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By keithinstone on
Was looking thru the O'Reilly catalog recently, seeing all sorts of great books, but none on Drupal.
http://catsearch.atomz.com/search/catsearch/?sp-a=sp1000a5a9&sp-f=ISO-88...
Is there one in the works, thought about it but not worth it, never been asked by O'Reilly, actively focusing on other things, have people tried this and given up, etc. - what is the general status of or feeling about this?
As good as drupal.org and all is, a well-written book about it brings it all to a new level, in my opinion - more accessible to beginners, for one thing.
Comments
Are you interested in writing one?
Good points. Now we need an author. Are you interested?
- Robert Douglass
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visit me at www.robshouse.net
Not qualified
I am not qualified to write a (good) Drupal book. But I am willing to help whomever wants to write one - e.g. would help with a chapter on "how to tweak your Drupal installation to make it more usable". Or be a technical editor - I have experience doing that. And I have connections at ORA if that is the publisher of choice.
Just now someone told me to check out Plone - and seeing some books written specifically about it adds some level of authority to it.
http://plone.org/documentation/books/
Again, a book would be just part of the overall strategy for making Drupal better, easier to use, more popular, etc. We do not have unlimited resources. Is the lack of a book to date a conscious choice? Or just no one willing to take it on? I am sure someone has thought about it writing a Drupal book before - how far did they get?
Who would be the best choice as the author - Dries? Or would it better if someone else did it?
I don't have the time to
I don't have the time to write an entire book. However, with the handbook being licensed under terms of the Creative Commons, it should be a lot easier to publish a Drupal book. I've been approached by several publishers, so if you are interested in authoring or co-authoring a book, drop me a line and I'll get you in touch with them.
Keith, you can always help improve/revise the Drupal handbook. It is _much_ needed too, and helps make a printed Drupal book possible.
And there's even a Drupal
And there's even a Drupal documentation mailing list you can join.
I might have the time...
I'm a bona-fide nerd (microcontrollers to web sites), a budding Drupal enthusiast, and a published author on technical topics (textbook, articles, and so forth)
I've been thinking that a book on Drupal would be very helpful to neophyte developers and site admins, and to the Drupal effort in general.
Ideally, I'd be interested in doing something that allows me to work with the Drupal community to end up with both a published book, and and an upgrading of the online handbook - this would probably be most helpful for all, and a lot of fun.
I was just thinking of submitting some query letters to publishers, and figured that I'd do a search first, and found this page.
Dries, I'd be interested in any contacts that you've had in this regard, and any thoughts from you or anyone else on what would ultimately be most beneficial to Drupal's success. I've used other "CMS"s in the past, and have done a fair bit of research - I'm convinced that Drupal is the best of the lot, and would love to do what I can to push it into more hearts and minds.
maybe
I'm willing and able to give spend some time co-writing a book / writing a chapter. mind you, writing a book alone is hard enough. with multiple people who havent met eachother or sometimnes even know each other is not an easy task.
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groets
bertb
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groets
bert boerland
Drupal is also a rapidly
Drupal is also a rapidly moving target. This makes it difficult to write a book that is actually usefull to people once it appears. I'd like to contribute a chapter or two if there is need.
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If you have troubles with a particular contrib project, please consider filing a support request. Thanks. And, by the way, Drupal 4.5 does not work with PHP 5.
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Drupal services
My Drupal services
Changing, but unchanging... hopefully
Writing a good book i.e., one that people actually buy and read, presents a number of challenges. One of these is to tend towards "timelessness", which is of course very difficult in technical fields. However, some things can be done: For example, it is useful to determine which parts of a topic are more subject to change, and which are less. The former are focused on and expanded upon, and the latter are treated more as implementation details. In this way, part of the book remains helpful for a long time, while other parts become less helpful over time.
In the case of Drupal, I'd hope that there are some things that make Drupal... well, which make it Drupal, as opposed to being PHPNuke, or, for that matter, Microsoft Word.
This is also an important difference between a book and a manual - the latter is more oriented towards details that do change from version to version.
True, collaboratively
True, collaboratively writing a book just using the Internet is probably not very easy, but can be done and has been done. For example the book GNU Autoconf, Automake and Libtool has mostly been written by the main authors of those tools without them meeting very often (or at all)...
That said, if this book really gets written, I'd be interested in writing a chapter or two...
Uwe.
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http://www.hermann-uwe.de
Handbook
I agree with Dries that we should first try and get our own handbook sorted before getting into dead tree ones ;).
Plus, there are still a bunch of significant changes in the pipeline which would make any book outdated soon. What sort of topics would you guys see fitting into a Drupal book? Who would it be targeted at?
included
as has been said above, there is a difference between a manual and a book. so the book should not be "howto install" but how to find information aboout instalation,s how to deal with the community, how the development if drupal is gowing, what drupals past is, how drupal fits one needs, from blogging to corporate networks.
I would love to focus on the commerical part, how a GPL-ed CMS software like drupal can help a business make more business. And since I make a living of that (well I do non oss stuff as well :-) ), I like to think I know a bit about this subject.
But I quess others might have differnet needs or wants for such a book. I know the publisher will have something to say as well...
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groets
bertb
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groets
bert boerland
Paper book vs. online handbook
I want to stress that the online information is still crucial - if we do not have the bandwidth to do both a book and online content, then skip the book.
But as has been discussed here, the book would serve different but also important needs. An easier way to introduce people to Drupal. The book should focus on the stuff that WILL NOT change in the few months while it is being printed. The book should be all of the fundamental concepts that one needs to know to evaluate and contribute to Drupal. The book gets Drupal on amazon.com where books about its competitors are. The book increases the chances of "corporate" recognizing it (OK, so that is a bug, not a feature - smile).
Scenario: I know nothing about Drupal. I buy the book and read it over a weekend. I go to Drupal.org for the very first time on Monday morning and within a few hours I have it running and can start to contribute in a small way. A few weeks later, I am making bigger contributions. Lofty goal, but something to shoot for.
I think there are 2 recent things that will help us focus on what the book should be about -
1) 4 year anniversary - what is still at the heart of Drupal 4 years later - put that in the book.
2) The conference in February - what is going into those classes - leverage it for the book - some of those things look pretty fundamental.
So, I think if you look at it that way, then the book is clearly not competing with the online info - but would be a good supplement. Maybe think of it more of a marketing opportunity than anything else.
Interested in writing a book?
I've added 'writing a book about Drupal' to my interests on my contact page. I'd like to encourage everyone else who might be interested to do the same. It would be great to collaborate, co-ordinate, share experiences and notes, otherwise support each other.
Djun
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puregin
A 'book' is really needed...
I would be happy to be help with creating/managing a work about drupal.
Specifically, I have noticed from many posts and comments on the web that people, mostly drupal neophytes, that a 'book' would be useful.
What is most desired? 1. Installation; 2. Configuration/Modification; 3. Other.
I am most interested in #2, but I am willing to assist anyone in writing a pdf, bsd-license, or/other variety of 'book.' Anyone interested in contributing documents/chapters for such an undertaking?
I would rather act as a 'clearinghouse' and assist in the maintenance and organization of such an undertaking.
So, free storage/bandwidth/editing. Anyone else organized/interested? Send an e-mail to eragrostis(at)gmail.com with comments/suggestions.