6342bd1ab3
git-svn-id: https://svn.wxwidgets.org/svn/wx/wxWidgets/trunk@7998 c3d73ce0-8a6f-49c7-b76d-6d57e0e08775
316 lines
11 KiB
HTML
316 lines
11 KiB
HTML
<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<TITLE>wxWindows Book</TITLE>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF TEXT=#000000 LINK=#FF0000 VLINK=#000000>
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<font face="Arial, Lucida Sans, Helvetica">
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<table width=100% border=0 cellpadding=5 cellspacing=0>
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<tr>
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<td bgcolor="#C4ECF9">
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<font size=+1 face="Arial, Lucida Sans, Helvetica" color="#000000">
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wxWindows Book
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</font>
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</td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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<P>
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<center>
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<a href="#about">About</a> |
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<a href="#participants">Participants</a> |
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<a href="#publication">Publication</a> |
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<!-- <a href="#suggestions">Suggestions</a> | -->
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<a href="#format">Format</a> |
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<a href="#style">Style guide</a> |
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<a href="#titles">Titles</a> |
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<a href="#contents">Contents</a>
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</center>
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<p>
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<hr>
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<p>
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<H3><a name="about">About the wxWindows book</a></H3>
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August 2000: the 'wxBook' project is getting going again,
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with a good response from potential contributors.<P>
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Robin Dunn has set up a <a href="http://wxwindows.org/mailman/listinfo/wxbook">wxBook mailing list</a>.<P>
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The book will comprise 30 or so chapters dealing with progressively
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more advanced areas of wxWindows; each chapter will be as stand-alone as
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possible. The book will
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not include the API reference, though this could be a
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separate project. The book will be accompanied by a CD-ROM with
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wxWindows and its documentation. It will initially be
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available on-line, and when enough is done we will look for a
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publisher.<P>
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There will also be a separate small booklet which can easily be printed
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out and which gives an overview of wxWindows facilities by taking
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the reader through a single worked example. Guillermo Rodriguez
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Garcia has volunteered to write this, and will use his Life!
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demo to illustrate it.<P>
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Goals for the book:<P>
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<ol>
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<li> to allow users to become accomplished wxWindows developers rapidly;
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<li> to be useful over a longer period than just the first few weeks, since
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there are a lot of complex areas to address and not all features will be
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used up-front in a project;
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<li> to promote wxWindows to a wider audience;
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<li> to make at least some money for the authors.
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</ol>
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<P>
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Audience: beginners + experienced wxWindows users, but with reasonable C++
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knowledge.<P>
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It is suggested that any financial return from the book be allocated on a points system,
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with a predefined number of points for chapters, indexing, editing, proof-reading etc.<P>
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<p>
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<hr>
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<p>
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<H3><a name="participants">Participants</a></H3>
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So far, the following people are interested in taking part in this project:<P>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="mailto:julian.smart@ukonline.co.uk">Julian Smart</a> -
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editor and coordinator of the project; introductory chapter, some other
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chapters.
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<li><a href="mailto:guille@iies.es">Guillermo Rodriguez Garcia</a> - Separate tutorial booklet;
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communication classes (wxSocket, wxXXXServer, some protocol stuff); timing and timers.
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<li><a href="mailto:robin@alldunn.com">Robin Dunn</a> - wxPython chapter.
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</i>
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<li><a href="mailto:zeitlin@dptmaths.ens-cachan.fr">Vadim Zeitlin</a> - drag and drop, several other chapters.
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<li><a href="mailto:roebling@uni-freiburg.de">Robert Roebling</a> - not known.
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<li><a href="mailto:slavik2@czn.cz">Vaclav Slavik</a> - wxHTML section.
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<li><a href="mailto:gtasker@fastpicsystems.com">George Tasker</a> - database chapter.
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<li><a href="mailto:moreno@mochima.com">Carlos Moreno</a> - wxImage, wxBitmap.
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<li><a href="mailto:Shiv@pspl.co.in">Shiv Shankar Ramakrishnan</a> - wxWindows advocacy, convincing your manager,
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container classes and strings, comparison with STL
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<li><a href="mailto:markusneifer@my-Deja.com">Markus Neifer</a> - user-defined events.
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<!--
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<li><a href="mailto:csomor@advancedconcepts.ch">Stefan Csomor</a>. The sequence of events i.e. which action provokes which event sequence,
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this is implicit for the use on MSW, but very important for other systems; and porting to new platforms
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-->
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<!--
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<li><a href="mailto:tomr@scitechsoft.com">Tom Ryan</a>, SciTech Software.
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-->
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<!--
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<li><a href="mailto:karsten@phy.hw.ac.uk">Karsten Ballueder</a>. Short tutorials on some useful
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GNU tools, like autoconf/configure/make, programming
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strategies, etc.
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-->
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<!--
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<li><a href="mailto:mheck@www.surveyorcorp.com">Matt Heck</a>, SurveyorCorp Inc.
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<i>
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<ol>
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<li>a case study of how and why we've used wxWindows at Surveyor Corp., and
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how it's worked out so far;
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<li>an appendix something similar about how to use wxLIVID for video capture and display;
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<li>proofreading
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</ol>
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-->
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</ul>
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<P>
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Others welcome! Please contact <a href="mailto:julian.smart@ukonline.co.uk">Julian Smart</a>
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if you would like to contribute.
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<p>
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<hr>
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<p>
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<H3><a name="publication">Publication</a></H3>
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We wll investigate publishers, especially O'Reilly. We will have to get together
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several sample chapters to convince a publisher that the many-author approach will
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work.<P>
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<!--
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Tom Ryan originally wrote:<P>
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<PRE>
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Hi Guys,
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I just wanted to let you know that I have spoken with officials here
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at California State University, Chico and they are potentially
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interested in publishing a book on wxWindows! A wxWindows
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book would give wxWindows a great deal of exposure.
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These discussions came out of the fact that CSUC wanted to
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switch from MFC to wxWindows in their GUI programming classes,
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but there was not a book available for students to work with.
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I was thinking that the first edition could be primarily the reference
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documentation combined with a basic wxTutorial and examples. In
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this case, it would be fairly straightforward to get something out
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initially and then we could take it from there.
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</PRE>
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<p>
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<a href="mailto:benles@powernet.net">Ben Allfree</a> has also expressed an interest
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in publishing a wxWindows book, and distributing it via Amazon. Ben was thinking
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in terms of a quickie job using the existing reference manual.<P>
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Another publishing name to think of is O'Reilly. They would probably give us a lot
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of guidance for style, formatting, etc.<P>
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<a href="mailto:Roald.Ribe@winlink.no">Roald Ribe</a> writes:
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"<a href="http://www.bruceeckel.com/javabook.html" target=_new>Thinking in Java</a>
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is published both as a PDF for internet (by the author) and in print by Prentice Hall."<P>
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-->
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<P>
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<hr>
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<P>
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<!--
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<H3><a name="suggestions">Suggestions and comments</a></H3>
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<ul>
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<li>Chapter on converting from MFC. (Julian Smart)
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<li>A chapter on why some inconsistencies are almost always going to show up in a
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multiplatform toolkit, how to avoid them, how to deal with when you have
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no choice, and (if wxBook explains the internals or philosophy of
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wxWindows at all) how wxWindows attempts to minimize the number we
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encounter. (Matt Heck)
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<li>Creating the shortest possible path to writing "Hello World" from scratch in wxWindows. (Matt Heck)
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<li>How will royalties for subsequent editions be shared out? (Tom Ryan)
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<li>"My personal feeling is that this project will wind up being developed
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by a small team, led by an editor that will wind up doing about half
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of the total amount of work." (Tom Ryan)
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</ul>
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<P>
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<hr>
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<P>
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-->
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<H3><a name="format">File format</a></H3>
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Possible formats:
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<ul>
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<li>Word
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<li><a href="http://www.abisource.com" target=_top>Abiword</a>: possibly not developed enough yet, but
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it can output Latex which would make conversion to Tex2RTF format quite simple
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<li>Latex: favoured format so far. The LyX near-WYSIWYG word processor (Unix only) can output Latex.
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See also <a href="http://www.esat.kuleuven.ac.be/~minten/NTTeXing/NTTeXing.html" target=_top>NTTex</a>
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which uses EMACS as an editor. For an introduction to Latex, see <a href="ftp://ftp.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/info/lshort" target=_top>here</a>.
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A free TeX for Windows: see <a href="http://www.miktex.org/" target=_top>MikTex</a>. More TeX info: <a href="http://www.tug.org/" target=_top>TUG</a>.
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<li>XML: hard to read/write
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<li>SGML: ditto
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<li>DocBook: don't have any information about this, but <a href="http://www.LinuxNinja.com/linux-admin/" target=_top>Linux Admin Made Easy</a>
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uses it.
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<li><a href="http://www.zope.org//Members/jim/StructuredTextWiki/StructuredTextNG" target=_top>Structured text</a> -
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plain text with indentation and other elements to provide structure. The tools seem under-developed and there
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doesn't seem to be a simple way of getting them without using the CVS Zope archive.
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<li>troff - favoured by O'Reilly
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</ul>
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<P>
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<hr>
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<P>
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<H3><a name="style">Style guide</a></H3>
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We should write a style and formatting guide.<P>
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<P>
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<hr>
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<P>
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<H3><a name="titles">Book Titles</a></H3>
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It would be good to include certain buzzwords such as Linux and open source, to get
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a publisher's (and the potential reader's) attention. The trick is to do that and
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not narrow the scope unduly.<P>
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Suggestions for the main book:<P>
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<ul>
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<li>Multiplatform GUI development with wxWindows
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<li>wxWindows: an open source multiplatform toolkit
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<li>wxWindows: GUI development for Linux and other platforms
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</ul>
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<P>
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Other book titles that a publisher might be interested (but would be distinct projects):<P>
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<ul>
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<li>Writing GTK+ Application Using wxWindows
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<li>Migrating MFC Apps to Linux Using wxWindows
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</ul>
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<P>
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<hr>
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<P>
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<H3><a name="contents">Contents</a></H3>
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The following is open to discussion.<P>
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<ul>
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<li>Chapter 01: Introduction to wxWindows: history, advocacy, future developments
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<li>Chapter 02: Installing wxWindows (and what tools to use)
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<li>Chapter 03: C++ and wxWindows. Summarises the sorts of constructs used/not used, plus wxString class,
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some conventions. Vadim suggests putting it in 1st chapter but I think it deserves a chapter of its own.
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<li>Chapter 04: Getting started: Hello World. Introduces app class, frames, menus, status bar, message box
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<li>Chapter 05: Basic event handling
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<li>Chapter 06: Frames and menubars. The components of a frame, menubars.
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<li>Chapter 07: Toolbars and status bars
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<li>Chapter 08: Basic controls
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<li>Chapter 09: Common dialogs
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<li>Chapter 10: Custom dialogs and resources (XML + WXR)
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<li>Chapter 11: Drawing on device contexts
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<li>Chapter 12: Handling input (mouse, keyboard, joystick)
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<li>Chapter 14: Sizers
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<li>Chapter 15: Images and bitmaps
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<li>Chapter 16: Clipboard and drag and drop
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<li>Chapter 17: Advanced controls (list,tree,notebook,splitter,wxWizard,wxCalCtrl...)
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<li>Chapter 18: Document/view classes
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<li>Chapter 19: Scrolling
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<li>Chapter 20: MDI
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<li>Chapter 21: Printing
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<li>Chapter 22: Providing help in your applications
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<li>Chapter 23: Strings and internationalization
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<li>Chapter 24: Collection and container classes
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<li>Chapter 25: Memory management and debugging (including wxLog)
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<li>Chapter 26: Run-time class information
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<li>Chapter 27: Advanced event handling (user-defined events, ...)
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<li>Chapter 28: Communication classes, including wxSocket
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<li>Chapter 29: Database classes
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<li>Chapter 30: File and stream classes
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<li>Chapter 31: Configuration classes
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<li>Chapter 32: Time, timers and idle processing
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<li>Chapter 33: Writing multithreading applications
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<li>Chapter 34: Perfecting your UI (Adapting to system settings, accelerators, ...)
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<li>Chapter 35: Platform-specific programming (metafiles, OLE automation, taskbar, ...)
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<li>Chapter 36: Using wxHTML
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<li>Chapter 37: Using wxPython
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<li>Chapter 38: wxBase?
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<li>Appendix: Comparison with other toolkits: MFC, Qt etc.
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</ul>
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</font>
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</BODY>
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</HTML>
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