[REBOL] A suggested model for a new REBOL REFERENCE BOOK
From: gerardcote::sympatico::ca at: 31-Aug-2002 20:15
Hi REBOLers,
Since my last email about a future plan to write a newbie book for the REBOL language,
I thought again about the content that would
be most useful to everybody for getting the widest acceptance of the REBOL language to
every newcomer - that is useful for already
programmers as well as completely new to anything near computers (well! excepted using
them...).
In my first thinking I found the 3 books set entitled Computer Science LOGO Style would
be a good start to base my own writing but
its content is more geared towards the non-numerical view of CS, something more related
to IA and symbolic computing.
In another time I also want to have my own REFERENCE book about REBOL, some like other
languages have it for the newcomers.
And devoted to a similar task recently appeared a very good example of such a book I
would like to have. It's been written for the
relatively new Ruby Language, and is available online for free to look at.
Curiously enough I would like to draft my own one on some part of its interesting and
up-to-date enough Table of contents - to be
precise.
In fact I already know some of its features are completely absent from the REBOL language
but nonetheless it semes to me very
interesting to keep these subjects present - even if it is toi remember the reader that
these festures are somehow left in the vague
or not completely achieved by the RT for the moment - this should also be a reminder
of what else is left to do on their TO-DO list.
A kind of comparison between each way the 2 languages implement some task at hand to
resolve would seem to me a good way to start my
own thinking and help each other to collaborate on its real content - REMARK : even if
Ruby is not known to anybody it seems the way
the authors described each task involved and and the code to implement their described
solutions, that no more is needed in most
cases for everyvody to understand these Ruby snippets.
In fact what I would have from all of you that are interested in a collective rework
of the TOC is this : Each ppl interested to
collaborate to this work will privately submit me - not via the ML because of the eventual
flow of messages - his own ideas about
each part of the actual TOC and what he sees as not pertinent of the actual TOC, what
he sees should be added or even how the
details could be worked out using REBOL instead of the proposed actual way the authors
attack the subjects using Ruby.
Your own feeling of what could be done for each part of the TOC should be taken into
account - but will be splitted one part at a
time - just to be TIME realist.
According to the material submitted by the many voluntaries I will receive - or my own
draft if no submission is done - I plan to
keep you in touch with the progress of the planned REBOL TOC book before going on further
on the main work.
Then after a couple of exchanges in the revision process I envisage, I could begin the
work to write a first draft. It will be done
in FRENCH first but almost simultaneously a translation will be done because of the discussions
involved and also because of my
better native thinking in FRENCH than I do in ENGLISH.
I understand that I am not a REBOL guru - instead think of a newbie trying to write something
useful for other programmers new to
this great language. My work will be put at the disposal of everyone on common Web site
used to keep the many necessary reviews
simple to do between the involved members.
It should not take many time from each contributor since I will do the first drafts myself
and I understand that this will be a part
time project. Nevertheless I don't want to do it without help form the "gurus" and from
the other "not so gurus" too since this is
to be understood by everybody in the World commmunity that has some knowledge about some
programming language but not necessarily
much of other more advanced CS concepts (like how to implement Linked or circular DATA
Structures using pointers and the like...).
However I want to talk about the included subjects in the actual Ruby book TOC even if
some programmers don't know about them. They
will just have to skip the not used or less understood sections in a first read - like
everybody does almost all of the time when
reading such a book.
What do you think about it ? I wait for some feedback before I will start with this one
but I really think it could be more useful
than my first suggestion - that was to do a rework from the Brian Harvey's series of
3 LOGO books.
I will rather work on this latter rewrite myself at my own pace when I'll desire to do
so...
Don'Mt forget I count on you all to help me to clarify what I don't understand well enough
to clearly explain and translate to each
other. So if everything is choking your head when I wil try my hands at it, don't hesitate
to let me know what else you would see
insted to replace it.
I will then decide how the "litige" will be eliminated for the better.
So here is my work basis submission for you to delight until I begin to really work on
it.
http://www.rubycentral.com/book/
Don't misunderstand me, I don't want to do a mere copy of it since I already got it and
paid for it myself but instead think of it
as a start-up platform for a newer one, dedicated to the REBOL community.
In fact I don't plan to kill the work already done by other writers like the authors
of the 3 current books either - I also got
everyone of them - "The Official Guide" and the "REBOL for Dummies" to.
What I would like ios getting a real updated "newcomer" dedicated book and neither of
the other ones cited can reclaim to be one
except for "REBOL for the Dummies" but it lacks to treat many of the subjects I would
like to see in a SERIOUS reference book that
could further be used for teaching REBOL in HighSchool and College classes. This is my
objective but I don't want to sell it. I just
want to return it to the REBOL community - at least the ENGLISH version since it will
be more useful than the FRENCH version.
And for the ADVANCED parts that deserve some reference to the other already written books
- particularly the one written by OLIVIER
AUVERLOT - don't be afraid. I will not duplicate its contents. I will refer to it instead.
and this is also valuable for the 2 other
books too.
I just want to keep together most of the information that every newcomer to the REBOL
community has to gather from a lto of places.
And this also includes all of the work done by many of you on the ML - old timers and
youngers too that took much of you time to
create, test and explain a lot of features. I don't plan to rework all of them but what
I understood from all thise places I want
others to know about and if possible, get to others the most of them without duplicating
any work already done by others.
Hope that is clear about my intentions!
a smooth intro but that demonstrates clearly how to use it when someone has to develop
some idea using the REBOL tool instead of the
many others already availables on the market.
Now I am ready to begin with any suggestions that will come to me - be it positive or
not !!
Even the format coudl be discussed but I planned to use the Make-to-doc PRO to help keep
uniform the presentation and use the
easy-VID.r script to put together the interactive part of the examples. So this will
be a first step done for at least 1 of my other
projects!
To be or not to be
could soon become
To REBOL or not to REBOL
that's now the answer to the question ... ;-)
Regards Gerard
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