Who fancies a community effort to write a book?

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daedalus__
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Post by daedalus__ »

How about "PHP newbies new girlfriend" for a title?
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s.dot
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Post by s.dot »

Learning PHP: A Collabrotive 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 Helps tremendously when using new technologies to avoid outdated results.
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RobertGonzalez
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Post by RobertGonzalez »

PHP Hot Points:
The Developer Network's Guide to PHP

Thanks to arborint for the cool subtitle :wink: .
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Maugrim_The_Reaper
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Post by Maugrim_The_Reaper »

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.
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s.dot
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Post by s.dot »

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 Helps tremendously when using new technologies to avoid outdated results.
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Maugrim_The_Reaper
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Post by Maugrim_The_Reaper »

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 Mostly there are some PHP volumes either outdated, or online under a limited CC license (all one of them I could find with a brief search), or hidden behind something like O'Reilly's Safari.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...
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Post by timvw »

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)
Last edited by timvw on Fri Jun 30, 2006 7:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Ambush Commander
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Post by Ambush Commander »

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.
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RobertGonzalez
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Post by RobertGonzalez »

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)
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.

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.
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Christopher
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Post by Christopher »

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.
Maybe a bit grandiose, but if you plan to cover that much ground then the name could be "The Community PHP Encyclopedia"
(#10850)
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RobertGonzalez
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Post by RobertGonzalez »

arborint wrote:
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.
Maybe a bit grandiose, but if you plan to cover that much ground then the name could be "The Community PHP Encyclopedia"
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. :wink:
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Ambush Commander
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Post by Ambush Commander »

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...
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Maugrim_The_Reaper
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Post by Maugrim_The_Reaper »

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.
Well, if it's going to be an encyclopedia, I don't see why we shouldn't model it of Wikipedia...
I would like to see a purely HTML formatted version with commenting... Besides being way neat ;), it would give the general public a role in peer review.
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Benjamin
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Post by Benjamin »

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
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Maugrim_The_Reaper
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Post by Maugrim_The_Reaper »

Looking at it another way - most out there are focused on being printed. This one is not. It may not seem like it, but that makes a huge difference as to the level and type of content possible.
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