larryayers
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Forum: Everything else WordPress
In reply to: Possible WordPress BookWell, Chris Davis is as free to write a book about WP as I am. More power to him if he does it!
Larry
Forum: Everything else WordPress
In reply to: Possible WordPress BookCome on Podz. Have I stolen something from you? I take a look at your site, appreciated the information you so graciously provided, and you are still pissed off?
Don’t provide free information if it makes you angry when people read it!
Or thwart my evil connivings and write a book yourself!
Larry
Forum: Everything else WordPress
In reply to: Possible WordPress BookTo respond to some of the preceding posts: perhaps Podz could have turned his tutorials into a book. But he chose to make them freely available on the web and should be commended for doing so.
Not everyone learns well from documentation spread around the web. Everyone here probably is comfortable learning this way as we’ve grown up as the web evolved. Others like to have a tangible printed book that they can take into the bathroom.
To make my intentions a bit more clear, I think that WordPress is such a quality product that it should be more accessible to the many people who aren’t the type to even know about it or the existence of such useful forums as this one.
My qualifications? I enjoy writing, can write clearly and understandably, and I’m able to put myself in the shoes of those who don’t have geeky tendencies.
Larry
Forum: Everything else WordPress
In reply to: Possible WordPress BookA reply to the post above starting with “If that is a dig at me, stop.”
I don’t know what you construed as a “dig”, don’t even know who you are, and don’t know which site you refer to.
Be more explicit, identify yourself and your site (I’ve visited scores of WordPress sites), and I’ll be very careful to not remember anything I see there!
Larry
Forum: Everything else WordPress
In reply to: Posting to your blog – A tip.If you want to type posts in an application more powerful than WP’s internal editing window I recommend using GNU Emacs or XEmacs. These editors have many very useful features and saves files in standard ASCII text, God’s own preferred format.
An example: if you have already typed a particular word and need to type it again, type the first couple of letters and then press Alt-/. The word will be completed; if the editor completed the word with another which starts with the same letters you can keep pressing Alt-/ and the next candidate will auto-magically appear. A time-saver!
Larry
Forum: Everything else WordPress
In reply to: Possible WordPress BookInteresting discussion! I’m glad a few people think my idea of a book is worthy of pursuit.
A couple of years ago I was approached by an acquisitions editor who worked for a now-defunct tech-book publishing house. They were interested in a book about GNU Emacs and XEmacs, two versions of a complex and extensible open-source text editor. I wrote a six-hundred page book for them in about three months, did all the screenshots and produced the ISO image for an accompanying CDROM.
I was the target of some vehement criticism from certain GNU zealots and idealists, who thought that I should have contributed to the freely-available Emacs documentation rather than making money.
The fact of the matter is that I have contributed to open-source documentation in the past but the need to make a living mitigates against just sitting down and doing so for three months full-time.
Larry
Forum: Everything else WordPress
In reply to: Possible WordPress BookI e-mailed Matt when I first had the idea. He responded that as far as he knew there were no WordPress books underway.
Larry
Forum: Everything else WordPress
In reply to: Possible WordPress BookThe Codex pages are a great resource, but many people (myself included) like to have printed manuals as well as on-line docs.
Larry
Forum: Everything else WordPress
In reply to: Possible WordPress BookIdeally my book would come out just after the release of non-gamma WP 1.5, and I think once 1.5 is out it will be in general use for a substantial period of time.
I plan to include chapters on hacks, plug-ins, and theme creation and customizing, plus CSS tutorials.
Larry
Forum: Everything else WordPress
In reply to: Possible WordPress BookThere are already several blogging books out there. I think that a book which thoroughly covered just one high-quality blogging platform (guess which one!) may have an audience. I don’t want to write about Movable Type et al, as I’m a proponent of open-source software and prefer to direct my energies in that direction.
Larry
Forum: Everything else WordPress
In reply to: Possible WordPress BookWell, the online help is scattered across several web-sites and is not complete. I wouldn’t have any copyright worries because I would write everything from scratch. I’m just thinking that non-technically-inclined users might appreciate a user-friendly guide to making the most of WordPress. A chapter of such a book which I would have greatly appreciated when I was starting out would have been one on Mysql installation and administration. Until I stumbled upon phpmyadmin I was having a heck of a time making WordPress install correctly.
Larry