Plan-B for Software Documentation

I attended yesterday the Boston PHP Meetup (User Group) meeting for August.

Scott Mattocks introduced the basic concepts of PHP-GTK 2. He gave a well researched sample application using PHP and the Gimp Toolkit (GTK). The application queried an online database of events. His presentation went from from an empty window to the mostly functioning application with query form and result page.

Following his presentation we had a lively discussion about features such as long running tasks and complex widgets. Scott also assessed the learning curve as being a bit steeper than HTML forms but not as steep as Swing for example.

Finally we wondered “When would you use this kind of interface instead of plain server logic and HTML in a browser?” We figured that applications with sophisticated interaction patterns or requiring access to local data/databases would be best suited for PHP applications with an GTK interface. The caveat appears to be that there is limitations in deployment. The currently best method is deploying PHP, the libraries and the GTK one at a time. An alternative is emerging in Gnope, the PHP application installer.

Some lucky dudes took home Scott Mattocks book “Pro PHP-GTK” and T-Shirts. also many thanks to Optaros for hosting.

InPictures has published four new books covering OpenOffice.org

• Base 2.0,
• Writer 2.0,
• Calc 2.0,
• Impress 2.0.

InPictures follows an unusual concept: [Its] computer how-to books are based on pictures, not text. The company states Most computer books contain over 50,000 words. In Pictures books contain one-tenth as many.

Best of all, the books are cheap, dirt cheap For a limited time, In Pictures books can be downloaded for free.

Finally I discovered a bunch of books about OpenOffice. org, the open source alternative to Microsoft Office that covering the current version (2.0):

• Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 2.0, by the OOoAuthors.org a group of volunteer documentation writers.
• Sams Teach Yourself OpenOffice.org 2, Firefox and Thunderbird for Windows All in One by Greg Perry is the book for those that want to convert wholesale to open source products.
• OpenOffice.org 2.x Resource Kit by Solveig Haugland and Floyd Jones. this book is scheduled for publishing on June 24. 2006. Solveig Haugland has also blog about her work with OpenOffice.org worth reading.
• Point & Click OpenOffice.org by Robin Miller.
• The Tiny Guide to OpenOffice.org by Benjamin Horst, a member of the OpenOffice.org Marketing Project
• A Conceptual Guide to OpenOffice.org 2.0 by R. Gabriel Gurley.
• OpenOffice 2 by Mike Weber, published by spidertools.com focuses on Linux users.

Continuing my research regarding books on OpenOffice. org, the open source alternative to Microsoft Office. I found a few today that Appeal to special audiences:

• OOoSwitch: 501 Things You Want to Know About Switching OpenOffice.org from Microsoft Office by Tamar E. Granor, Scott Carr, and Sam Hiser. The book covers OpenOffice.org version 1.1 from the perspective of users converting from MS Office.
• OpenOffice.org Macros Explained by Andrew Pitonyak. The book is obviously for advanced users who want to automate functions for repeat use.
• 6×9 Book Template for OpenOffice.org Writer by Dmitri Popov is a template for a book for OOo-Writer.

Continuing my research of books on OpenOffice. org, the open source alternative to Microsoft Office, I found a few books that focus on single programs of the suite:

OpenOffice Writer

• OpenOffice.org 2.0 Writer Guide by the OOoAuthors.org, a volunteer group of documentation writers.
• OpenOffice.org Writer : The Free Alternative to Microsoft Word by Jean Weber covers version 1.0 or 1.1. Jean Weber did write this book originally in self publishing and O’Reilley later decided to publish the book which gave it a wider audience.
• Writer for Writers by Dmitri Popov

I started some research on OpenOffice. org, the open source alternative to Microsoft Office. I compiled a list of books, teaching the popular office suite. I thought I share my results online. First I found quite a view Covering older versions (1.0 and 1.1):

• OpenOffice.Org 1.0 Resource Kit by Solveig Haugland and Floyd Jones. This book has a successor “OpenOffice.org 2.x Resource Kit” announced for 24. June 2006
• From the “For Dummies” series there is “OpenOffice.org for Dummies” from Gurdy Leete, Ellen Finkelstein, Mary Leete. The book covers OpenOffice 1.0 or 1.1 and needs updating to the current version of the free office suite.
• Sams Teach Yourself OpenOffice.org All In One by Greg Perry and Kenyon Brown.
• OpenOffice 1.3 published by spidertools.com