In July, Satu blogged about one of our wiki book projects. I thought I’d update you on the progress of the book, which has the working title Python on Symbian. I’m Jo Stichbury, head of Technical Communications here at Symbian.

Back in June, we kicked off a project on the developer.symbian.org wiki to create a new book about Python development on the Symbian platform. Since then, the lead authors, Pankaj Nathani and Bogdan Galiceanu, have been working on the book with a number of contributors – Hamish Willee, Mike Jipping, Marcelo Barros, Jouni Miettunen and Herb Jellinek. The table of contents and landing page for the book is on the wiki here, and it’s been taking shape rapidly with 10 chapters in place already.

The book is aimed at those new to Python (on Symbian or indeed on any platform).  Although the wiki text is not yet complete, it already forms an excellent resource. Mike Jipping’s chapter on Basic Python Elements is a great guide to the fundamentals of the language, while for those who already know Python, a chapter on Standalone Applications explains how to make Python much more accessible to users of Symbian devices. There are also chapters on User Interface Basics, the Touch User Interface, and Location Based Services.

If you’re interested in learning about Python, the wiki book is a very good place to start – and as you read it, if you have any corrections, feedback or ideas for improvement, please leave them as comments at the bottom of the wiki page.  We’ll acknowledge all contributions in the finished book, and are very keen to get your ideas as the text evolves.

Why we Love Wiki Books

My previous post about on-demand publishing in July gave some hints about why we think wiki books are so cool.  With help from contributors like Pankaj and Bogdan, wiki books provide useful information to developers on our website as soon as each chapter is created.  The book can then be shaped by the community from the start. Developers build a resource for other developers – the resulting book is as informative as up-to-date as it can possibly be.

Although a wiki is a great online resource, many people like to be able to learn offline, either electronically or simply from reading a print book.  So when the wiki book chapters are at a stage where we think they’re ready for book publication, we’ll edit them into a print-ready format by taking copies of the wiki pages and working upon them offline. Satu will use her typesetting skills and software to create a manuscript that will be provided back to the community as a free eBook (for those that want to read the book in pdf format, perhaps on a handheld device or on their PC).  The manuscript will also be submitted to our friends at Newsstand UK for those that want to purchase a print copy, which will be printed on an Espresso Book Machine.

The wiki pages for the book will be retained and updated – we hope the book will constantly evolve – so we’ll do a regular audit of changes that occur on the wiki after publication, and revise the manuscript. Because we won’t have printed books stored in a warehouse, and we have in-house typesetting skills, we can make important changes whenever we need to, to coincide with new versions of Python, for example, and put out a new edition of the book much faster than we’ve previously been able.

Contribute to a Wiki Book!

Have you ever thought about writing a book but never quite gotten around to it? You could get involved in one of our wiki book projects by:

• Proposing a book topic
• Proposing a table of contents (or part of a table of contents) for a book
• Writing one or more of the sections proposed in an existing wiki book project
• Leading an authoring team on new book project
• Reviewing sections of wiki books as they take shape.

You can find out how to contribute to a Symbian book project here.

Satu and I will be at SEE 2009 on October 27th and 28th and we’ll be happy to talk to you further about wiki book projects or your suggestions for future book titles.  If you can’t make the event, please let us know your ideas for wiki books in comments below, or via the wiki or discussion boards on developer.symbian.org.

Thanks for reading!

Jo