On 1/22/06, Mirko Steiner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> hm how is this document done? Seems to me like a office (microsoft/openoffice 
> whatever) document... how will you realize a distributed development of this 
> document?
> my propose would be LaTeX document where you can distribute easily for 
> example "each chapter is a file" or whatever, and through "text only" editing 
> developing via CVS or Subversion could easily be done and even through this 
> it looks very professional (anyone ever read a Richard Stevens book?).
> but anyway I'm interested but someone has to read over my documents because 
> english is not my mouth-tongue :)
>

Thanks for the initial responses!

I do not have a TOC yet, although I think following the organization
of the requirements document would work well. Put an foreword at the
front and appendices at the end.  Make each domain a chapter, starting
with domain 1 as chapter 1, and so on.  I think the BSD CG did a
wonderful job with the doc and I believe it should be followed
closely.

I do not have explicit plans to make the guide "official" or
"approved."  I think the book could go forward without those labels,
although they would be helpful.

This may not be popular, but I do not intend to pursue this as a
broad-based "community" collaboration.  This decision is based on my
experience as a writer who has authored, co-authored, or contributed
to six books.  The time to completion and the number of obstacles
increases as the number of contributors increases.  I am looking for a
small number of experts who would either be co-authors or contributing
authors, each addressing certain subjects.

I have not decided if the authorship should be aligned by operating
system (e.g., FreeBSD expert, NetBSD, expert, etc.) or domain.  I
welcome comments, although I'm initially thinking OS expertise would
be best.  I am looking for people who can speak authoritatively about
meeting the exam objectives, preferably from personal experience.

I intend to collaborate with co-authors to develop a template for
addressing each domain and how best to explain the objectives.  I will
provide an starting point based on my writing style, which has
generally been popular with technical audiences.

This next point is probably not going to win any fans, but Microsoft
Office is the easiest way to perform copy-editing with Addison-Wesley.
 The copy editors make heavy use of tracking changes, comments, and so
on.  I tried using OpenOffice.org with my first book, but
incompatibilities eventually made that too difficult. Remember this
book needs to be published by non-techies.  Although Addison-Wesley
has a history of accepting documents in every format possible, my
experience has shown that Office makes the publication process much
easier and faster.

If I haven't totally offended the BSD world, I hope to hear from you!

Thank you,

Richard
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