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

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<TITLE>wxWindows Book</TITLE>
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wxWindows Book
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<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: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>.
</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>


<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>
69	<li><a href="mailto:tomr@scitechsoft.com">Tom Ryan</a>, SciTech Software.
70	<li><a href="mailto:robin@alldunn.com">Robin Dunn</a>. <i>Chapter on wxPython.</i>
71	<li><a href="mailto:mheck@www.surveyorcorp.com">Matt Heck</a>, SurveyorCorp Inc.
72	<i>
73	<ol>
74	<li>a case study of how and why we've used wxWindows at Surveyor Corp., and
75	how it's worked out so far;
76	<li>an appendix something similar about how to use wxLIVID for video capture and display;
77	<li>proofreading
78	</ol>
79	</i>
80	<li><a href="mailto:julian.smart@ukonline.co.uk">Julian Smart</a>.
81	<li><a href="mailto:zeitlin@dptmaths.ens-cachan.fr">Vadim Zeitlin</a>.
82	</ul>
83
84	<hr>
85
86	<H3><a name="publication">Publication</a></H3>
87
88	Tom Ryan originally wrote:<P>
89
90	<PRE>
91	Hi Guys,
92
93	I just wanted to let you know that I have spoken with officials here
94	at California State University, Chico and they are potentially
95	interested in publishing a book on wxWindows! A wxWindows
96	book would give wxWindows a great deal of exposure.
97
98	These discussions came out of the fact that CSUC wanted to
99	switch from MFC to wxWindows in their GUI programming classes,
100	but there was not a book available for students to work with.
101
102	I was thinking that the first edition could be primarily the reference
103	documentation combined with a basic wxTutorial and examples. In
104	this case, it would be fairly straightforward to get something out
105	initially and then we could take it from there.
106	</PRE>
107
108	<p>
109
110	<a href="mailto:benles@powernet.net">Ben Allfree</a> has also expressed an interest
111	in publishing a wxWindows book, and distributing it via Amazon. Ben was thinking
112	in terms of a quickie job using the existing reference manual.<P>
113
114	Another publishing name to think of is O'Reilly. They would probably give us a lot
115	of guidance for style, formatting, etc.<P>
116
117
118	<hr>
119
120	<H3><a name="suggestions">Suggestions and comments</a></H3>
121
122	<ul>
123	<li>Chapter on converting from MFC. (Julian Smart)
124	<li>A chapter on why some inconsistencies are almost always going to show up in a
125	multiplatform toolkit, how to avoid them, how to deal with when you have
126	no choice, and (if wxBook explains the internals or philosophy of
127	wxWindows at all) how wxWindows attempts to minimize the number we
128	encounter. (Matt Heck)
129	<li>Creating the shortest possible path to writing "Hello World" from scratch in wxWindows. (Matt Heck)
130	<li>How will royalties for subsequent editions be shared out? (Tom Ryan)
131	<li>"My personal feeling is that this project will wind up being developed
132	by a small team, led by an editor that will wind up doing about half
133	of the total amount of work." (Tom Ryan)
134	</ul>
135
136	<hr>
137
138	<H3><a name="format">Text format</a></H3>
139
140	This depends partly on the publisher, but one possibility is to target Word but have
141	submissions in a number of formats including Latex. We should eventually write a style
142	and formatting guide.<P>
143
144	<hr>
145
146	<H3><a name="contents">Contents</a></H3>
147
148	This is open to suggestion.<P>
149
150	Last year, <a href="mailto:mlorenz@visionx.com">Mike Lorenz</a> of <a href="http://www.visionx.com">VisionX</a>
151	suggested this
152	<a href="http://www.visionx.com/wx/tutorial_outline.htm">tutorial outline</a>, which could
153	be a good starting point.<P>
154
155	</font>
156
157	</BODY>
158
159	</HTML>