KDE 2.0 Development, a new book being published under the
Open Publication License is now available online, in full, for free, at
http://kde20development.andamooka.org/.
The site also holds all of the source code from the examples in the book,
downloadable HTML and PDF versions, an annotated online-only abridged KDE API
reference (Appendix B), and an annotated version of the KDE Developer's HOWTO.
The host site is part of Andamooka which runs web software that lets visitors
annotate and discuss each section of the book and view the annotation along
with the original text. This site will serve as an "open support" system for
readers of the book.
The book is written for C++ programmers with or without previous KDE coding
experience. It covers introductory KDE/Qt programming, KDE UI design,
KParts, DCOP, aRts, XML GUI, KDevelop, licensing issues, CVS, code and
end-user documentation, and more.
Many chapters are written by contributing authors who have helped design
and/or implement the systems about which they wrote. These authors are: Kurt
Granroth (also technical editor), Cristian Tibirna, David Faure, Espen Sand,
Stefan Westerfeld, Ralf Nolden, Daniel Marjamaki, and Charles Bar-Joseph, and
a forward was written by Matthias Ettrich.
Since the book is released under the Open Publication License, it may be
modified and redistributed online, which means that the book can be
maintained (fixed, updated, expanded etc.) in the style of a free software
project. In this spirit, volunteer translation of the book into five other
languages has already begun. I welcome any other feedback or contributions
to the maintainance and development of the book. Everything that is
incorporated into official versions of the book will be released under the
Open Publication License electronically and for free.
Comments:
Re: Free KDE 2.0 Development Book Now Available - Mathias H. - 2000-11-10
Great!
had a first look, looks good...
but might be that this announcement triggered the /. effect? or is that site always so slow?
Re: Free KDE 2.0 Development Book Now Available - David Sweet - 2000-11-10
It's not always so slow ;) it's just that the initial announcement of the book has given my web host provider more traffic than they've ever seen.
They're also in the process of doubling their bandwidth capacity, so it should perk up.
<P>
Dave
Re: Free KDE 2.0 Development Book Now Available - Benjamin Meyer - 2000-11-10
Will there be paper printed copy of this anywhere?
Re: Free KDE 2.0 Development Book Now Available - David Sweet - 2000-11-10
It will be available next week in "a store near you". You can preorder online right now at all of the usual places where you'd buy this kind of book. (In fact, you can be really nice and order via the link on the book's web site if you want. ;)
<P>
Dave<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.andamooka.org/~dsweet">http://www.andamooka.org/~dsweet</A>
Wow, Andamooka is damn slow !!! - Andre - 2000-11-10
I like the concept of having user discussion within the book. So I would prefer this version instead of the paper one.
But the webside is such slow, and even got several server errors. I think this host is simply not capable of serving such an ammount of requests.
Ouchh, is that site slow!!!! - grovel - 2000-11-10
Downloading this thing is as impossible as it was to download the KDE2.0 sources just after the announcement.
Are there any mirrors (not of KDE, of the book)??
Re: Ouchh, is that site slow!!!! - David Sweet - 2000-11-10
There are a few places that are in the
process of putting up mirrors. They'll
all be listed at <A HREF="http://www.andamooka.org/files.shtml">http://www.andamooka.org/files.shtml</A> and
there'll be a note on the <a HREF="http://kde20development.andamooka.org">books's home page</A> saying where to go.
<P>
Dave
Posted to Slashdot.org - kupolu - 2000-11-12
Theres publicity for you. I posted this to www.slashdot.org and it got accepted! Check it out <a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/11/160215&mode=nested">here</a>. <p>Go KDE!<p>
--
Chris Aakre
Re: Posted to Slashdot.org - reihal - 2000-11-12
O no! It will be slashdotted forever!
Re: Posted to Slashdot.org - David Sweet - 2000-11-12
Luckily the book has been mirrored at a few places
and Andamooka is back up to speed.
<P>
I'm happy to see that there's been a lot of
annotation/discussion of the text going on in the past few days. If you're reading the book,
you should probably check out this annotation
b/c some good stuff (errata, etc.) has come up.
<P>
Dave
Re: Offline annotations? - Gaute Hvoslef Kvalnes - 2000-11-13
<p>Will the annotations be available for download as well? I think it's a good idea to at least assemble the important issues, so that those of us who don't have permanent Internet access can read them, too. Perhaps an <em>"Appendix D"</em>?</p>
<p>I'm downloading the HTML version right now, and have already ordered the paper version ;-)</p>
Re: Offline annotations? - David Sweet - 2000-11-13
I'm working on it. It'll be something like this:
- download whole book or just a chapter (or maybe even section)
- with or without annotation (the annotation will be mixed in with the text like it is online)
- choice of moderation-score threshold for annotation
- choice to include "just my annotation" or all of the community annotation
- choice of plaintext, HTML, PDF, or (when I get to it) openEBook formats
If you have any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
Of course, I'll also probably need more bandwidth to handle this.
Dave
Re: Offline annotations? - Gaute Hvoslef Kvalnes - 2000-11-14
<p>Sounds great!</p>
<p>However, it would also be nice if the annotations could be downloaded separately, so that I can print them and keep them with the (paper) book.</p>
Re: Free KDE 2.0 Development Book Now Available - jpmfan - 2000-11-13
Does the paper version of the book include the APIs?
I've got the HTML version and it's very impressive. Great job guys...
Re: Free KDE 2.0 Development Book Now Available - David Sweet - 2000-11-14
No, there's no API reference in the print verion.
It was just HUGE and I figured it would be pointless to print it. Considering that it seemed like it would be <B>so</B> much easier to navigate it online than in a book and that people don't generally read the API (like they do a chapter, i.e. from start to finish) it was best to leave the API out.
<P>
Another plus is -- I can't verify this -- but I think it lowered the price of the book by $10.
<P>
Dave
Re: Free KDE 2.0 Development Book Now Available - jamal - 2000-11-14
What about Making printed book consists of KDE API.I myself prefer to have printed document rather than online html files. I know KDE API will still changes but sometimes in the future I think it will be helpful that KDE API is well documented in form of books.
One good thing about Windows is its API is very well documented.
Re: Free KDE 2.0 Development Book Now Available - jpmfan - 2000-11-14
If I can't get it in a book, is there anywhere where you can download it in a tarball or similar? I would prefer to have my own local copy than having to rely on a slow V90 modem... I'd like to start programming in KDE but it would be easier to have my own APIs on disc somewhere than having to dial up my internet connection everytime I forget what the parameters for such and such a method are.
Re: Free KDE 2.0 Development Book Now Available - Gaute Hvoslef Kvalnes - 2000-11-15
<p>I've downloaded the API reference from <a href="http://www.mcp.com/sams/display_sams.cfm?item=0672318911&itemhdr=Downloads&itemloc=downloads">here</a>.</p>
I read this book - Anonymous - 2000-11-14
I've read this book and it's very good! I am quite sure this book will give rise to a lot of new KDE2 developers.
Congrats to the authors!