[vtkusers] Request for Feedback: VTK Textbook Strawman

[Andrew Maclean]

I would seriously consider LaTeX for the reasons mentioned. Additionally,
it is really well suited for rendering equations.

Andrew Maclean

On Fri, 30 Mar. 2018, 21:43 Will Schroeder, <will.schroeder at kitware.com>
wrote:

> This is a really great work, thanks Bill! It would be great to get the
> book out there so the community can fix, improve and extend it.
>
> To ask a dumb question. and I don't have skin this game either, is
> markdown the best way to go? Is a LaTeX book better? From what I understand
> here are tools that convert framemaker to LaTeX etc. I suspect that with
> LaTeX you'd end up with a better quality result, including things like
> indexing, cross referencing, etc. And are there other options we should
> consider?
>
> Best,
> Will
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 3:22 PM, Bill Lorensen <bill.lorensen at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Folks,
>>
>> Following my "bull in the china shop" approach to design by committee,
>> I have converted Chapter 6 of the VTK Textbook to markdown and the
>> mkdocs flavor.
>>
>> See: https://lorensen.github.io/VTKExamples/site/VTKBook/Chapter6/
>>
>> This approach is meant to be a Strawman.
>>
>> Here is what I did:
>>
>> 1) I used pandoc to convert the VTK Textbook PDF to .txt and .md
>> files. The conversion of the main text was excellent. Figures, tables,
>> and equations not so good.
>>
>> 2) I cleaned up much of the cruft manually with emacs.
>>
>> 3) I added links to all of the VTKBookFigures
>> (https://lorensen.github.io/VTKExamples/site/VTKBookFigures/). Andrew
>> and I had created these a while ago. The figures contain links to the
>> C++ and Python code that generated the figures.
>>
>> 4) The chapter passes through the normal ScrapeRepo and
>> SyncSiteWithRepo scripts that are used to maintain the static website.
>> As part of this process, I insert doxygen links to any vtk class
>> mentioned in the document. I still have a small issue with this
>> process.
>>
>> Once I figured out an approach to handle figures, it took about 8
>> hours of manual labor to convert the chapter.
>>
>> What needs to be done on the Chapter 6 Strawman?
>>
>> 1) Add the math.
>>
>> 2) Add the non-vtk generated figures.
>>
>> 3) More cleanup.
>>
>> Other than 1 and 2, I will continue on cleanup.
>>
>> There are several future issues.
>>
>> Converting the text to markdown does not require a brain surgeon. But,
>> editing the content to modern VTK will require more effort. Also,
>> there are lots of old concepts. Andrew and I have already converted<
>> all of the .tcl scripts to C++ and Python. They exist as examples on
>> this page (https://lorensen.github.io/VTKExamples/site/VTKBookFigures/).
>> But subjects like the web should probably be replaced with the
>> javascript stuff that is going on at Kitware.
>>
>> Also, there are concepts that are not addressed in the current VTK
>> Textbook including shaders, color management, etc.
>>
>> Please provide feedback/suggestions. I don't have much skin in this
>> game. If the approach looks wrong I'll gladly remove the current
>> strawman and reconcentrate my efforts on making the VTKExamples
>> better.
>>
>>
>> Bill
>>
>
>
>
> --
> William J. Schroeder, PhD
> Kitware, Inc. - Building the World's Technical Computing Software
> 28 Corporate Drive
> Clifton Park, NY 12065
> will.schroeder at kitware.com
> http://www.kitware.com
> (518) 881-4902
>
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