Software for writing Go books

[unkx80]

EPS files work well, IMX.

Don't know why I missed .eps when I always turned my graphics files into .eps for LaTeX usage...

[CheeseNPickle]

One more vote for LaTeX. Yes it does produce nice output but there are some other reasons I think. LaTeX will keep track of numbering your figures very nicely. Delete one figure and all the rest get renumbered. You can give a figure a label in the code, then instead of remembering "figure 123" you can type \cite{lgroupdead1} or similar and the number gets updated. Word can do this but I think you need to buy the Endnote software. Also, against copy and pasting the figures in - it's great (apart for quality issues) if you never want to change them, triangles to squares, typos etc but if you need to fix that stuff it can probably get a bit dull redoing them from scratch. Also, there are some easy-to-use user interfaces to make using LaTeX easier. Copying then modifying a figure is easy when its just text. Finally, with regards the learning curve I'd get a working example of a tex file then modify it (e.g. the igo manual that comes in tex format). Fine tuning the appearance can come later.

edit: not cite, ref (ugh!)

[Solomon]

Some things you may look at:
MikTeX. (LaTeX for Windoze)
AUCTeX. (To customize the Emacs editor to LaTeX. The imao best/easiest way to use LaTeX.)
CTAN. (Free repository of all things TeX and LaTeX, including free user guides)

On OS X, TeXShop is just fantastic.

[unkx80]

I am primarily a Windows user. On Windows, MikTeX is fantastic.

You need to include some package on CTAN that's not already installed in your MikTeX installation? Just do it, and during compilation the program can offer to download and install it automatically for you. This feature is too convenient for me to pass up.

(Yes, LaTeX users compile their documents. This term sure sounds scary to non-LaTeX users!)

[Caroliano]

And 100% on your stance regarding Comic Sans, along with Brush...and Papyrus . Actually, for some reason, I also get just as irked from Arial (why not Helvetica or Verdana?) and Times New Romans (why not Georgia?).

Obligatory xkcd reference:



Alt-Text:"I secretly, deep in my guilty heart, like Papyrus and don't care if it's overused. [Cue hate mail in beautifully-kerned Helvetica.]"

Freegame, for undesrtanding the comic and the graphic designers feelings you may start here and then click on Comics Sans to understand the problem.

Imagine someone when discovers that the WHOLE book he BOUGHT and WANTED TO READ is using comic sans? Arght, it is too horrible to imagine! So, some people may not cope very well with this... If you treasure your life, or at least the well being of others, please don't do this.

As the title says, we need more dialog boxes like this: http://www.globalnerdy.com/2007/06/21/t ... like-this/
The coments on this blog entry are also very good.

[unkx80]

Imagine someone when discovers that the WHOLE book he BOUGHT and WANTED TO READ is using comic sans? Arght, it is too horrible to imagine! So, some people may not cope very well with this... If you treasure your life, or at least the well being of others, please don't do this.

I had something close to this. Some years ago, I attended a course taught by two lecturers, one of them a visiting professor from Stanford. All his PowerPoint slides were formatted in Comic Sans, every single word of it...

[freegame]

I'm half way through changing all diagrams to vector graphics (eps) and helvetica font.
It is a lot of work redoing all the diagrams...

[Elesthor]

A great +1 for Latex =D

In order to write a book, the learning curve isn't too long (you've just to master the basic of it) =)

On OsX, the best choice is Textmate+Latex if you are familiar with advanced text editors.

I've also heard about TexMaker on Windows, but i think it is more for scientific publishes.


Your printing looks nice

[freegame]

Your printing looks nice

hehe, all new diagrams are boring vector graphics. so no textured stones anymore.
the old bitmaps were fine for 90+% of the times. but there were a few grainy diagrams.
I hope that with the new vector diagram they will all have the same quality.