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Making *You Don't Know JS* easier to read

Open G2Jose opened this issue 8 years ago • 4 comments

@getify, I love your work on this amazing book! I know the topic of making You Don't Know JS has been brought up in the past, but I was hoping to open up some more discussion on it.

  • https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS/issues/635
  • https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS/issues/831
  • https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS/issues/869
  • https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS/issues/537
  • https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS/issues/524
  • https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS/issues/725
  • https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS/issues/630

From https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS/issues/635, it appears the main issue with using gitbooks is that it allows PDF exports, which O'Reilly does not permit.I was wondering if there's a way to leverage gitbooks or a similar technology, in a way that does not violate agreements with publishers.

Here are a few thoughts -

Gitbook CLI lets you easily package and serve books written in Markdown. It requires a SUMMARY.md file to be supplied, listing chapters and paths to corresponding files. The tool does not automatically publish to gitbook.com, nor does it automatically export to pdf (although the option to export to pdf does exist).

  • Running gitbook build creates a directory containing the book packaged as html files. Users can read the book by opening index.html. This directory can be included in this repository, or served elsewhere (Github Pages could be a neat solution). Including only the output of the command (html files) in the repo ensures end users do not have the ability to easily export to pdf.

  • Another option to make this more accessible could be to include the SUMMARY.md file and a docker setup that runs gitbook serve in a docker container. An end user can simply run docker-compose up to serve the book locally and be able to read the book inside a browser.

What do you and the wider community think about this? I'm happy to provide more information or examples if required. I know the contribution guide mentions that this repo is not primarily intended to optimize reading experience. Given that, what are your thoughts on forks?

G2Jose avatar Jan 10 '17 08:01 G2Jose

What you describe is something I would consider for second edition. :)

getify avatar Jan 10 '17 12:01 getify

On a related note, it seems eBook export is now optional (and disabled by default) on the GitBook platform proper.

kopischke avatar Jan 10 '17 15:01 kopischke

@getify any updates on this?

antonky avatar Sep 24 '19 18:09 antonky

Nothing to announce yet. But it's a possibility.

getify avatar Sep 24 '19 20:09 getify