"Rick [Kitty5]" <ric### [at] kitty5com> wrote :
>
> which only MS word can use...

    I don't have a problem with that (even though it is not quite true).
Anyone who is serious about computer art gets good tools, same with writing.
Most people probably have word, and if not, those that do can import the odd
txt file. In the end we will probably reformat it to PDF, RTF or html
anyway. But since we are talking about a book with images and special
character formats, there is no chance that we will be using platform
independent, open source file formats. May as well go with a full featured,
relatively common program so that the project can proceed.

    Unless you think everyone should go out and buy Acrobat.

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In article <3c5a8588@news.povray.org> , "Rick [Kitty5]" <ric### [at] kitty5com> 
wrote:

> lets do it in MS Word, and print to PDF with Adobe Acrobat 5

Getting Word to handle a larger document, especially with images will most
likely corrupt the document or cause lots of other problems.  The appropriate
tool to write and edit really long manuals/books is FrameMaker.  Of course, it
costs even more than Word unless one gets a student discount or can use it at
work :-(

Nevertheless, it of course imports Word (and other, more generic formats) and
in theory only the book editor would need it...

    Thorsten

____________________________________________________
Thorsten Froehlich, Duisburg, Germany
e-mail: tho### [at] trfde

Visit POV-Ray on the web: http://mac.povray.org

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> > lets do it in MS Word, and print to PDF with Adobe Acrobat 5
>
> Getting Word to handle a larger document, especially with images will most
> likely corrupt the document or cause lots of other problems.  The
appropriate
> tool to write and edit really long manuals/books is FrameMaker.  Of
course, it
> costs even more than Word unless one gets a student discount or can use it
at
> work :-(

I doubt anyone in there right mind would write an entire book in a single
word doc :)


--

Rick

Kitty5 WebDesign - http://Kitty5.com
POV-Ray News & Resources - http://Povray.co.uk
TEL : +44 (01270) 501101 - FAX : +44 (01270) 251105 - ICQ : 15776037

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Just to bring a little reality back to the post, 98% of all computer books
today are written in Word. Images are NOT embedded in the docs, they are
attached via a link, or just referenced with a Fig X-Y and collected into a
folder. Word is used for its spelling checker, and its revision tracking,
which makes it easy to make changes to an authors work and lets them see
every little change made in the red line document, and change it back if
they wish. Tables are NOT usually used in Word because its difficult to get
them into a DTP program like Quark or Pagemaker. And finally using Word
makes it easy to convert to an acrobat PDF file.

"Mitchell Waite" <mit### [at] dnaicom> wrote in message
news:3c588f1f$1@news.povray.org...
> I am the second poster and in an attempt to show that this list will have
> value, I actually have something to say <wink>.
>
> We are starting a new POV Ray book and it is shaping up to be the end all,
> be all, best ever book on POV Ray. It will be in (ta da) full color, and
(I
> hope) fully reviewed and sanctioned by the POV Ray team. The book will be
> between 700 and 1000 pages long, and will not compete with but rather will
> enchance the documentation. A PDF version of it will be available as well.
>
> If you are interested in earning some royalty off all the fun you have had
> with this program, please email me at mit### [at] dnaicom. I will sign you
up
> to our discussion list, send our outline and help you determine what areas
> you would like to contribute to.
>
> Sincerely
>
> Mitch Waite
> Publisher of the Very First POV Ray book Ray Tracing Creations
>
> Mitch Waite Group
> Agent, Author, Publisher, Packager
> From How to Wow
> www.mitchwaite.com
> mit### [at] mitchwaitecom
> 415 381 0188
>
>

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On Fri, 1 Feb 2002 15:44:28 -0500, Bill DeWitt wrote:
> anyway. But since we are talking about a book with images and special
> character formats, there is no chance that we will be using platform
> independent, open source file formats. May as well go with a full featured,

Why is that?  Have you actually looked at DocBook?  WordPerfect even does
a fairly good job of working with XML and SGML; surely any writer who's 
serious about his or her craft has either that or FrameMaker, right?

-- 
#macro R(P)z+_(P)_(P)_(P+1)_(P+1)+z#end#macro Q(C,T)bicubic_patch{type 1u_steps
6v_steps 6R(1)R(3)R(5)R(7)pigment{rgb z}}#end#macro _(Y)#local X=asc(substr(C,Y
,1))-65;<T+mod(X,4)div(X,4)9>-2#end#macro O(T)Q("ABEFUQWS",T)Q("WSXTLOJN",T)#
end O(0)O(3)Q("JNKLCGCD",0)light_source{x 1}// ron### [at] povrayorg

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"Ron Parker" <ron### [at] povrayorg> wrote :
>
> Why is that?  Have you actually looked at DocBook?

    I note that the official DocBook online book is written in html.

> WordPerfect even does
> a fairly good job of working with XML and SGML; surely any writer who's
> serious about his or her craft has either that or FrameMaker, right?

    Perhaps, but Word would be the minimum I would expect. WordPerfect and
FrameMaker are great, but not that much better than Word (I have the Corel
Suite and don't use it). Since the office version of Word comes with most
computers (or you can get Works for $49), spending the extra for Adobe is a
little silly for most uses. It's sort of like the guy who spends $6000 for a
sound system and listens to his music on cassettes. There is no arguing that
the system is great, but $5000 of it is wasted.

    Each section can be made in the povray editor for all I care, it is the
formatting for publication that matters and most of us will not have to
worry about that.

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Bill DeWitt <bde### [at] cflrrcom> wrote:
:     Perhaps, but Word would be the minimum I would expect.

  So if you don't have Word, you don't contribute?

  Btw, LaTeX is not only a geeks' tool. It's really used quite a lot for
serious publications (specially scientific ones).

-- 
#macro N(D)#if(D>99)cylinder{M()#local D=div(D,104);M().5,2pigment{rgb M()}}
N(D)#end#end#macro M()<mod(D,13)-6mod(div(D,13)8)-3,10>#end blob{
N(11117333955)N(4254934330)N(3900569407)N(7382340)N(3358)N(970)}//  - Warp -

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Warp wrote:
> 
> Bill DeWitt <bde### [at] cflrrcom> wrote:
> :     Perhaps, but Word would be the minimum I would expect.
> 
>   So if you don't have Word, you don't contribute?

Plain text can easily be imported into Word documents but there is no
reason to restrict *everyone* to that antiquated format.
 
>   Btw, LaTeX is not only a geeks' tool. It's really used quite a lot for
> serious publications (specially scientific ones).

Were it not for the rare mention of it here in the news groups I would
have never heard of it.

-- 
Ken Tyler

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Ken wrote:

> >   Btw, LaTeX is not only a geeks' tool. It's really used quite a lot for
> > serious publications (specially scientific ones).
> 
> Were it not for the rare mention of it here in the news groups I would
> have never heard of it.

I just got back home from a major software retailer and they neither
carry nor have ever heard of LaTeX.

-- 
Ken Tyler

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On Sat, 02 Feb 2002 17:05:38 -0800, Ken wrote:
> 
> 
> Ken wrote:
> 
>> >   Btw, LaTeX is not only a geeks' tool. It's really used quite a lot for
>> > serious publications (specially scientific ones).
>> 
>> Were it not for the rare mention of it here in the news groups I would
>> have never heard of it.
> 
> I just got back home from a major software retailer and they neither
> carry nor have ever heard of LaTeX.

They don't carry it because there's no margin on freeware.

They've never heard of it because the minimum-wage high-school students 
who work there don't tend to know about anything but the extended warranty
program and maybe the currently popular games.

-- 
#local R=rgb 99;#local P=R-R;#local F=pigment{gradient x}box{0,1pigment{gradient
y pigment_map{[.5F pigment_map{[.3R][.3F color_map{[.15red 99][.15P]}rotate z*45
translate x]}]#local H=pigment{gradient y color_map{[.5P][.5R]}scale 1/3}[.5F
pigment_map{[.3R][.3H][.7H][.7R]}]}}}camera{location.5-3*z}//only my opinions

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