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Why in Action and not Quickly ?

 
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Why did you choose to include it with In Action family ? why not iText Quickly ?
I didn't try iText but AFAIK it is not that huge to be included in In Action series.
Anyway, I have alwayes liked generating PDF !
Thanks.
[ November 15, 2006: Message edited by: John Todd ]
 
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Originally posted by John Todd:
I didn't try iText but AFAIK it is not that huge to be included in In Action series.



That's a very common misconception ;-)

My developmental editor at Manning made me stop writing when I passed the limit of 500 pages. That was very difficult for me, so I decided to keep on writing. Once finished, I had to cut about a hundred pages. The final version of the eBook has 688 pages (TOC and index included). I could easily have written 500 pages more.

Not many people know how to get the most out of iText. I hope the book will change this.

The same goes for PDF. Have you ever tried reading the PDF Reference? It has over 1,200 pages, and still I find there are significant parts missing (fortunately you can find the missing parts in the technical notes).
I have read it multiple times, I only began to understand what PDF really was about after the third time I read it. I had to read some parts over and over, and still I didn't understand. Only when I made a short iText program that created a PDF as described in the Reference, I understood what it was about. That's the spirit of an 'in Action' book, isn't it?

iText in Action tries to lower the threshold to the PDF Reference. I explain what I feel is most important (in iText, in PDF), and every time I demonstrate the discussed functionality with a small example so that you can create a PDF document that illustrates what I am talking about.
'iText in Action' is not as difficult to read as the PDF Reference, but it has more body than for instance PDF Hacks (by Sid Steward who compiled iText with GCJ and called it PdfTk). It's for people that weren't satisfied after reading PDF Hacks, but don't want to start reading the PDF Reference.

Now that I am preparing my demo for this year's edition of JavaPolis, I feel I could in fact write an 'iText Quickly' book that has about 300 pages to give people a jump-start, but if I actually do this, will depend on the Publisher.
In any case, I would have to refer to 'iText in Action' on many different occasions, just like I now refer to the PDF reference for the more specialized functionality. I didn't want a book full of lists and reference material. For instance: I don't list all the possible blending modes in PDF; you can look them up in the PDF Reference. But I do provide code samples that allow you to reproduce the images shown in the PDF Reference concerning transparency.
 
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The final version of the eBook has 688 pages


It is good that Manning publishes the book in PDF form too! Sometime I skip buying books because they are too heavy. With ebooks my tiny flash drive can hold hundreds of books.

I wish all books would have e version.
 
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Originally posted by Bruno Lowagie:

...Now that I am preparing my demo for this year's edition of JavaPolis...



Is it by any chance a University after-lunch session on the 2nd day, that's the only session which is still TBA by Adobe.

Gian
 
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My developmental editor at Manning made me stop writing when I passed the limit of 500 pages. That was very difficult for me, so I decided to keep on writing.


Damn, you are an addicted !
 
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Originally posted by Gian Franco Casula:
Is it by any chance a University after-lunch session on the 2nd day, that's the only session which is still TBA by Adobe.


There was once a nice introduction to iText on AdobePress: Tools of the Trade, Part 1: Creating PDF documents with iText, so I asked Adobe if they wanted to help with the promotion of my book.
This was (part of) the response: "Adobe sees iText as a competitor. Which should make you feel pretty good!! (We don't pick competitors lightly)"
I replied: "I'm not sure if I want to be seen as a competitor."
The answer: "Anyone/thing that takes revenue away from Adobe is potentially a competitor. If you do it often enough, then you make the list! iText, deservedly, is probably the best option out there for Java & PDF... and Adobe loses revenue because of it. That's business!"

In other words: no, it's not the University session, it's the Conference talk on December 14.
[ November 16, 2006: Message edited by: Bruno Lowagie ]
 
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Originally posted by Bruce Jin:
I wish all books would have e version.



What's great about eBooks, is that you can search them for specific words.
I find using the index of a book very frustrating (on the other hand: making a good index is a very difficult job). I hardly ever find what I'm looking for, but searching an eBook is bliss, you find some source code, type over a code snippet, et voil�, the reader jumps to the full code sample.

Note that the eBook can't only be bought from the Manning site.
[ November 16, 2006: Message edited by: Bruno Lowagie ]
 
Gian Franco
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Originally posted by Bruno Lowagie:

In other words: no, it's not the University session, it's the Conference talk on December 14.



Pity, I'll be attending the University sessions only.

Thanks for the info.

Gian
 
Bruno Lowagie
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Originally posted by Gian Franco Casula:
Pity, I'll be attending the University sessions only.



If they fit in my schedule, I'm prepared to give demo's at other events too ;-)

I use my blog at Amazon to announce the events where I'm speaking. On December 1, I'll be talking at T-DOSE in Eindhoven.
 
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Note that the eBook can only be bought from the Manning site.



That is why I ended up buying more books from Manning. Ebooks are also cheaper and I don't have to wait for the usps delivery.
 
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To be honest, I like 'original books' more than e-books.
There is nothing in the world like holding your book in your hands, smelling its papers (yes, I do that !)
Books are my best friends.
 
Don't get me started about those stupid light bulbs.
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