Clinton Pierce writes "I'm off writing a second book for MacMillan. The first one did really well, and was well received by the Perl Community. For this book, I'm going to open things up for criticism again since it worked so well last time. This site has the background information on the book, and everyone is welcome to look over my shoulder."
Open source book-writing is Cool.
Update: 11/26 11:19 PM by P : Yes, I know it is, strictly speaking, not "open source." Sue me.
It's an upcoming book by MacMillan Publishing in a new series called the developer's library. It is the first book in the series. Briefly, it is a reference manual for the Perl language much in the same way that the distributed POD is, but much better organized (we hope).
So first, how is this book different/better from the camel book or just printouts of all man pages/HTML docs?
Second, I can't see any appeal in contributing to this book. Obviously, if you can contribute, you don't need this book. So you are doing it for the good of open source? Nah, MacMillan gets the (C) and $$. So maybe you can get a hard copy or two for your effort to give to your newbie friends? Nah, all you get is "electronic draft" and you cannot redistribute it anyway.
What gives?
It's different because there's someone else writing it. If the POD is sufficient for you, then you're not who this book is being written for, I'd bet.
As to why one would do it, there are, believe it or not, people out there who do things because it makes them feel good to help people. Weird, eh? If you don't see any appeal in it, great, don't help, but please get out of the way of those that want to help.
The idea that it's not worth contributing unless you're going to get something tangible in return is pretty pathetic. Here's a hint: the people writing these books sure aren't doing it for the money. I know it's philg, but this description of the computer-book industry is enlightening (especially since it's the same publisher as clintp's book).
Right, I just don't see where is the "competitive edge" of that book against other established Perl books or documentation.
As to why one would do it, there are, believe it or not, people out there who do things because it makes them feel good to help people. Weird, eh? If you don't see any appeal in it, great, don't help, but please get out of the way of those that want to help.
Oh it wouldn't cross my mind to get in the way. I'm just having an opinion here. And while it's true that it's good to help people -- well, there are so many worthy causes that everybody just has to choose about exactly whom is he/she going to help.
In this particular case, it just seems to me that potential helpers would make better use of their time to e.g. review and correct the standard PODs, which ARE open source, while this book is NOT.
But if it rocks your boat to be included in the credits or to have the author fund you a beer for your efforts, by all means, do it.
The idea that it's not worth contributing unless you're going to get something tangible in return is pretty pathetic.
Personally, I think it's worth to contribute to anything if it makes a difference. Please understand that -- I just don't see what difference does this book make, for the perl community or for whoever who would be involved in it. Perhaps the author should clarify on his web page why he thinks his book is what's missing on the Perl doc market, because I just don't see that.
Thanks for the Greenspun link, it made an interesting reading, even though not really applicable in this case, methinks.
