Mercurial Definitive guide is out of date. Plus obvious solution.

[Na'Tosha Bard]

On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 3:36 AM, Jason Harris <jason at jasonfharris.com> wrote:

>
> On Jul 6, 2011, at 2:54 AM, Na'Tosha Bard wrote:
>
> > As a follow-up, I've just had a quick chat with Henrik on IRC and he
> should be setting up a server for us to build the book on (e.g, generate the
> pdf) hopefully soon-ish.  I'll keep poking him :-)  He would prefer not to
> use a Wiki, but the book will not be hard to update in any case, it's just a
> Mercurial clone with (I think) html source.
>
> Also it would be nice if the changes to the book are dominated by one or
> two main people (or at least edited by one or two main people). it will give
> a consistency of terminology and writing style...
>

What we are aiming for is a list of big changes determined by consensus
(although primarily by Matt, I suppose), and volunteers to make those
changes.  We have one person who is volunteering to be editor for style,
consistency, grammar, etc, who I am sure will be very good at the job.  So
we are good to go there.  We'll have more of a detailed plan by the time we
get a place up to actually host the book.


> Wikis are good for a "how do I do XYZ task?" sort of thing but they don't
> really have a progressive narrative that a book does...
>

I do agree with you here.  i don't like the idea of using a Wiki either.
And like I said before, the fact that we want to send it back to the
publisher probably has some effect on what format it can be in (I will try
to find out).


> (BTW I am all for us updating the definitive guide. When I first started
> with Mercurial I read it from one end to the other... and quite liked its
> style etc. It was nice and accessible.)
>

Yes, when I switched my team to Mercurial, I kept pointing them to the book
then I realized it is missing a lot of useful information :-(  That's what
made me start this effort and I think we will see a much improved reference
in the end.

Cheers,
Na'Tosha

-- 
*Na'Tosha Bard*
Build & Infrastructure Developer | Unity Technologies

*E-Mail:* natosha at unity3d.com
*Skype:* natosha.bard
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