Re: postgresql book - practical or something newer?

On Jan 31, 2008 4:40 PM, Guy Rouillier <guyr-ml1(at)burntmail(dot)com> wrote:
> Robert Treat wrote:
>
> > Just so you know, I approached OReally about writing a PostgreSQL Cookbook,
> > and they turned it down. They did offer me some other titles, but those don't
> > seem to have gone anywhere.
>
> As someone else pointed out in this thread, very much of what you need
> to know has been previously discussed at one point; the hard part is
> finding it.
>
> What we need is for some of the people with the big brains ;) to come up
> with some new kind of "hyperbook". That would be the documentation in
> some form similar to what it is today, but somehow connected to the
> discussions that happen in the mailing lists. That way, when something
> really insightful or helpful gets said in the mailing lists, it can get
> connected to a particular place in the documentation. Then over time,
> the doc maintainers can take the best of those and incorporate them
> directly into the docs at the appropriate place.

The trouble is that this is nearly as much trouble as actually writing
a book, and doesn't provide a clear incentive for people to put in the
effort of making it happen.

There's the problem (and it is, to a degree, truly a problem) that the
"postgreSQL book" market hasn't been lucrative enough to draw people
into writing books. And honestly, it *needs* to be more lucrative.
If I'm thinking about alternative uses for my spare time, writing does
not appear to be a particularly profitable use.

Finding a "poor man's way" to generate a "hyperbook" actually needs
much the same sorts of skills and efforts, even though it probably
provides those that provide the effort with *less* benefits.
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