[Qgis-developer] Fwd: Re: [Qgis-community-team] Books section on our website

Tue Oct 13 12:56:13 PDT 2015

Hello,

Here is a first draft of PR: https://github.com/qgis/QGIS-Website/pull/285

Feedbacks are welcome :)

Y.
Le mardi 13 octobre 2015, 22:31:23 Nathan Woodrow a écrit :
> Hi,
> 
> I do feel for people who try and write books given the pace of QGIS, I
> write the training manuals for my employer so I know what it feels like,
> however, this is just the world we live in and a fact of software.  I have
> tons of books on bookshelf that are outdated, new programming books come
> out only to be outdated a year or so later.
> 
> If you are writing a book, manual, etc, you should target the LTR version
> as it will not change. As we evolve the software, things need to change and
> that includes UI. I'm not a fan of keeping stuff in the same place just
> because that is how it has always been done. If we can do it better we
> should.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> On Tue, Oct 13, 2015 at 10:25 PM, Andreas Neumann <a.neumann at carto.net>
> 
> wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > In the context of our release discussion I am forwarding the perspective
> > of an educator and book author - just posted to the QGIS community mailing
> > list. See forwarded mail.
> > 
> > I understand it must be a nightmare to teach, document and write books on
> > QGIS at the current pace.
> > 
> > I hope that the devs and QGIS.ORG board can listen to their users and
> > understand their perspective.
> > 
> > Andreas
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Re: [Qgis-community-team]
> > Books section on our website Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2015 12:53:56 +0100 From:
> > Colin D. MacLeod <cdmacleod at GISinEcology.com>
> > <cdmacleod at GISinEcology.com> To: qgis-community-team at lists.osgeo.org
> > 
> > Hi Otto,
> > 
> > In response to your question:
> > >>I just wonder how can we be more attractive to people writing QGIS book?
> > 
> > As someone who writes GIS book (including a QGIS book for marine
> > biologists
> > (and a percentage of profits will be donated to the QGIS project from its
> > sales once I get the yearly sales in), and one I'm currently finishing for
> > undergraduate biologists, which also uses QGIS), I have given a lot of
> > thought to how to make QGIS more attractive to writers of books, so maybe
> > I
> > can add my two-cents worth from this perspective (and as an educator in
> > general).
> > 
> > The main issue with writing books about QGIS (or indeed any software
> > package) is the time it takes to prepare, write and edit a book versus the
> > time between updates of the software package. It will typically take at
> > least 12 months to develop a book, edit it, test it out and then complete
> > it, especially if you are aiming for a high quality product. If the
> > software is updated during this time, this can cause major problems
> > because either the book is outdated before it is published, or it has to
> > be re-worked to a greater or lesser extent.
> > 
> > The main thing that causes problems is when there are changes in where
> > tools or settings are placed within individual menus (rather than the
> > addition of new functionality). In particular, people working from books
> > can quickly become lost if things are not exactly where a book says they
> > are. This can mean having to edit and re-test a book with each and every
> > software update (no matter how minor they might seem). For example, with
> > the book I'm currently finishing (which was written over a 12 months or
> > so period), I started it off under QGIS 2.4, then updated it for 2.6, and
> > then again for 2.8.3 (with the latest version of QGIS now being 2.10, but
> > I will stick with the long-term legacy edition). The changes might have
> > been relatively minor between these editions of QGIS, but they are enough
> > to have to re-work books, and this slows the publication process. In
> > addition, it greatly reduces the useful lifespan of books written about
> > using QGIS.
> > 
> > One of the things I really like about QGIS is that older versions are
> > always available, and that there is a long-term legacy edition. This
> > makes it much more attractive to write books using QGIS as the GIS
> > software package as you can tell people exactly what version to use (once
> > they know how to do things in one software version, it is easy enough to
> > transfer this knowledge to newer versions that might be available).
> > However, this doesn't alter the underlying issue that changes between
> > QGIS versions, and the speed that versions are put out make writing books
> > problematic. This is not to say that QGIS should not be updated
> > regularly, and the addition of new functionality is always to be
> > applauded, it's just that it causes problems for would-be book writers
> > and publishers.
> > 
> > One potential way round this issue is to avoid relatively minor changes in
> > the location of tools and the layout of menus between different software
> > versions. For example, between QGIS 2.4 and 2.6, the location of the ADD
> > VECTOR LAYER tool was shifted from one set of menus to slightly different
> > one, meaning that books would need to be updated to remain useful.
> > However,
> > as far as I can work out, this does not affect the functionality of QGIS
> > in
> > any way (I may well be wrong on this point), but it does affect the ease
> > with which books can be written and remain up to date.
> > 
> > Now, from a programming point of view, it might not be easy to maintain
> > the
> > location of tools and the layout of menus between software versions, but
> > if
> > it could be (i.e. if the standard approach was to maintain layout as
> > appearance between versions rather than make relatively minor
> > non-functional changes with every update), it would make writing books
> > using QGIS much easier, and it would make the books more useful because
> > they'd have a longer shelf life.
> > 
> > In addtion, it would make it much easier to develop other resources that
> > would remain relevant for much longer periods of time (such as how to
> > videos, on YouTube - another thing I produce - and so on). Such a policy
> > would likely to lead to an increased uptake by educators, because they are
> > not having to continually update their instructions and exercises all the
> > time (it is the bain of many educators when, just before you start a block
> > of teaching, a key software package is updated and you are faced with
> > having to either hastily update your instructions, or somehow muddle
> > through with something that is out of date). Finally, it would also make
> > producing effective free documentation for QGIS by the QGIS project much,
> > much easier, because it wouldn't need to be continually updated (or at
> > least, less of it would need to be updated between software updates).
> > 
> > All this having been said, this is not a problem restricted to QGIS, or
> > indeed to GIS software in general. In fact, QGIS is actually one of the
> > better packages for maintaining menu layouts etc, but still, I feel that
> > it
> > is limitting factor for those wishing to write and publish books, create
> > self-help resources and write effective documentation using QGIS. 
> > However,
> > these are just my thoughts based on my own experiences, and others may
> > differ on this subject.
> > 
> > I hope this in some way helps, and thanks to all who develop QGIS for
> > producing such a great alternative to commercial GIS software packages (I
> > really feel that QGIS has come of age on the last 12 to 18 months).
> > 
> > All the best,
> > 
> > Colin
> > 
> > PS As a QGIS user, I'm always happy to donate a proportion of profits from
> > books back to the QGIS project, and will do this with all books I produce
> > that use QGIS.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > But it
> > would be much nicer, if we could publish our own (free) documentation. We
> > could provide it as free download and people can pay for printed books, if
> > they want and authors could get payed from that, too. Would it make sense
> > to go in that direction, too?
> > 
> > Regards,
> > Otto
> > 
> > Am Tue, 13 Oct 2015 10:42:48 +0200
> > 
> > schrieb "Neumann, Andreas" <a.neumann at carto.net> <a.neumann at carto.net>:
> > > Hi website team,
> > > 
> > > I have been in contact with the company PacktPub - a company
> > > specializing in IT and in particular OpenSource IT books. They publish
> > > several books on QGIS. The nice thing is that they return some of the
> > > revenues back to the Open Source projects. We just received a payment
> > > over EUR 140 from Anitas book. They will add the other books to our
> > > royalty scheme.
> > > 
> > > We also just recently added an entry in their Open Source section:
> > > https://www.packtpub.com/books/info/packt/open-source-projects-starting-> > > q
> > > 
> > > 
> > > I noticed that we don't have a book section yet on our website. Given
> > > that there are more and more books on QGIS, it would be nice to have
> > > such a section. It would be a win-win situation - for PacktPub and for
> > > us. And of course it wouldn't have to be limited to books from PacktPub
> > > but can reference any books.
> > > 
> > > The PacktPub manager would offer us additional discount codes or group
> > > discounts for ebooks if one wants to buy all QGIS ebooks at once - if we
> > > integrate this in our web page. Please note - the more books there are
> > > sold - the more we also get back from the royalty scheme program.
> > > 
> > > Thanks,
> > > 
> > > Andreas
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Qgis-community-team mailing list for organizing community resources such
> > as
> > documentation, translation
> > etc..Qgis-community-team at lists.osgeo.orghttp://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/li
> > stinfo/qgis-community-team
> > 
> > 
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> > _______________________________________________
> > Qgis-community-team mailing list for organizing community resources such
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> > etc..Qgis-community-team at lists.osgeo.orghttp://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/li
> > stinfo/qgis-community-team
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
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-- 
Yves Jacolin