[wxWidgets.git] / docs / html / wxbook.htm

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<TITLE>wxWindows Book</TITLE>
</HEAD>

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<font size=+1 face="Arial, Lucida Sans, Helvetica" color="#FFFFFF">
wxWindows Book
</font>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

<P>

<center>
<a href="#about">About</a> |
<a href="#participants">Participants</a> |
<a href="#publication">Publication</a> |
<a href="#suggestions">Suggestions</a> |
<a href="#format">Format</a> |
<a href="#contents">Contents</a>
</center>

<hr>

<H3><a name="about">About the wxWindows book</a></H3>

Discussions have been taking place on the wxwin-developers list about
collaboratively writing a wxWindows book. The concensus is to write a tutorial
book for people with reasonable C++ experience, with the possibility of including the API reference either in a very compact
form at the back of the book, or as a separate volume. The book would almost certainly
contain a CD-ROM with wxWindows and its documentation. It would probably be available
for free on-line, publisher permitting.<P>

Goals for the book:<P>

<ol>
<li> to allow users to become accomplished wxWindows developers rapidly;
<li> to be useful over a longer period than just the first few weeks, since
there are a lot of complex areas to address and not all features will be
used up-front in a project;
<li> to promote wxWindows to a wider audience;
<li> to make at least some money for the authors.
</ol>

<P>

Audience: beginners + experienced wxWindows users, but with reasonable C++
knowledge.<P>

It is suggested that any financial return from the book be allocated on a points system,
with a predefined number of points for chapters, indexing, editing, proof-reading etc.<P>

<hr>

<H3><a name="participants">Participants</a></H3>

So far, the following people are interested in taking part in this project:<P>

<ul>
<li><a href="mailto:bsimser@home.com">Bil Simser</a>. Bil would like to coordinate
the book. He's currently writing a book for WordWare Publishing (about his CDX library)
and also has contacts at Sams and the Waite Group. Bil is writing <a href="http://lightning.prohosting.com/~wxbuild" target=_new>
wxBuilder</a>, an IDE for wxWindows.
<li><a href="mailto:tomr@scitechsoft.com">Tom Ryan</a>, SciTech Software.
<li><a href="mailto:robin@alldunn.com">Robin Dunn</a>. <i>Chapter on wxPython.</i>
<li><a href="mailto:mheck@www.surveyorcorp.com">Matt Heck</a>, SurveyorCorp Inc.
<i>
<ol>
  <li>a case study of how and why we've used wxWindows at Surveyor Corp., and
  how it's worked out so far;
  <li>an appendix something similar about how to use wxLIVID for video capture and display;
  <li>proofreading
</ol>
</i>
<li><a href="mailto:julian.smart@ukonline.co.uk">Julian Smart</a>.
<li><a href="mailto:zeitlin@dptmaths.ens-cachan.fr">Vadim Zeitlin</a>.
<li><a href="mailto:slavik2@czn.cz">Vaclav Slavik</a>. <i>wxHTML section</i>
<li><a href="mailto:csomor@advancedconcepts.ch">Stefan Csomor</a>. <i>the sequence of events i.e. which action provokes which event sequence,
this is implicit for the use on MSW, but very important for other systems; and porting to new platforms</i>
<li><a href="mailto:karsten@phy.hw.ac.uk">Karsten Ballueder</a>. <i>short tutorials on some useful
GNU tools, like autoconf/configure/make, programming
strategies, etc.</i>
</ul>

<hr>

<H3><a name="publication">Publication</a></H3>

Tom Ryan originally wrote:<P>

<PRE>
Hi Guys,

I just wanted to let you know that I have spoken with officials here 
at California State University, Chico and they are potentially 
interested in publishing a book on wxWindows!  A wxWindows 
book would give wxWindows a great deal of exposure.

These discussions came out of the fact that CSUC wanted to 
switch from MFC to wxWindows in their GUI programming classes, 
but there was not a book available for students to work with. 

I was thinking that the first edition could be primarily the reference 
documentation combined with a basic wxTutorial and examples. In 
this case, it would be fairly straightforward to get something out 
initially and then we could take it from there.
</PRE>

<p>

<a href="mailto:benles@powernet.net">Ben Allfree</a> has also expressed an interest
in publishing a wxWindows book, and distributing it via Amazon. Ben was thinking
in terms of a quickie job using the existing reference manual.<P>

Another publishing name to think of is O'Reilly. They would probably give us a lot
of guidance for style, formatting, etc.<P>

<a href="mailto:Roald.Ribe@winlink.no">Roald Ribe</a> writes:
"<a href="http://www.bruceeckel.com/javabook.html" target=_new>Thinking in Java</a>
is published both as a PDF for internet (by the author) and in print by Prentice Hall."<P>

<hr>

<H3><a name="suggestions">Suggestions and comments</a></H3>

<ul>
<li>Chapter on converting from MFC. (Julian Smart)
<li>A chapter on why some inconsistencies are almost always going to show up in a
multiplatform toolkit, how to avoid them, how to deal with when you have
no choice, and (if wxBook explains the internals or philosophy of
wxWindows at all) how wxWindows attempts to minimize the number we
encounter. (Matt Heck)
<li>Creating the shortest possible path to writing "Hello World" from scratch in wxWindows. (Matt Heck)
<li>How will royalties for subsequent editions be shared out? (Tom Ryan)
<li>"My personal feeling is that this project will wind up being developed 
by a small team, led by an editor that will wind up doing about half 
of the total amount of work." (Tom Ryan)
</ul>

<hr>

<H3><a name="format">Text format</a></H3>

This depends partly on the publisher, but one possibility is to target Word but have
submissions in a number of formats including Latex. We should eventually write a style
and formatting guide.<P>

<hr>

<H3><a name="contents">Contents</a></H3>

This is open to suggestion.<P>

Last year, <a href="mailto:mlorenz@visionx.com">Mike Lorenz</a> of <a href="http://www.visionx.com">VisionX</a>
suggested this
<a href="http://www.visionx.com/wx/tutorial_outline.htm">tutorial outline</a>, which could
be a good starting point.<P>

</font>

</BODY>

</HTML>
Commit	Line	Data
bed9b806 JS	1	<HTML>
	2
	3	<HEAD>
	4	<TITLE>wxWindows Book</TITLE>
	5	</HEAD>
	6
	7	<BODY BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF TEXT=#000000 LINK=#FF0000 VLINK=#000000>
	8
	9	<font face="Arial, Lucida Sans, Helvetica">
	10
	11	<table width=100% border=4 cellpadding=5 cellspacing=0>
	12	<tr>
	13	<td bgcolor="#660000">
	14	<font size=+1 face="Arial, Lucida Sans, Helvetica" color="#FFFFFF">
	15	wxWindows Book
	16	</font>
	17	</td>
	18	</tr>
	19	</table>
	20
	21	<P>
	22
	23	<center>
	24	<a href="#about">About</a> \|
	25	<a href="#participants">Participants</a> \|
	26	<a href="#publication">Publication</a> \|
	27	<a href="#suggestions">Suggestions</a> \|
	28	<a href="#format">Format</a> \|
	29	<a href="#contents">Contents</a>
	30	</center>
	31
	32	<hr>
	33
	34	<H3><a name="about">About the wxWindows book</a></H3>
	35
	36	Discussions have been taking place on the wxwin-developers list about
	37	collaboratively writing a wxWindows book. The concensus is to write a tutorial
	38	book for people with reasonable C++ experience, with the possibility of including the API reference either in a very compact
	39	form at the back of the book, or as a separate volume. The book would almost certainly
	40	contain a CD-ROM with wxWindows and its documentation. It would probably be available
	41	for free on-line, publisher permitting.<P>
	42
	43	Goals for the book:<P>
	44
	45	<ol>
	46	<li> to allow users to become accomplished wxWindows developers rapidly;
	47	<li> to be useful over a longer period than just the first few weeks, since
	48	there are a lot of complex areas to address and not all features will be
	49	used up-front in a project;
	50	<li> to promote wxWindows to a wider audience;
	51	<li> to make at least some money for the authors.
	52	</ol>
	53
	54	<P>
	55
	56	Audience: beginners + experienced wxWindows users, but with reasonable C++
	57	knowledge.<P>
	58
	59	It is suggested that any financial return from the book be allocated on a points system,
	60	with a predefined number of points for chapters, indexing, editing, proof-reading etc.<P>
	61
	62	<hr>
	63
	64	<H3><a name="participants">Participants</a></H3>
65
66	So far, the following people are interested in taking part in this project:<P>
67
68	<ul>
9b6b5750 JS	69	<li><a href="mailto:bsimser@home.com">Bil Simser</a>. Bil would like to coordinate
	70	the book. He's currently writing a book for WordWare Publishing (about his CDX library)
	71	and also has contacts at Sams and the Waite Group. Bil is writing <a href="http://lightning.prohosting.com/~wxbuild" target=_new>
	72	wxBuilder</a>, an IDE for wxWindows.
bed9b806 JS	73	<li><a href="mailto:tomr@scitechsoft.com">Tom Ryan</a>, SciTech Software.
	74	<li><a href="mailto:robin@alldunn.com">Robin Dunn</a>. <i>Chapter on wxPython.</i>
	75	<li><a href="mailto:mheck@www.surveyorcorp.com">Matt Heck</a>, SurveyorCorp Inc.
	76	<i>
	77	<ol>
	78	<li>a case study of how and why we've used wxWindows at Surveyor Corp., and
	79	how it's worked out so far;
	80	<li>an appendix something similar about how to use wxLIVID for video capture and display;
	81	<li>proofreading
	82	</ol>
	83	</i>
	84	<li><a href="mailto:julian.smart@ukonline.co.uk">Julian Smart</a>.
	85	<li><a href="mailto:zeitlin@dptmaths.ens-cachan.fr">Vadim Zeitlin</a>.
c7527e3f JS	86	<li><a href="mailto:slavik2@czn.cz">Vaclav Slavik</a>. <i>wxHTML section</i>
	87	<li><a href="mailto:csomor@advancedconcepts.ch">Stefan Csomor</a>. <i>the sequence of events i.e. which action provokes which event sequence,
	88	this is implicit for the use on MSW, but very important for other systems; and porting to new platforms</i>
	89	<li><a href="mailto:karsten@phy.hw.ac.uk">Karsten Ballueder</a>. <i>short tutorials on some useful
	90	GNU tools, like autoconf/configure/make, programming
	91	strategies, etc.</i>
bed9b806 JS	92	</ul>
	93
	94	<hr>
	95
	96	<H3><a name="publication">Publication</a></H3>
	97
	98	Tom Ryan originally wrote:<P>
	99
	100	<PRE>
	101	Hi Guys,
	102
	103	I just wanted to let you know that I have spoken with officials here
	104	at California State University, Chico and they are potentially
	105	interested in publishing a book on wxWindows! A wxWindows
	106	book would give wxWindows a great deal of exposure.
	107
	108	These discussions came out of the fact that CSUC wanted to
	109	switch from MFC to wxWindows in their GUI programming classes,
	110	but there was not a book available for students to work with.
	111
	112	I was thinking that the first edition could be primarily the reference
	113	documentation combined with a basic wxTutorial and examples. In
	114	this case, it would be fairly straightforward to get something out
	115	initially and then we could take it from there.
	116	</PRE>
	117
	118	<p>
	119
	120	<a href="mailto:benles@powernet.net">Ben Allfree</a> has also expressed an interest
	121	in publishing a wxWindows book, and distributing it via Amazon. Ben was thinking
	122	in terms of a quickie job using the existing reference manual.<P>
	123
	124	Another publishing name to think of is O'Reilly. They would probably give us a lot
	125	of guidance for style, formatting, etc.<P>
	126
c7527e3f JS	127	<a href="mailto:Roald.Ribe@winlink.no">Roald Ribe</a> writes:
	128	"<a href="http://www.bruceeckel.com/javabook.html" target=_new>Thinking in Java</a>
	129	is published both as a PDF for internet (by the author) and in print by Prentice Hall."<P>
bed9b806 JS	130
	131	<hr>
	132
	133	<H3><a name="suggestions">Suggestions and comments</a></H3>
	134
	135	<ul>
	136	<li>Chapter on converting from MFC. (Julian Smart)
	137	<li>A chapter on why some inconsistencies are almost always going to show up in a
	138	multiplatform toolkit, how to avoid them, how to deal with when you have
	139	no choice, and (if wxBook explains the internals or philosophy of
	140	wxWindows at all) how wxWindows attempts to minimize the number we
	141	encounter. (Matt Heck)
	142	<li>Creating the shortest possible path to writing "Hello World" from scratch in wxWindows. (Matt Heck)
	143	<li>How will royalties for subsequent editions be shared out? (Tom Ryan)
	144	<li>"My personal feeling is that this project will wind up being developed
	145	by a small team, led by an editor that will wind up doing about half
	146	of the total amount of work." (Tom Ryan)
	147	</ul>
	148
	149	<hr>
	150
	151	<H3><a name="format">Text format</a></H3>
	152
	153	This depends partly on the publisher, but one possibility is to target Word but have
	154	submissions in a number of formats including Latex. We should eventually write a style
	155	and formatting guide.<P>
	156
	157	<hr>
	158
	159	<H3><a name="contents">Contents</a></H3>
	160
	161	This is open to suggestion.<P>
	162
	163	Last year, <a href="mailto:mlorenz@visionx.com">Mike Lorenz</a> of <a href="http://www.visionx.com">VisionX</a>
	164	suggested this
	165	<a href="http://www.visionx.com/wx/tutorial_outline.htm">tutorial outline</a>, which could
	166	be a good starting point.<P>
	167
	168	</font>
	169
	170	</BODY>
	171
	172	</HTML>