The Wiki as book

[Kernelpanic]

I don't know if Discord is the right place for my question, hence here.

Has the QB64 team ever thought about publishing the wiki in book form? The wiki is really good. Without the wiki for QB64 one is practically lost. With the manuals for QuickBasic 4.02b /4.5 one don't get very far in QB 64. I have the manuals and "QBasic" from "The Waite Group".

I think a lot of people would rather have a book to look up than websites. You could also earn money with it to continue the project.

[johnno56]

Einstein was reported to have said, "Never memorize something that you can look up."

I still have and use my old Amstrad CPC464 user instructions manual (1984). There is still some space on my desk shelf... I would buy a QB64 User Manual...

[jack]

I think a chm of the wiki would be nice, apparently there's software available to do the conversion

[bplus]

How can you beat Hyperlinks, Copy / Paste of code (you can't even do that from help in IDE) and fast Searches not to mention 0 Money Units?

PS I'm with Einstein :) and he didn't even have Internet.

Oh you know what? I think @SMcNeill  showed us how to get copies of Wiki stuff, I will dig around... unless he can find his own work faster ;-))

@SpriggsySpriggs could figure it out too I bet.

But you know there is also the advantage of having the latest update off Wiki!

If you want to support this forum and project check with @FellippeHeitor
or this: https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=13795043

I've spent 10 x's more on software and news letters back in the 90's.

[bplus]

Found Steve's Wiki Keyword Generator: https://www.qb64.org/forum/index.php?topic=756.msg6455#msg6455

[Dimster]

Digital books are the craze but I do find that you need 2 screens if you what the reference info of the WIKI at hand while you write code. I have a binder full of printed pages from the wiki and find it so much handier to refer to when I get coding errors because I have the code on the screen and the reference at hand. But this is because I only have 1 screen. A written book suffers from being incomplete and out dated almost immediately after it has been written. Keeping an updated binder of printed sections of the wiki that are most relavant to you is 2nd best to having a 2nd screen with the wiki. You can search the wiki on the 2nd screen so much faster than the binder but I tend to plod along when searching for code and speed of retrieval not as important. I like my binder, it rarely leaves my side when coding.

[Kernelpanic]

How can you beat Hyperlinks, Copy / Paste of code (you can't even do that from help in IDE) and fast Searches not to mention 0 Money Units?

The way it is done in many cases: The book and a CD / DVD with the Wiki at the time of going to press. The book would be then a standard work for programming with QB64.
If there are major additions over time and the book sells well, a new edition can be made.

Free is nice, but not crucial for me personally. I prefer to have a book in front of me, and a price of around 25 to 30 dollars / euro would be acceptable for me.

[SMcNeill]

You guys do know you can do this easily yourselves?   

Use HTTRack or wget to download an offline version of the wiki.

Then use Calibre or Amazon Previewer to convert that html into epub, mobi, or docx format.  (https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000765261)

At this point, you now have a valid e-book to read on any device you own.  If you want a paperback (or even hardback) version, just go to one of the online publishing sites and print a custom book and have it delivered via snail mail to you.  (Bookpatch or Amazon Publishing are two good ones.)

That’s really all there is to it. 

[qbkiller101]

i already have it ;)

[johnno56]

qbkiller101,

I like your signature... Cool.

[SpriggsySpriggs]

How can you beat Hyperlinks, Copy / Paste of code (you can't even do that from help in IDE) and fast Searches not to mention 0 Money Units?

PS I'm with Einstein :) and he didn't even have Internet.

Oh you know what? I think @SMcNeill  showed us how to get copies of Wiki stuff, I will dig around... unless he can find his own work faster ;-))

@SpriggsySpriggs could figure it out too I bet.

But you know there is also the advantage of having the latest update off Wiki!

If you want to support this forum and project check with @FellippeHeitor
or this: https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=13795043

I've spent 10 x's more on software and news letters back in the 90's.

@bplus What is it you are wanting me to try?

[bplus]

@bplus What is it you are wanting me to try?

Getting a copy of QB64 wiki off Internet > to pdf or something... but don't worry Steve has listed alternates.

[SpriggsySpriggs]

Getting a copy of QB64 wiki off Internet > to pdf or something... but don't worry Steve has listed alternates.

@bplus No one is going to like this but here:
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/27882/create-an-ebook-or-pdf-from-wikipedia-articles-for-offline-reading/

[bplus]

@bplus No one is going to like this but here:
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/27882/create-an-ebook-or-pdf-from-wikipedia-articles-for-offline-reading/

Isn't there a difference between QB64 Wiki and Wikipedia?

[Cobalt]

I did make my self a nice printed out copy of DirectQB's manual way back when, that way I didn't have to switch between QB45 IDE and a text editor. But the DQB manual was in plain text format which made it a bit easier to do.

Both formats would have their own pros and cons.