[opensuse] Writing a small book... what should I use?

older
[opensuse] Kmail2 uses nonstandard...

Roger Luedecke

9 Jan 2012 9 Jan '12

22:58

I'm commissioned to start a small book project, and vaguely remember seeing a wikilike piece of software that would facilitate this well. I intend to start with a conceptual outline, and then flesh each section out. Any recommendations? -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Show replies by date

John Andersen

9 Jan 9 Jan

23:18

On 1/9/2012 2:58 PM, Roger Luedecke wrote:

...

I'm commissioned to start a small book project, and vaguely remember seeing a wikilike piece of software that would facilitate this well. I intend to start with a conceptual outline, and then flesh each section out. Any recommendations?

If you are writing it, farting around with a wiki like software seems pointless. Get a good word processor package, a good to-do list and a paper notebook. Otherwise you get bogged down in the mechanics and the content suffers. If others are going to submit significant amounts, then maybe a wiki would be useful. -- _____________________________________ ---This space for rent--- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Anton Aylward

10 Jan 10 Jan

00:20

John Andersen said the following on 01/09/2012 06:18 PM:

...

On 1/9/2012 2:58 PM, Roger Luedecke wrote:

...
I'm commissioned to start a small book project, and vaguely remember seeing a wikilike piece of software that would facilitate this well. I intend to start with a conceptual outline, and then flesh each section out. Any recommendations?

If you are writing it, farting around with a wiki like software seems pointless. Get a good word processor package, a good to-do list and a paper notebook. Otherwise you get bogged down in the mechanics and the content suffers.

+1 At the limit, you might need a wiki-like tool to keep track of characters, places, events, chronology, if *AND I SAY IF* you book is something like a crime thriller with a complicated plot. But then most authors seem to get along fine with a paper notebooks and some index cards. Anything more than that and its an indicator you are more interested in the technology than the production of a book. And please also ignore anyone who recommends word processors or formatters, latex, docbooks, and other distraction. As John says, focus on the content not the mechanics. -- If people were really trying to just reduce risk, they would be running on OpenBSD rather than windows. So what we are generally trying to do is not really Risk Assessment, but Risk Justification. We don't want to reduce risk so much as justify why we are allowing our assets to be so exposed. - Bill Royds, 16th September 2005 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

John Andersen

00:26

On 1/9/2012 4:20 PM, Anton Aylward wrote:

...

At the limit, you might need a wiki-like tool to keep track of characters, places, events, chronology, if*AND I SAY IF* you book is something like a crime thriller with a complicated plot. But then most authors seem to get along fine with a paper notebooks and some index cards.

I assumed the work was to be more technically oriented for some reason. There are a several commercial packages used by writers of novels and such for plot and character management. You can tell these works, because the often have way more characters in the plot than is necessary to tell the story, and the spend way too much time developing the characters of non-essential characters. These are the favorite tools of the formula novelists that crank out a book every 6 months. Basically if the Author's name is printed larger on the cover than the title of the novel, you are in this ballpark. -- _____________________________________ ---This space for rent--- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Roger Luedecke

00:51

On Mon, 2012-01-09 at 19:20 -0500, Anton Aylward wrote:

...

John Andersen said the following on 01/09/2012 06:18 PM:

...
On 1/9/2012 2:58 PM, Roger Luedecke wrote:

...
I'm commissioned to start a small book project, and vaguely remember seeing a wikilike piece of software that would facilitate this well. I intend to start with a conceptual outline, and then flesh each section out. Any recommendations?

If you are writing it, farting around with a wiki like software seems pointless. Get a good word processor package, a good to-do list and a paper notebook. Otherwise you get bogged down in the mechanics and the content suffers.

+1

At the limit, you might need a wiki-like tool to keep track of characters, places, events, chronology, if *AND I SAY IF* you book is something like a crime thriller with a complicated plot. But then most authors seem to get along fine with a paper notebooks and some index cards.

Anything more than that and its an indicator you are more interested in the technology than the production of a book.

And please also ignore anyone who recommends word processors or formatters, latex, docbooks, and other distraction.

As John says, focus on the content not the mechanics.

-- If people were really trying to just reduce risk, they would be running on OpenBSD rather than windows. So what we are generally trying to do is not really Risk Assessment, but Risk Justification. We don't want to reduce risk so much as justify why we are allowing our assets to be so exposed. - Bill Royds, 16th September 2005 Nothing like that really. At most I'll need to track historical references. I'm writing a political treatise.

-- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Thomas Hertweck

21:42

On 10/01/12 00:20, Anton Aylward wrote:

...

[...] Anything more than that and its an indicator you are more interested in the technology than the production of a book.

And please also ignore anyone who recommends word processors or formatters, latex, docbooks, and other distraction.

That's your opinion, nothing more than that. Don't pretend to own the truth. LaTeX is designed so an author can focus on the content and not on the layout or other issues because that's automatically handled by the typesetting system. Saying that somebody using LaTeX is more focussed on technology than the production of a book is just plainly ignoring reality, I'm afraid (I've written lots of papers and some books and book chapters with LaTeX, so I know what I am talking about). I'm not here to convince anybody of using LaTeX, certainly not if the task at hand is simply sharing a few pages and not the production of a professionally looking book. But LaTeX was definitely worth a shot given the original inquiry which lacked some detail. Thomas -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Roger Luedecke

23:07

On Tue, 2012-01-10 at 21:42 +0000, Thomas Hertweck wrote:

...

On 10/01/12 00:20, Anton Aylward wrote:

...
[...] Anything more than that and its an indicator you are more interested in the technology than the production of a book.

And please also ignore anyone who recommends word processors or formatters, latex, docbooks, and other distraction.

That's your opinion, nothing more than that. Don't pretend to own the truth. LaTeX is designed so an author can focus on the content and not on the layout or other issues because that's automatically handled by the typesetting system. Saying that somebody using LaTeX is more focussed on technology than the production of a book is just plainly ignoring reality, I'm afraid (I've written lots of papers and some books and book chapters with LaTeX, so I know what I am talking about). I'm not here to convince anybody of using LaTeX, certainly not if the task at hand is simply sharing a few pages and not the production of a professionally looking book. But LaTeX was definitely worth a shot given the original inquiry which lacked some detail.

Thomas

I'm not sure what the publishing scheme will be. I may need LaTeX at some point, but likely not. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Thomas Hertweck

9 Jan 9 Jan

23:21

On 09/01/12 22:58, Roger Luedecke wrote:

...

I'm commissioned to start a small book project, and vaguely remember seeing a wikilike piece of software that would facilitate this well. I intend to start with a conceptual outline, and then flesh each section out. Any recommendations?

You are supposed to write a book? LaTeX should do fine. If you don't know about LaTeX yet, it will be a steep learning curve though. Th. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Carl Hartung

23:28

On Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:21:43 +0000 Thomas Hertweck wrote:

...

On 09/01/12 22:58, Roger Luedecke wrote:

...
I'm commissioned to start a small book project, and vaguely remember seeing a wikilike piece of software that would facilitate this well. I intend to start with a conceptual outline, and then flesh each section out. Any recommendations?

You are supposed to write a book? LaTeX should do fine. If you don't know about LaTeX yet, it will be a steep learning curve though.

Th.

I'd recommend checking out Zim 0.52, "A desktop wiki" http://www.zim-wiki.org/ hth & regards, Carl -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org

Roger Luedecke

10 Jan 10 Jan