[HN Gopher] Writing a book in the age of open source
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Writing a book in the age of open source
Author : mooreds
Score : 44 points
Date : 2024-09-03 20:47 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (blog.incrementalforgetting.tech)
(TXT) w3m dump (blog.incrementalforgetting.tech)
| ihaveajob wrote:
| When I wrote my PhD thesis (the closest thing to a book I've ever
| worked on), I used LyX and I loved it. All the power of LaTeX,
| with a usable UI. When you're done, just apply the publisher
| settings and you're out!
| WillAdams wrote:
| Back when I did composition for STEM publishers, the one
| manuscript I got in LyX stands out as the cleanest, and easiest
| to work with --- added two custom packages:
|
| - first loads some packages and defines all the customization
| commands to do nothing
|
| - second defines the customization commands and applies the
| formatting as specified by the publisher
|
| Edit the LaTeX text, add customization commands for
| shortening/lengthening paragraphs, &c. for balancing pages and
| tweaking float placement --- make PDF, send to printer, then at
| the end of the project, comment out the second package line and
| return the updated source to the author for their next edition.
|
| That said, my current books are being done using:
|
| - GitBook: https://willadams.gitbook.io/design-
| into-3d/2d-drawing
|
| - using Literate Programming completely in lualatex for coding
| up the OpenPythonSCAD module:
| https://github.com/WillAdams/gcodepreview
|
| - in normal LaTeX (re-setting of a translation of an Old
| English poem)
|
| and I look forward to a future project working in LyX, since
| the new 2.4 looks _amazing_.
| mysteria wrote:
| I write fiction using Markdown + Git and love the workflow. Now
| it's kind of strange treating the whole thing like a software
| project and having each chapter as a seperate file (along with
| other folders for notes, artwork, etc.) but it's easy to work
| with, self hostable, and the entire repository with all its
| history can easily travel with me on any device. It even has a
| Makefile to spit everything out as a PDF!
| jjice wrote:
| I've been writing a book like this for a little while too. It's
| a great, simple workflow and having git history is just a huge
| benefit.
| gnulinux wrote:
| This is also what I do. I use markdown+git for all kinds of
| writing. I use Obsidian with tons of extensions. It's
| integrated with my personal knowledge base, notes etc. If I'm
| writing fiction or poetry, one file is one chapter/unit, but
| sometimes if I'm making huge changes, I'll rename that file to
| "Chapter X Draft 4" or something like that, so that I can
| instantly see very old versions without git. If I want to look
| at the full history git history on "Chapter X" will give the
| entire thing. It's also nice to write tiny scripts to assemble
| finished chapters into volumes etc and auto-convert to PDF.
|
| I also do literate programming (write code as if it's a book
| written for your future self) with this exact same approach.
| Just write a two line script that removes everything that's not
| between ```python ``` and you can code inside Obsidian. (E.g.
| you can use a markdown parser like `marko` for python) I
| personally don't _need_ syntax highlighting, but if you do, you
| can open it in your IDE /Emacs/etc and IDE should highlight
| most languages in Markdown files. You obviously don't get all
| the IDE bells and whistles, for those you can have separate
| files and import them in, or enable Python mode in markdown
| files (somehow). (Obsidian should support basic syntax
| highlighting for most common languages anyway)
|
| Since Obsidian is so awesome, this approach has endless
| possibilities. E.g. you can do project management inside
| Obsidian via Kanban board, you can use Excalidraw tool in
| Obsidian to draw architecture diagrams, write music inside
| Obsidian with its Lilypond plugin, write math with LaTeX plugin
| etc. It just automatically works out of the box.
| davidsgk wrote:
| Out of curiosity, do you use any specific version control
| features when writing like this outside of history which is
| just kind of there by default? It would be hilarious but
| amazing if you said your editors (if you have any) give you
| feedback in the form of pull requests.
| thangalin wrote:
| You may be interested in my Typesetting Markdown series:
|
| https://dave.autonoma.ca/blog/2019/05/22/typesetting-markdow...
|
| Or the editor I wrote for this very purpose:
|
| https://keenwrite.com/screenshots.html
|
| The last screenshot shows a single source file having multiple
| themes applied, one being a manuscript theme.
|
| The editor integrates variables in an external file so that if
| I want to change a character's name, I can do so in one place.
| Even diagrams (e.g., family tree) are updated.
| __alexander wrote:
| In regards to Markdown, it is nice but not many publishers are
| going to work with you if the book is in that format. Odds are
| you will have to convert it to Microsoft Word so the editors can
| add recommendations, version control, ask questions, apply
| templates, etc. I wrote a book in Markdown and converted it to
| Word after the third revision because editing was so painful.
| gnulinux wrote:
| Will publishers not accept Latex?
| themadturk wrote:
| Word makes the world go round. Perhaps specialized publishers
| will accept LaTeX, but most of the industry does not. Writers
| need to plan to transmit their manuscripts in DOCX format and
| to receive notes back in the same format. Of course,
| something like LibreOffice may be compatible enough,
| depending on how comments are handled.
| azhenley wrote:
| Manning allows asciidoc.
| __alexander wrote:
| That's cool to hear.
| ezekg wrote:
| Sounds like a cool side project that could make some money.
| mooreds wrote:
| We moved our techdoc from asciidoc to markdown to make it more
| accessible to devs writing docs.
|
| Felt like a step backward to me; asciidoc is so powerful, even if
| some of the syntax was weird.
| fallinditch wrote:
| Is anyone using Msty to ingest your Obsidian vaults so you can
| chat with your notes? This looks like it could be a powerful
| method for AI-assisted long form writing, technical or otherwise.
|
| https://msty.app/
| MildlySerious wrote:
| Typst[1] is, imo, worth adding to the conversation. I recently
| used the CLI (and VSCode extensions) to put together a flyer, and
| I am testing it for invoice generation. So far I am quite
| enjoying it as a way to put together PDFs programmatically.
|
| [1] https://typst.app/
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