From: "Bob LeChevalier, President and Founder - LLG" <lojbab@lojban.o= rg>
To: lojban@goog= legroups.com
Sent: Fr= iday, November 23, 2012 11:08 AM
= Subject: Re: Please answer a book design opinion question (was R= e: [lojban] CLL 1.1/ CLL 2.0. What is your opinion in the current situation= ?)

John E Clifford wrote:
> Where is this book? How valid is it?&n= bsp; Why can't it be published (is it
> in some exotic format that ca= n't be converted -- if so, why? Come to
> that, why was it form= atted at all before consideration was given to its
> eventual use?)?<= br>
I think you've lost some context, pc. They are referring to Co= wan's red book CLL, which of course *has* already been published once. = ; The original was formatted and indexed in Microsoft Word for Windows of a= pre-1997 version, which I then with considerable difficulty converted to a= PDF format compatible with the printer's typesetting equipment (it kept ch= anging the page breaks when I changed output devices, so I could not prepar= e my own galleys).

To revise this book, the first stage is to correc= t all the typos and minor errors that people have identified over the years= . That will make version 1.1. But no one is working in antediluvian Word, but rather in more modern formats that are platform ind= ependent - I think they are using some form of HTML or XML. (And that forma= tting was done independently of any publication plans, because a major purp= ose was to have an online version of the text).

The format change me= ans that all the existing indexing is probably unrecoverable, since it is e= ncoded in Word's internal format. So the main issue of *this* thread = is what kind of index they want the new version to have, with side issues o= f exactly what format and tools will be used to prepare the publication.&nb= sp; That CAN be decided after the text is done, but there is no harm in peo= ple trying various approaches before then, so that we don't have the year a= nd a half lag that John and I went through between the time he was essentia= lly done with the book, and when we finally got boxes of books for shipment= . (It took a LONG time to format and index the original).

To whatever extent that the formatting can be done indep= endently of the writing, it allows the job to be farmed out to more people = of differing skills, and therefore gets a published version out sooner.&nbs= p; So formatting can and should take place before the text is in final form= .

The question of indexing is of course almost entirely independent = of the text preparation itself, and is dependent on the formatting or index= ing tool that is used.

There are people who want to be able to get a= copy of 1.1, even though it really is only a temporary document. Rob= in is also planning/coordinating a more thorough revision (version 2.0) whi= ch will incorporate all of the byfy decisions. Ideally, much of the f= ormatting and indexing that they do for 1.1 will be recoverable for 2.0, bu= t that is possible only if they choose tools and methods that allow for thi= s.

lojbab

-- Bob LeChevalier loj= bab@lojban.org www.lojban.org
President and Founder, The Logical Language= Group, Inc.

-- You received this message because you are subscribed= to the Google Groups "lojban" group.
To post to this group, send email = to lojban@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this grou= p, send email to lojban+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group= /lojban?hl=3Den.