Who fancies a community effort to write a book?
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- daedalus__
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Learning PHP: A Collabrotive Guide
Learning PHP: A Community Guide
Learning PHP: A Community Guide
Set Search Time - A google chrome extension. When you search only results from the past year (or set time period) are displayed. Helps tremendously when using new technologies to avoid outdated results.
- RobertGonzalez
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- Maugrim_The_Reaper
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At the risk of all out war (and so close to Independence Day
) can we be aware that the use of "s" in words is just as valid as using a "z". Just depends on which side the Pond you are from
.
Its hitting the weekend so I expect this topic will take a break. Anyone else with a personal content list feel free to integrate it into the Wiki.
Its hitting the weekend so I expect this topic will take a break. Anyone else with a personal content list feel free to integrate it into the Wiki.
Curiosity has got me again; has another community - perhaps as broad as DN - ever collaborated on such a thing? I'm sure there are teams.. but that's likely closed door. An openly discussed, member driven, community effort is such a unique idea! At least in the books category.
Set Search Time - A google chrome extension. When you search only results from the past year (or set time period) are displayed. Helps tremendously when using new technologies to avoid outdated results.
- Maugrim_The_Reaper
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There's a wiki for a similar effort, but it's scope is more limited and I haven't dug deep enough to comment. Mostly there are some PHP volumes either outdated, or online under a limited CC license (all one of them I could find with a brief search), or hidden behind something like O'Reilly's Safari. I haven't seen any true book projects run as community projects for PHP. Which gives us a fairly large niche to play with... The demand is out there, so this is far from wasted effort. We can publicise and organise it however we like...
I see this book is focussing on newbies (and most people seem to favor a book that starts with a php hello world script that is executed at server-side and rendered by the client's user-agent)... It makes me wonder: 'what would make this book any different or better than the ones that already exist?'
Eg: http://www.hudzilla.org/phpbook/ is already a nice book... (I didn't have the time to checkout the others mentionned at http://www.freeprogrammingresources.com/phpbook.html)
Eg: http://www.hudzilla.org/phpbook/ is already a nice book... (I didn't have the time to checkout the others mentionned at http://www.freeprogrammingresources.com/phpbook.html)
Last edited by timvw on Fri Jun 30, 2006 7:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- Ambush Commander
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Maugrim> Aha, sorry about that. I thought I would have stopped those instincts after having worked with en.wikipedia for so long. (I actually was kind of wondering whether anyone would notice). It's true, both spellings are valid, but it's definitely preferred if the book (or at least chapters) uniformly use one type of spelling or another.
- RobertGonzalez
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One major difference, I believe, is that this book will be offered as an eBook for free. It will also cover two major segments of the PHP community: 1) Entry level PHP developers (newbies or developers new to PHP), and 2) seasoned PHP programmers that are looking for advanced knowledge.timvw wrote:I see this book is focussing on newbies (and most people seem to favor a book that starts with a php hello world script that is executed at server-side and rendered by the client's user-agent)... It makes me wonder: 'what would make this book any different or better than the ones that already exist?'
Eg: http://www.hudzilla.org/phpbook/ is already a nice book... (I didn't have the time to checkout the others mentionned at http://www.freeprogrammingresources.com/phpbook.html)
Just those two issues alone make this book a unique project. Throw in the fact that this is a community based, collaborative effort and you have yourself a one-of-a-kind PHP book project the likes of which have not been seen.
- Christopher
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Maybe a bit grandiose, but if you plan to cover that much ground then the name could be "The Community PHP Encyclopedia"Everah wrote:One major difference, I believe, is that this book will be offered as an eBook for free. It will also cover two major segments of the PHP community: 1) Entry level PHP developers (newbies or developers new to PHP), and 2) seasoned PHP programmers that are looking for advanced knowledge.
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- RobertGonzalez
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Grandiose? Hardly. Now if I would have said that this book will single-handedly destroy all other web development languages while at the same time making you richer, better-looking and wiser, well now, that would have been grandiose.arborint wrote:Maybe a bit grandiose, but if you plan to cover that much ground then the name could be "The Community PHP Encyclopedia"Everah wrote:One major difference, I believe, is that this book will be offered as an eBook for free. It will also cover two major segments of the PHP community: 1) Entry level PHP developers (newbies or developers new to PHP), and 2) seasoned PHP programmers that are looking for advanced knowledge.
- Ambush Commander
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Well, if it's going to be an encyclopedia, I don't see why we shouldn't model it of Wikipedia...
Actually I do see why: A book implies that the thing is completed, finished, and thoroughly checked for correctness. It also can be read in a linear fashion. Most wiki software out there don't have "Version 1.0" support. And plus there's already a project out there like that. Hmm...
Actually I do see why: A book implies that the thing is completed, finished, and thoroughly checked for correctness. It also can be read in a linear fashion. Most wiki software out there don't have "Version 1.0" support. And plus there's already a project out there like that. Hmm...
- Maugrim_The_Reaper
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The book would be:
-community written
-peer reviewed
-example heavy (?)
-no limited word count
-available as PDF (minimum)
-free in all forms
-Accurate to latest PHP5 syntax
-constantly updated (quite possible)
-focus on usefulness, not just a reference
Similar sources have limitations we can (if we wish) avoid.
, it would give the general public a role in peer review.
-community written
-peer reviewed
-example heavy (?)
-no limited word count
-available as PDF (minimum)
-free in all forms
-Accurate to latest PHP5 syntax
-constantly updated (quite possible)
-focus on usefulness, not just a reference
Similar sources have limitations we can (if we wish) avoid.
I would like to see a purely HTML formatted version with commenting... Besides being way neatWell, if it's going to be an encyclopedia, I don't see why we shouldn't model it of Wikipedia...
Here are my thoughts on a few things Maugrim_The_Reaper wrote...
-example heavy (?) - Yes for sure, with a big but. I think preliminary examples should be simple and straightforward, with more specific or complex examples to view.
-no limited word count - Since we don't have to worry about a publisher, word count is not an issue, but things DO need to be as clear and concise as possible.
-available as PDF PDF, HTML and Plain Text Minimum
-example heavy (?) - Yes for sure, with a big but. I think preliminary examples should be simple and straightforward, with more specific or complex examples to view.
-no limited word count - Since we don't have to worry about a publisher, word count is not an issue, but things DO need to be as clear and concise as possible.
-available as PDF PDF, HTML and Plain Text Minimum
- Maugrim_The_Reaper
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