Writing a book
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Hello, I've had an idea of writing a computer book some years ago. Since I loved modems and communication-related theories, I started researching about modems at that time. However, those days were passed until ... After publishing my 7th article on codeproject, I again received amazingly number of emails all commenting out that I have got a real gift for writing as well as obviously highly technically competent. So, everything became lighted again! I had an amazing knowledge base in those days of DOS and I was just shocked when I noticed that everything has gone, because of a new operating system known as Windows. At those DOS days, I was trying to keep everything I knew a secret, and now, they are all out of use today! That is why I try to contribute in the codeproject, since someday, the Windows OS will be useless, too... Now, when I propagate all of this through my life, I notice that someday I'll die and everything will be died with me, including my knowledge - unless it will be reveal before I go off. So, when people say that I've got a real gift for writing, and I'm technically aware of those damn computer technologies, so why shall I wait much more than this? Therefore, I decided to start writing my first book. It could be about MFC, ASP, C or C++, since I would be able to introduce the subtle nuances of how things work under such programming languages and/or frameworks. However, these days, it seems that people would like to read about a specific technology in more detail rather than having a complete reference book on their shelves. For example, most people would like to know the subtle nuances of "TAPI", "MAPI" or the like instead of buying a book that devotes 50 pages to such technologies. I'm writing all of these to ask your ideas. What type computer-related book would you like to read, more? What do you want me to write about? Any comments, suggestions, and/or ideas are welcomed. Cheers Mehdi
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Hello, I've had an idea of writing a computer book some years ago. Since I loved modems and communication-related theories, I started researching about modems at that time. However, those days were passed until ... After publishing my 7th article on codeproject, I again received amazingly number of emails all commenting out that I have got a real gift for writing as well as obviously highly technically competent. So, everything became lighted again! I had an amazing knowledge base in those days of DOS and I was just shocked when I noticed that everything has gone, because of a new operating system known as Windows. At those DOS days, I was trying to keep everything I knew a secret, and now, they are all out of use today! That is why I try to contribute in the codeproject, since someday, the Windows OS will be useless, too... Now, when I propagate all of this through my life, I notice that someday I'll die and everything will be died with me, including my knowledge - unless it will be reveal before I go off. So, when people say that I've got a real gift for writing, and I'm technically aware of those damn computer technologies, so why shall I wait much more than this? Therefore, I decided to start writing my first book. It could be about MFC, ASP, C or C++, since I would be able to introduce the subtle nuances of how things work under such programming languages and/or frameworks. However, these days, it seems that people would like to read about a specific technology in more detail rather than having a complete reference book on their shelves. For example, most people would like to know the subtle nuances of "TAPI", "MAPI" or the like instead of buying a book that devotes 50 pages to such technologies. I'm writing all of these to ask your ideas. What type computer-related book would you like to read, more? What do you want me to write about? Any comments, suggestions, and/or ideas are welcomed. Cheers Mehdi
Good luck Mehdi! Write about template library (ATL, WTL, STL ...) or you could write about Internet communications. -- God bless the world
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Hello, I've had an idea of writing a computer book some years ago. Since I loved modems and communication-related theories, I started researching about modems at that time. However, those days were passed until ... After publishing my 7th article on codeproject, I again received amazingly number of emails all commenting out that I have got a real gift for writing as well as obviously highly technically competent. So, everything became lighted again! I had an amazing knowledge base in those days of DOS and I was just shocked when I noticed that everything has gone, because of a new operating system known as Windows. At those DOS days, I was trying to keep everything I knew a secret, and now, they are all out of use today! That is why I try to contribute in the codeproject, since someday, the Windows OS will be useless, too... Now, when I propagate all of this through my life, I notice that someday I'll die and everything will be died with me, including my knowledge - unless it will be reveal before I go off. So, when people say that I've got a real gift for writing, and I'm technically aware of those damn computer technologies, so why shall I wait much more than this? Therefore, I decided to start writing my first book. It could be about MFC, ASP, C or C++, since I would be able to introduce the subtle nuances of how things work under such programming languages and/or frameworks. However, these days, it seems that people would like to read about a specific technology in more detail rather than having a complete reference book on their shelves. For example, most people would like to know the subtle nuances of "TAPI", "MAPI" or the like instead of buying a book that devotes 50 pages to such technologies. I'm writing all of these to ask your ideas. What type computer-related book would you like to read, more? What do you want me to write about? Any comments, suggestions, and/or ideas are welcomed. Cheers Mehdi
I would write about what you know best. Even if that particular subject has been written about a lot before. If your book then is worthy of being at the top it will work its way up there, be a diamond in the rough. People who write simply beacuse they see a niche may find initial praise and reward but over the course of years that book will fade and be shown for what it is; a money maker. I guess what I am saying is that if I were to write a technical book (not likely, I love fiction) I would want it to be a "legend" book and for it to be a legend book it has to have heart and soul in it. After all that though I would say a book on reliable communications in a large network would be what I would read. Communications are really becoming a dominant force in computing and the more business relies on it the more reliable and pervasive it must become. IM at the moment is still too unreliable IMHO and so if you can shed light on how to make it reliable then that would be great. You mentioned you knew everything there was about TAPI and MAPI for instance, so communication seems your forte in any case :) Good fortune Mehdi regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa Do you Sonork? I do! 100.9903 Stormfront "The greatest thing you will ever learn is to love, and be loved in return" - Moulin Rouge
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Hello, I've had an idea of writing a computer book some years ago. Since I loved modems and communication-related theories, I started researching about modems at that time. However, those days were passed until ... After publishing my 7th article on codeproject, I again received amazingly number of emails all commenting out that I have got a real gift for writing as well as obviously highly technically competent. So, everything became lighted again! I had an amazing knowledge base in those days of DOS and I was just shocked when I noticed that everything has gone, because of a new operating system known as Windows. At those DOS days, I was trying to keep everything I knew a secret, and now, they are all out of use today! That is why I try to contribute in the codeproject, since someday, the Windows OS will be useless, too... Now, when I propagate all of this through my life, I notice that someday I'll die and everything will be died with me, including my knowledge - unless it will be reveal before I go off. So, when people say that I've got a real gift for writing, and I'm technically aware of those damn computer technologies, so why shall I wait much more than this? Therefore, I decided to start writing my first book. It could be about MFC, ASP, C or C++, since I would be able to introduce the subtle nuances of how things work under such programming languages and/or frameworks. However, these days, it seems that people would like to read about a specific technology in more detail rather than having a complete reference book on their shelves. For example, most people would like to know the subtle nuances of "TAPI", "MAPI" or the like instead of buying a book that devotes 50 pages to such technologies. I'm writing all of these to ask your ideas. What type computer-related book would you like to read, more? What do you want me to write about? Any comments, suggestions, and/or ideas are welcomed. Cheers Mehdi
If you plan to write a book, I suggest that whatever topic you choose, you should write about the various undocumented bugs that arise and their undocumented solutions. That's one big difference between reading the documentation and reading a book written by an experienced developer. With all the documentation on hand, you might still get things wrong. But when you read something that a guy who has been programming for two decades has written, you can be surer of doing it the right way; or at least avoid doing it the wrong way. The whole point is to help people from not having to reinvent the wheel Nish p.s. Good luck! Sonork ID 100.9786 voidmain
www.busterboy.org
Nish is a BIG fan of Goran Ivanisevic -
I would write about what you know best. Even if that particular subject has been written about a lot before. If your book then is worthy of being at the top it will work its way up there, be a diamond in the rough. People who write simply beacuse they see a niche may find initial praise and reward but over the course of years that book will fade and be shown for what it is; a money maker. I guess what I am saying is that if I were to write a technical book (not likely, I love fiction) I would want it to be a "legend" book and for it to be a legend book it has to have heart and soul in it. After all that though I would say a book on reliable communications in a large network would be what I would read. Communications are really becoming a dominant force in computing and the more business relies on it the more reliable and pervasive it must become. IM at the moment is still too unreliable IMHO and so if you can shed light on how to make it reliable then that would be great. You mentioned you knew everything there was about TAPI and MAPI for instance, so communication seems your forte in any case :) Good fortune Mehdi regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa Do you Sonork? I do! 100.9903 Stormfront "The greatest thing you will ever learn is to love, and be loved in return" - Moulin Rouge
>if you can shed light on how to make it reliable then that >would be great Believe it or not, there is no reliability on the net! No matter what algorithm you would prefer to encode your data, IDEA, DES, public key algorithms, or the RSA one! If you bring your data on the net, then it might be accessible to the other parties, due to their genius and science! So forget about reliability! :rolleyes: Thank you for your note, though Cheers, Mehdi
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>if you can shed light on how to make it reliable then that >would be great Believe it or not, there is no reliability on the net! No matter what algorithm you would prefer to encode your data, IDEA, DES, public key algorithms, or the RSA one! If you bring your data on the net, then it might be accessible to the other parties, due to their genius and science! So forget about reliability! :rolleyes: Thank you for your note, though Cheers, Mehdi
Mehdi Mousavi wrote: Believe it or not, there is no reliability on the net! No matter what algorithm you would prefer to encode your data, IDEA, DES, public key algorithms, or the RSA one! If you bring your data on the net, then it might be accessible to the other parties, due to their genius and science! So forget about reliability! :laugh: yes oh so true. I meant reliability though as in reliable delivery of messages. e.g. what MSMQ attempts to do. I realise that security is something we will never win but surely guaranteed delivery is attainable? (baring of course a computer being off or physically disconnected from the network) It looks though as if you also know quite a bit about encryption and security too :) Maybe you can impart some of that knowledge through a book as well. Mehdi Mousavi wrote: Thank you for your note, though Pleasure :) regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass Cape Town, South Africa Do you Sonork? I do! 100.9903 Stormfront "The greatest thing you will ever learn is to love, and be loved in return" - Moulin Rouge
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Hello, I've had an idea of writing a computer book some years ago. Since I loved modems and communication-related theories, I started researching about modems at that time. However, those days were passed until ... After publishing my 7th article on codeproject, I again received amazingly number of emails all commenting out that I have got a real gift for writing as well as obviously highly technically competent. So, everything became lighted again! I had an amazing knowledge base in those days of DOS and I was just shocked when I noticed that everything has gone, because of a new operating system known as Windows. At those DOS days, I was trying to keep everything I knew a secret, and now, they are all out of use today! That is why I try to contribute in the codeproject, since someday, the Windows OS will be useless, too... Now, when I propagate all of this through my life, I notice that someday I'll die and everything will be died with me, including my knowledge - unless it will be reveal before I go off. So, when people say that I've got a real gift for writing, and I'm technically aware of those damn computer technologies, so why shall I wait much more than this? Therefore, I decided to start writing my first book. It could be about MFC, ASP, C or C++, since I would be able to introduce the subtle nuances of how things work under such programming languages and/or frameworks. However, these days, it seems that people would like to read about a specific technology in more detail rather than having a complete reference book on their shelves. For example, most people would like to know the subtle nuances of "TAPI", "MAPI" or the like instead of buying a book that devotes 50 pages to such technologies. I'm writing all of these to ask your ideas. What type computer-related book would you like to read, more? What do you want me to write about? Any comments, suggestions, and/or ideas are welcomed. Cheers Mehdi
Hello Mehdi I bet there isn't a programmer on here who hasn't spent a fortune on junk books. Maybe £50 for a book that turns out to be a watered down manual that comes with the product. Que are famous for it, being first out with a book on a new programming language which turns out to say nothing that you don't see in the same words in the help menus. There are of cause excellent books about too, the 'expert series' is very good in depth stuff, but even then it is spread out on about 8 books each of something like £50. I have been programming since about 1979. So I was fortunate to be programming many diffeerent processes and each generation of dos/windows/unix wince then. I would hate to have to start out programming right now. When budding programmers ask me to help them choose a book to get them started, I struggle with whats on the shelves, there is simply too much junk arround. I think written mostly by jounalists rather than programmers. Invariably I will end up giving them a K&R and point them to a Linux programmers site (good for tutorials, I didn't know CodeProject until recently). So, I would suggest using your skills to teach the budding programmer who is starting out in the massively cluttered PC world. They do not have the benefit of access to the bare bones PC as you and I did. Its a bit like throwing them into a Lions cage to learn how to make them jump through hoops (ok, over dramatic, but I like it that way). We do it for the joy of seeing the users struggle.
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Hello, I've had an idea of writing a computer book some years ago. Since I loved modems and communication-related theories, I started researching about modems at that time. However, those days were passed until ... After publishing my 7th article on codeproject, I again received amazingly number of emails all commenting out that I have got a real gift for writing as well as obviously highly technically competent. So, everything became lighted again! I had an amazing knowledge base in those days of DOS and I was just shocked when I noticed that everything has gone, because of a new operating system known as Windows. At those DOS days, I was trying to keep everything I knew a secret, and now, they are all out of use today! That is why I try to contribute in the codeproject, since someday, the Windows OS will be useless, too... Now, when I propagate all of this through my life, I notice that someday I'll die and everything will be died with me, including my knowledge - unless it will be reveal before I go off. So, when people say that I've got a real gift for writing, and I'm technically aware of those damn computer technologies, so why shall I wait much more than this? Therefore, I decided to start writing my first book. It could be about MFC, ASP, C or C++, since I would be able to introduce the subtle nuances of how things work under such programming languages and/or frameworks. However, these days, it seems that people would like to read about a specific technology in more detail rather than having a complete reference book on their shelves. For example, most people would like to know the subtle nuances of "TAPI", "MAPI" or the like instead of buying a book that devotes 50 pages to such technologies. I'm writing all of these to ask your ideas. What type computer-related book would you like to read, more? What do you want me to write about? Any comments, suggestions, and/or ideas are welcomed. Cheers Mehdi
Publishers are always looking for new authors with interesting ideas. I suggest that you develop a proposal before you start on your book. A proposal includes information about your work experience and, of course, information about the book you'd like to write. The proposal's job is to describe to potential publishers how your book is different from others already on the market. You need to research other books on the market that cover the same topic as your book, describe what they're missing, and how your book fills the gap. If your topic is completely unique and there aren't any books available for it, the onus on you is to describe why there's a demand for a book on your topic. Proposals often include a table of contents (TOC) where you get your first chance to show the overall flow of the book. The TOC doesn't need to include every heading; however, the TOC should at least provide first and second-level headings, along with the estimated number of pages for each section/chapter and estimates of how many figures you'll have. You may also be required to submit one chapter of the book (not necessarily the first chapter) along with the proposal so that the editors can get an idea of your writing style. All of this work gives the publisher an idea of how much your book will cost to produce and how much revenue it is expected to generate. Once you've got your proposal, submit it to a number of publishers. Don't submit the proposal to more than one publisher at a time though! Wait for the publisher to consider the idea and to get back to you - some publishers are faster than others and you'll have to be patient. Once your book is accepted, the publisher outlines basic terms including money, number of pages in the book, and publication schedule. One thing to watch out for is the total number of pages - make sure this number is accurate since it causes problems for the publisher if the book goes significantly over or under your initial estimate. Writing a book is challenging and rewarding on a number of levels. One thing I particularly enjoy is seeing my work out on the Internet (on places like Amazon.com) and in stores. It's also really cool to see someone reading my book and I like getting comments about it now that it is out. I wish you the best of luck and hope for your success! Essam ___________________________________________ Author -