[Python-authors] expert-level books, was Re: intro and looking for writing tips

[Doug Hellmann]

On Jun 12, 2009, at 12:50 PM, will wrote:

> Doug Hellmann wrote:
>> On Jun 11, 2009, at 11:32 PM, will wrote:
>>> Doug Hellmann wrote:
>>>>
>>> I also keep thinking about writing a book on project management  
>>> for Python projects and self-publishing, but haven't done that yet  
>>> either.
>> That's an interesting idea.  Can you talk a little about how you  
>> would make it Python-centric?
>
> "Project management" might be the wrong term to use here.  I'm  
> talking less about estimates, schedules, design documents and that  
> side of project management and more about directory structures,  
> required files, licenses, testing, packaging, deployment, ...  It's  
> a book that would walk through the important project infrastructure  
> parts, the questions you need to be asking, choices available, how  
> to set up the scaffolding,  ...  Maybe "project infrastructure" is a  
> better term to use.

Ah, I understand what you mean now.

> I've been tossing this around after working on Cheesecake and seeing  
> a lot of fledgling Python projects (including my own) start  
> "wrong".  The problem with starting wrong is that it's often a pain  
> in the ass to correct the issues down the road.
>
> At a high level, it'd probably have the following parts:
>
> 1. starting a new project, directory structures, important files
>
> 2. licensing and copyright, what questions to be thinking about,  
> where to go for more information, statistics from Cheeseshop
>
> 3. codifying project standards like code style
>
> 4. picking one or more testing systems, setting up the scaffolding
>
> 5. setting up localization and internationalization
>
> 6. picking one or more documentation systems, setting up the  
> scaffolding
>
> 7. packaging, deployment and releases

That sounds like a good collection of information to have in one  
place.  Have you seen Tarek's book, Expert Python Programming?  It  
covers some of those topics, but not all, IIRC.

> I've been tossing it around but haven't embarked on anything yet.   
> I'd write it with Sphinx as a web-site and when it was done build a  
> PDF and sell it on Lulu.

>
>
> As an aside, there's a GSoC project this year to add per-paragraph  
> comment support to Sphinx-built sites:
>
> http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2009-May/089798.html
>
> I'm really looking forward to that.

Yes, I'm keeping an eye on that to integrate it with the PyMOTW site.   
I'm happy with Disqus, but per-paragraph commentary would be helpful.

Doug