Re: [Boost-users] A need for a COOKBOOK

From: Steve Toledo-Brown (Stephen_Toledo_Brown_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-09-21 06:00:43

Hughes, James wrote:

> All very well asking, but writing a book is a very time consuming and
> difficult task, then you have to get it published, otherwise you have
> spent a year of your life with no income (or two years of your spare
> time - and who has that any more). I'm amazed that the current docs are
> even as good as they are.....but would agree that there is a lack of
> consistency which I believe the boost:docs projects is aiming to fix.
> Whether it will is anyone's guess.
> 
> James

The "writing a book is a very time consuming" problem is to some extent 
mitigated in the cookbook model, which Dhruva didn't really explain 
fully. There's a website to which any user can submit recipes - 
typically a code sample illustrating a useful technique using some 
aspect of the technology in question for a specific purpose, with a 
brief discussion. Some recipes are idioms, some are more like 
mini-patterns. Over time hundreds of these recipes build up on the 
website. Deriving a book means collecting a sample of the best/most 
widely applicable recipes by a distributed effort. Typically you'd have 
one reviewer per area/chapter/theme who'd choose recipes and write a 
brief overview discussion. There's still obviously a significant 
editorial effort involved, but it's not really like writing a book.