can't see the forum and unsure how to become a member of the group just go to "Usergroups" at the top of the page, select the "Community Composition Contributors" group and subscribe to it... I'll approve them regularly and once you're approved you'll have access to the Board.

Sorry d11, I may have overstepped my bounds. I created two posts in the BK forum. One for licensing, the other for copyright. I was thinking that we may want a thread for suggestions, style, included topics, etc. If I went overboard, please moderate accordingly.

PS I hadn't read this before posting in that forum. I apologize if I got ahead of myself.

That's cool Saves me a job anyway Thanks.

[shiznatix]

been a while since anyone posted here but...

Whats happening with this? I registered on the wiki but there seams to be very little going on. Maybe the preface should be started? Start the chapters that are there so far (the order of them is questionable but that really does not matter). Also maybe a 'this is how you should write a segment in a chapter' thing so people don't start writing stuff that does not go with the standard of the book?

It would be cool to see this go through instead of being forgotten like some other devnet projects that took off real quick then died just as fast...

[Oren]

Yeah, that's right. What's going on? I don't want to spend hours on writing just to find out that nobody else is doing anything and the project is dying

[Chris Corbyn]

Yeah, that's right. What's going on? I don't want to spend hours on writing just to find out that nobody else is doing anything and the project is dying

Hey.... I'll do this by myself if nobody else wants to help out

I do have to say I'm feeling a little disappointed at what seems to be a lack of interest in people actually writing content Everyone seemed so enthusiastic in the discussions. I'm sure a select few of us will tread along with start to finish anyway. Some people are on holiday/busy at the moment too so things will have slow patches.

Dig in! I keep saying it.... really, just chip away at it... we can only rewrite/improve what you do if people are concerned that their contributions will not be suitable

[Christopher]

I have to say that I have not been writing content because I didn't feel the structure was done yet. I had proposed an alternate section/chapter layout that some people liked, but has not been blessed as the direction to go by the project leads. Nor has any chapter layout been discussed in detail to get to a more finalized set of sections/chapters, from what I have seen. I assumed that that was the next step after the name and license discussions.

[RobertGonzalez]

It appeared at first that Maugrim's layout was what we going with. Then Arborint came up with some good additions to it.

I have started writing the intros and purpose and such. I will try to get some more up tonight if I can. Maybe we can a few contributors to work on the chapter layouts while some of the other contributors work on content for the earlier, non technical sections. If we team up on this monster we can take her down quicker, eh?

[Chris Corbyn]

If we team up on this monster we can take her down quicker, eh?

Exactly.

~arborint. Sorry about the contents thing. There's obviously been a bit of confusion on my part there since I thought we were pretty much just using the wiki to change the contents ourselves.

Let's bring the contents discussion back to the surface in our little forum then

[Christopher]

Let's bring the contents discussion back to the surface in our little forum then

I already have here:

http://forums.devnetwork.net/viewtopic. ... 9&start=38

I still think it needs some work

- The linear tutorial chapters need to be clearer about the progression and to create parallel tracks in the Intro and Intermediate tracks.
- The random access chapters need to be filled out, thought through, etc.

[daedalus__]

I still want to help. I have been working 70+ hours a week lately, though.

[jmut]

Hi,
I think The Decorator pattern explained at

http://phpbook.quantum-star.com/doku.ph ... _decorator

has some design flaws...which more or less defeats the purpose of the design pattern. Since, I kind of don't want to search in 13 page thread...has this issue been discussed?
If not...I will provide a version I believe is more accurate.