News on the wxPython book!

wxPython Users
1

By coincidence, I've just today gotten authorization to start talking
about this publicly.

Manning has accepted the book for publication (the delay was not due
to concerns about size of the audience -- they just don't formally
announce publications until the book has been completed and approved).

Details are still a bit tentative, and possibly subject to change.

It'll be called _wxPython In Action_ by Noel Rappin and Robin Dunn. I
was told to expect that it would be released in November, but the
exact date will depend on how quickly we can turn around the
production. We hope that it will be useful for both new and expert
wxPython users.

I'm excited -- it's been a long process, but you'll all get to see the
results soon.

I'll try and hang around here and answer any questions about the book
that you might have.

Thanks,

Noel

Doran Dermot wrote:

···

I've been in touch with Manning who are reviewing a wxPython book with the
view to publishing it. I would suggest that everybody on this list who is
interested in such a publication contact them as well (www.manning.com and
email: maba@manning.com). It would help them in making a business decision
as to whether or not they should publish or not.

--
Noel Rappin
noelrappin@alumni.brandeis.edu

2

Owen Connolly wrote:

I'm definately looking forward to this. I have the wx-widgets books on
order from amazon at the moment (apparently on a slow boat.) I hope
you put some focus on state change propogation. I personally find
using the widgets, sizers, etc.. fairly intuitive from a non gui
background. I find it alot more complicated/confusing making them do
anything useful. Thats my 2c .

Check out PyDispatcher: http://pydispatcher.sourceforge.net/
I've found it very useful, and I like the fact that it is
independent of wxPython -- it works fine for GUI events but can
also be used in more general contexts.

Steve

3

>I'll try and hang around here and answer any questions about the book
>that you might have.

Ok, I will make use of your promise. :wink:

Good.

Do you have a table of contents?

Or is it still not fixed or secret.

I'd rather wait a bit to post the actual table of contents -- it's not
secret, but also not 100% final. The text is complete, but the
mansucript we turned in was somewhat long, and I'm not completely sure
how that will play out in the next week or two. I'll post it here
when it is final.

I can tell you in general, that the first part of the book is an
overview/tutorial, and includes information on the high-level
structure of wxPython programs, and event-driven programs in general.
The second section is somewhere between a reference and a cookbook,
focusing on the most common features like the basic widgets, frames,
dialogs, sizers, etc. The final section covers the more complex
widgets like grids, and other more advanced-type topics. Helpful?
Too vague?

Is the book ready (from the content and the
structure) or will it be changed again.

The text of the book is complete, pending a) a final proofread and
copyedit and b) a final decision on length.

Oh, and to answer the other question up-thread about versioning, the
last batch of code samples for the book were written a few months ago,
so they were written against 2.5.x. I believe that in proofread, the
code will be tested against the most recent version.

Hope that helps!

Noel

···

On 8/10/05, Franz Steinhäusler <franz.steinhaeusler@gmx.at> wrote:
--
Noel Rappin
noelrappin@alumni.brandeis.edu

4

>I'll try and hang around here and answer any questions about the book
>that you might have.

Ok, I will make use of your promise. :wink:

Good.

Do you have a table of contents?

Or is it still not fixed or secret.

I'd rather wait a bit to post the actual table of contents -- it's not
secret, but also not 100% final.

I understand.

The text is complete, but the
mansucript we turned in was somewhat long, and I'm not completely sure
how that will play out in the next week or two. I'll post it here
when it is final.
I can tell you in general, that the first part of the book is an
overview/tutorial, and includes information on the high-level
structure of wxPython programs, and event-driven programs in general.
The second section is somewhere between a reference and a cookbook,
focusing on the most common features like the basic widgets, frames,
dialogs, sizers, etc. The final section covers the more complex
widgets like grids, and other more advanced-type topics. Helpful?
Too vague?

No, it's not too vague, thank you.
I only read in amazon reader review of the new wxWidgets book,
that the sizer stuff was illustrated more as reference
instead of explaining the deeper background or a "howto"
documentation.

Otherwise, the book is good from his opinion (4 Stars).

Is the book ready (from the content and the
structure) or will it be changed again.

The text of the book is complete, pending a) a final proofread and
copyedit and b) a final decision on length.

Ok.

Oh, and to answer the other question up-thread about versioning, the
last batch of code samples for the book were written a few months ago,
so they were written against 2.5.x. I believe that in proofread, the
code will be tested against the most recent version.

Hope that helps!

Yes, thank you.

···

On Wed, 10 Aug 2005 09:37:37 -0500, Noel Rappin <noelrappin@gmail.com> wrote:

On 8/10/05, Franz Steinhäusler <franz.steinhaeusler@gmx.at> wrote:

Noel

--
Franz Steinhaeusler

5

Ah, hopefully we get something close to a "director's cut", the longer the
merrier.
I hate it when the marketing suits cut something to Bonsai size just to suit
some stupid marketing paradigms.

Horst

···

On Wed, 10 Aug 2005 14:37, Noel Rappin wrote:

The text of the book is complete, pending a) a final proofread and
copyedit and b) a final decision on length.

6

That was what I meant with stupid marketing paradigms. I co-authored a few
medical/pharmaceutical textbooks and now even health IT booklets, and the
process was always the same - you end up with a crippled version of the
message you wanted to bring across

They probably know what they are doing marketingwise, one hopes. But then, I
have decided far more often NOT to buy a textbook on account that I found it
not concise enough, than on account that it is too expensive - many a
textbook I would have bought if it would have had another 100 or so pages of
quality information going a bit more into detail. And I have a literature
budget of some $15,000/year.

This is why I nowadays prefer online publishing where you don't have such
restrictions.

Horst

···

On Thu, 11 Aug 2005 09:48, Rich Shepard wrote:

> I hate it when the marketing suits cut something to Bonsai size just to
> suit some stupid marketing paradigms.

Horst,

This may be the case in some situations, but in other situations it's
the economics of production that determines the page count.