Hi,

I'm all about saving the planet and saving our trees, but currently reading documentation on-screen (no matter how hard I try), is just not as comfortable as reading from a book. I don't have these $350+ eBook readers, so I can't comment on them with there e-Ink technology screens. Does any of you use a eBook (external) reader for FPC or other PDF ebooks? How comfortable do you find those screens and the device itself?

I'm going to print the FPC documentation and bind them myself. Binding your own books is actually very easy - I'll add a wiki page with instructions for other FPC users.

My problem is the RTL document. It is HUGE! Last time I checked, it was just under 1600 pages.

* Is it worth printing this document? Or does it make more sense to only print the language and compiler guides?

* Has anybody else printed the RTL document? If so, how did you bind it? No printer here wants to bind such a huge book.

* Is there a way to create 2 or 3 volumes out of the RTL document? Printing it all out and simply binding it as 3 books by dividing the pages doesn't look like it will work well. Because only the first volume will have an Contents Table and only the last volume will have an index.

Can this document be split in a more "professional" way into 3 volumes? How did anybody else do this?

* Paper Size. Strangely enough the default page size in the USA is US Letter, in the EU and Afriac it's A4. But what is really funny, is that I do not own a single book that is printed in Letter or A4 page size! Instead the books seem to all be slightly shorter in height and width - what's up with this in the publishing world?? Why do we have standard page sizes if no publisher uses it. Anyway, so is A4 the best choice for our documentation?

I really don't mind it being A4, because it is a lot more convenient because I always have A4 pager around. Also printing in booklet form which reduces books to A5 size is very convenient as well. I just thought I would mention my observation. :-)

If anybody else printed the FPC documentation could you comment on your experience. Did you use A4 or A5 size, what about the RTL documentation etc..

By the way, I have tried a 400 page eBook once with those plastic ring-binding things with all the rectangular holes down the spine. It did not work very well and is hard to page through the book. So "perfect binding" with a paperback cover seems to be the best solution. Hardback might be even better, but I haven't tried to do hardback cover binding myself yet.

Regards,
- Graeme -

In our previous episode, Graeme Geldenhuys said:

migrated to 1.1, I compiled my own version of the document with only system/objpas - sysutils - strutils in them.

At the uni I had a big 5SI with a duplex unit, so printing double sided in A5 format was easy. I usually didn't cut it though, just ring bound them on the top page. The booklet printing program had an option for that.

The last years I usually just grep through doc or RTL sources. Machines are a lot faster now. Very recently I also use the CHMs, but that might also because I spend most of my time working on those atm.

If you can obtain the latex source as generated by fpdoc, it shouldn't be that long. Just find anything before the first unit, save it as preamble, and then cut on unit borders. 5 minutes.

Maybe you get get latex to generate separate files for parts, but I don't think most people print the full docs (and specially the unit part), so for most people it would only be frustrating.

standard page sizes if no publisher uses it. Anyway, so is A4 the best choice for our documentation?

For me yes. For most Europeans also I guess. I'm not sure which other countries use non-A4 paper except for the US.

But changing it is also one or two minutes work.

For a RTL reference I'd like ringbinding because it will lay flat open, so you can type with two hands.

Graeme written:

- Graeme -

I suggest the FPC dev team to consider the option to publish on lulu.com or simil service the RTL books, maybe splitted in two or three volumes. With money get back by the books sell we can finance FPC development.

Here is an example: I'm an italian delphi win32 programmer that wants to move to linux operating systems, and I found this book http://gapil.truelite.it/ that explain in italian how to develop under linux.
This book, 700 pages, is free and opensource, is distribuited online but you can *buy* also a printed copy on lulu.com. With money of every sell the author add more pages to the book. Note that lulu.com doesn't print books until their are sold. There is not a wast of paper :-) So, buying this book, i financed the book itself and i have got a well readable copy of this monolitic documentation.

What do you think about?
Bye all
Corrado

Marco van de Voort het geskryf:

At the uni I had a big 5SI with a duplex unit, so printing double sided in A5 format was easy. I usually didn't cut it though, just

Our company has huge printers as well — they do everything but make coffee. Apparently that's an optional extra. ;-) We often print and bind our own manuals for our franchisees — if we have a stock shortage or in a pinch.

If you can obtain the latex source as generated by fpdoc, it shouldn't be that long. Just find anything before the first unit, save it as preamble, and then cut on unit borders. 5 minutes.

I already have the latest doc source checked out — I just haven't bothered installing LaTeX yet. Internally, our company moved over to OpenDocument (ODT) format instead of TeX, so lately I don't have a need for LaTeX myself. But with apt-get it's no trouble really.

For a RTL reference I'd like ringbinding because it will lay flat open, so you can type with two hands.

I was actually refering to comb binding or plastic spiral binding — I just didn't know the correct name at the time I sent that message. But I see what you mean about Ring Binding on a desk. Umm… Maybe for the smaller books, I'll use 'perfect binding' (glue) with a paperback cover for the smaller books and for the larger document like RTL, use ring binding. Then the huge size shouldn't be such an issue either.

Regards,
- Graeme -

In our previous episode, Graeme Geldenhuys said:

Well, it was more an implicit hint that nowadays I don't have the luxury of workgroup printers anymore :-)

I use OOo at work too, but at home mostly use Latex based LyX.

> For a RTL reference I'd like ringbinding because it will lay flat > open, so you can type with two hands. I was actually refering to comb binding or plastic spiral binding ?

Plastic spiral, but there are metal ones too with the same property. IIRC at the uni the plastic ones were also available in larger sizes.

It lasts the few years before it is outdated.

I have thought about it many times. I'm a regular purchaser on Lulu, maybe it is time to become a publisher :-)

Well, if there is enough demand, we could definitely consider this.

Michael.

Corrado Valeri het geskryf:

I suggest the FPC dev team to consider the option to publish on lulu.com

I actually thought this was done already. I searched the lulu.com website yesterday, but couldn't find any Free Pascal specific content.

The problem I have with Lulu.com is that as far as I know, there is no local printers in South Africa. So I need to purchase books in US Dollars (with our bad exchange rate) and then still pay 10-12% import duties on all such books.

That's why I started researching for local Print-on-Demand services here in South Africa, that will also do binding. I emailed a few over the weekend. And while waiting for their reply, I starting researching DIY bookbinding. It is actually very easy to do yourself, not to mention that our company does some odd bookbinding as well. I spoke to the guy in our company that does the bookbinding and he says it is very easy and anybody can do it with no machinery required. The longest part is waiting for the glue to dry. As I mentioned earlier - as an alternative to lulu.com, I will create a small wiki page with how-to instructions to do your own FPC docs binding for very, very cheap. :-)

Regards,
- Graeme -

Michael Van Canneyt het geskryf:

Well, if there is enough demand, we could definitely consider this.

Does it cost anything to become a publisher on lulu.com? I thought it's free and that you only need to upload the PDF document to them. Then they get a percentage from an actual sale. I didn't do much research on this, so I might be wrong.

Regards,
- Graeme -

I didn't look into it yet. I have plenty of work as it is :-)

Also, we'd need someone to design a cover for the books. My graphical skills are worse than horrible :-)

Michael.

Michael Van Canneyt het geskryf:

Also, we'd need someone to design a cover for the books. My graphical skills are worse than horrible :-)

I saw they actually have a few cover templates one can use and a small cover wizard. I do not know how good the end-result is, but it should suffice in a pinch I guess. Alternatively, have a look at the Delphi or Kylix manuals. Four colours only (black, white, blue and red), and VERY basic, but it works! :-)

Regards,
- Graeme -

I would definitely be interested in buying a printed version via lulu.com.

I have researched lulu.com in the past for other purposes and the only possible problem is that they are fussy about the software used to produce the pdf. It either has to be produced with Acrobat or using their online (free) conversion tool. OpenOffice, etc output doesn't appear to be an option. However, as the manuals don't have much (anything?) in the way of graphics it shouldn't cost too much bandwidth to use the online converter (not like the book of old photographs that I was considering :-! ).

Malcolm