[vtkusers] Any plan to update the books?

Tue Mar 27 10:57:13 EDT 2018

I think an online source would be very useful and doable.

There are several components to the book:
1) The text (easy to convert to another format)
2) Non-vtk generated figures (I think Kitware has these in some form).
3) vtk-generated figures (almost all already exist in
https://lorensen.github.io/VTKExamples/site/VTKBookFigures/)
4) Equations (need to find a reasonable converter)
5) Cross-references (might be a manual operation)
6) Index (use search technology?)
7) Remove all references to tcl.
8) Update the text to reflect modern VTK.
9) Other stuff (TBD).

There are tools to convert pdf text to markdown. For example,
http://pdf2md.morethan.io/ converted the entire VTK Book pdf to
markdown.

There are lots of decisions to make, but given the current toolsets
available on the internet, an organized group effort could do it once
an approach is chosen.

Choosing an approach will be the most challenging part of the effort.

There are tools to convert pdf to markdown. These tools could handle
the "text" portion of the book. I've tried
http://pdf2md.morethan.io/
and it converted the entire text of the vtk book into a simple markdown format.

I can also share my experience in moving the VTK Wiki Examples to
github and markdown. Auto-generation of enhanced markdown was a key.
For example, the VTKExamples hyperlinks every text occurrence of a vtk
class to the doxygen. VTK generated figures could be auto inserted.

Just my 2 cents,

Bill

On Mon, Mar 26, 2018 at 7:56 AM, Berk Geveci <berk.geveci at kitware.com> wrote:
> Just a quick update on this guys. We would love to provide editable versions
> of both books. The challenge is that they are in old Framemaker format and
> we have not had the time to focus on finding a way to generate some form of
> editable content from them. I don't believe exporting to another format from
> Framemaker is a good option. So we have contemplating scraping the PDF for
> content and generating all new images (which Bill Lorensen did to a great
> extent). Will Schroeder has been contemplating doing a new version that is
> interactive on the Web also. If there are folks out there with concrete
> ideas on how to move forward, we would be happy to have everyone engaged in
> finding a way forward.
>
> I have some ideas of my own:
>
> * Combine contents to create one book that is a hybrid textbook / user's
> guide, more focused on teaching visualization as covered by VTK
> * Generate a separate guide with lots of examples that can be translated to
> various languages that VTK supports leveraging content from the book as well
> as VTK examples online. This could be an online thing.
>
> Best,
> -berk
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 26, 2018 at 10:49 AM, Andras Lasso <lasso at queensu.ca> wrote:
>>
>> Yes, the VTK textbook is great and still up-to-date, except specific
>> source code examples. If it was made available in editable form then I’m
>> sure there would be volunteers to update the examples (convert Tcl to Python
>> and update according to VTK API), and maybe describe some notable core
>> changes (pipeline changes, etc).
>>
>>
>>
>> I have never found the VTK User’s Guide particularly suitable for a
>> printed book format. At user guide level online resources (examples, API
>> documentation, etc.) are easier to use, because you can search better, they
>> are hyperlinked, you can copy-paste, etc. Online materials are also easier
>> to keep up-to-date.
>>
>>
>>
>> Andras
>>
>>
>>
>> From: vtkusers <vtkusers-bounces at vtk.org> On Behalf Of David E DeMarle
>> Sent: Monday, March 26, 2018 10:39 AM
>> To: Jesse Kinross-Smith <Jesse.Kinross-Smith at bentley.com>
>> Cc: vtkusers at vtk.org
>> Subject: Re: [vtkusers] Any plan to update the books?
>>
>>
>>
>> We don't have any near term plans for an update.
>>
>>
>>
>> The books certainly do need a refresh, including a math reformat for the
>> free online versions, however just about of the techniques described in them
>> are still valid.
>>
>>
>>
>> Most of the code is still valid, with the important exception of a few
>> places in need of  version 5->6 changes. For those refer to
>> https://www.vtk.org/Wiki/VTK/VTK_6_Migration_Guide
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> David E DeMarle
>> Kitware, Inc.
>> Principal Engineer
>> 21 Corporate Drive
>> Clifton Park, NY 12065-8662
>> Phone: 518-881-4909
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 26, 2018 at 3:42 AM, Jesse Kinross-Smith
>> <Jesse.Kinross-Smith at bentley.com> wrote:
>>
>> Are there any plans to update these books at all?
>>
>> I’d love to get some books to help me learn the ins and outs of VTK for
>> the office, but anything over 5 years old in this industry is usually pretty
>> obsolete I’ve found.
>>
>>
>>
>> Visualization Toolkit: An Object-Oriented Approach to 3D Graphics, 4th
>> Edition - December 1, 2006
>>
>>
>> https://www.amazon.com/Visualization-Toolkit-Object-Oriented-Approach-Graphics/dp/193093419X
>>
>>
>>
>> VTK User's Guide Paperback – 11th Ed. March 18, 2010
>>
>> https://www.amazon.com/VTK-Users-Guide-Kitware/dp/1930934238
>>
>>
>>
>> Jesse
>>
>> --
>>
>> Jesse Kinross-Smith
>>
>> Senior Software Engineer - BSW
>>
>> Bentley Systems, Fremantle
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
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>>
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>>
>> Please keep messages on-topic and check the VTK FAQ at:
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>
>
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>
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>
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