Henry, There are a few points in your comment, that make me think we should add/improve in the book (unless I have just missed them in the old books):
For a Noob, I would recommend to start with Tom Locke's screencast, followed > by the Agility tutorial:-) Then Rapid Rails with Hobo, and Hobo at Work > last. > 1. A special n00b dedicated chapter to clearly show the easiest path to learn hobo. It could be just a list like yours. I remember I felt quite lost in the documentation, just because I didn't find any path and I had to jump around different resources (which focus was always vague) without having a general picture. Maybe it's just me, but idiot-proof suggestions have always helped me :-) I mean, just a paragraph in a flash box that you cannot miss, repeated at the beginning of all the documentation resource, that explain how to use the resource we have, could really help. If you put the two books together, then you had better group the chapters in > to different sections. > I think that Owen is working on a new integrated structure, also due to the fact that with 1.3 we have new topics to explain I was thinking that the number of books produced by the core team would be > such a measure. What other measure can we use (other than number of lines of > code not written)? > 2. Easy to learn? :-) Simple to test? :-))))) Well documented? Well supported by the community? About learning and supporting, we have a really easy to use (idiot-proof) and powerful tool in incubation that we will hopefully add to the 1.3. If that will be produced, our community will have a really exlusive and nice toy to play with. ciao dd On Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 12:04 AM, Henry Baragar < [email protected]> wrote: > On December 8, 2010 06:02:50 pm Domizio Demichelis wrote: > > > Henry, > > > > > > 1. There is quite a few overlapping pages, so the resulting pages will > not > > > be the sum of the books (at least in theory). Anyway, what is a "too big" > > > book? You will not have to carry it phisically, and even if you would, > you > > > would have to carry 2 books however. I really don't see any advantage > > > splitting the pages into 2 documents instead of one: just disadvantages. > > > > > I know that there is some overlap, which is why I estimated 500, not 600. > > As for what is too big: I had been thinking that over 300 pages is starting > to get daunting. But then, my copy of "Agile Development with Rails" is 558 > pages and my copy of Programming Ruby is 830 pages; other technical books > seem to be in the same range. So, I may have miscalculated and 500 is not > too big. > > > 2. Two books with no criterion distinguishing them, is a pain in the > neck > > > when you have to search some reference: for the Murphy law, what you are > > > searching will be always in the second one you search. :-) Besides, which > > > one is what you have to start with if you are n00b? > > > > > For a Noob, I would recommend to start with Tom Locke's screencast, > followed by the Agility tutorial:-) Then Rapid Rails with Hobo, and Hobo at > Work last. > > I have always thought of Rapid Rails with Hobo as a tutorial and recipe > book, while Hobo at Work as a reference manual. I almost never refer to > Rapid Rails with Hobo (I prefer cookbook.hobocentral.net) and regularly > refer to Hobo at Work. So, maybe I am getting subjected to Murphy's Law > between the website and Hobo at Work, but rarely between the two books. I > guess other people are having different experiences. > > > 3. IMHO more books don't look better from an advertising point of view. I > > > lead an advertising agency for 8 years and I learned that you better > focus > > > on one single target to avoid dispersion. If there aren't "The Holy > Bible" > > > and "The Holy Bilble under the Hood"... it has to be for some good reason > > > > > If you put the two books together, then you had better group the chapters > in to different sections. For example the Agile Web Development with Rails > has four four sections --- "Getting Started", "Building an Application", > "The Rails Framework" and "Appendices" --- which really is two books bundled > into one. But, I guess this argues your point:-) However, I sometimes get > annoyed wading through the search hits in the non-reference part of the book > before I get to the reference parts I wanted to focus on. > > As for the advertising side of it, I would like to find some measure to > show the richness of Hobo. I was thinking that the number of books produced > by the core team would be such a measure. What other measure can we use > (other than number of lines of code not written)? > > Cheers, > > Henry > > > :-) > > > > > > ciao > > > dd > > > > > > On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 6:16 PM, Henry Baragar > > > <[email protected] > > > > > > > wrote: > > > > I'm OK with leaving them a separate books. One is 236 pages, the other > > > > is > > > > > > > > 330 page. A combined book would be at least 500 pages, which too big. > > > > Plus, more books looks better from an advertising point of view. > > > > > > > > Henry > > > > > > > > On December 7, 2010 04:47:02 pm Owen Dall wrote: > > > > > One was for tutorials and the other for reference, for looking "Under > > > > > the > > > > > > > > > > Hood" :-) > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > At the beginning there was one book, with a single chapter at the end > > > > > > > > > > containing all of what now comprises "Hobo at Work". > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > I am all for merging them again, since we are no longer moving from > Mac > > > > > > > > > > Pages to Mac Word 2008, and then Word 2007. :-) > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -Owen > > > > > > > > -- > > > > > > > > Henry Baragar > > > > > > > > Instantiated Software > > > > > > > > -- > > > > > > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups > > > > "Hobo Users" group. > > > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > > > [email protected]<hobousers%[email protected]> > <hobousers%2bunsubscr...@googlegrou > > > > ps.com> . > > > > For more options, visit this group at > > > > http://groups.google.com/group/hobousers?hl=en. > > > -- > > Henry Baragar > > Instantiated Software > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Hobo Users" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<hobousers%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/hobousers?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Hobo Users" group. 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