[R] the making of _R_ eBooks

[Dr. Wolfgang Lindner]

Dear John,

thank you for your kind answer and the historical excursions.
Your detailed post may help and inform other readers, too.
Thanks for your hint to TexStudio (I use[d] Texworks, Texshell, WinEDT).
So TeX will not be the problem, but I have first to learn about texinfo.

| > Thanks for any hint or link by expert R users.
| Oh, well, that excludes me. I'm not an expert.

No, your answer includes you :)
It was very helpful.
Indeed, I should better have said 'enthusiastic R users' ;)

best
Wolfgang


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John McKown" <john.archie.mckown at gmail.com>
To: "Dr. Wolfgang Lindner" <lindnerw at t-online.de>
Cc: "Help R" <r-help at r-project.org>
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2015 1:36 PM
Subject: Re: [R] the making of _R_ eBooks


| On Mon, Mar 23, 2015 at 3:50 AM, Dr. Wolfgang Lindner
| <lindnerw at t-online.de> wrote:
| > Dear list members,
| >
| > I like the look and feel of the eBook versions of the R manuals very
much.
| > So I would like to generate eBooks (teaching material etc) in that look.
|
| I am not an expert. But I have looked at the source, so I can give you
| some information.
|
| >
| > Q1: is there a description how the _R_ ebooks have been produced?
|
| Looking at the source, it appears that the source manuals are in a
| document markup language called "GNU Texinfo".
| https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/
| You can think of this as something akin to, but different from, HTML
| or "markdown" encoding. Texinfo is an evolution by the system first
| designed by Richard Stallman of MIT. He is the driving force behind
| the GPL and most of the GNU software which forms the basis of the user
| space commands for Linux and the *BSD operating systems. Texinfo is
| then converted to TeX. TeX is the typesetting language designed by Dr.
| Donald Knuth. TeX, nominally, is converted into a DVI printer control
| language (DeVice Independent). But in the case of creating a PDF file,
| there is a processor called "pdftex",
| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PdfTeX, which produces a PDF file as
| output . A good site for TeX is https://tug.org/
|
| Texinfo has the plus of also having processor which will convert it to
| UNIX "man" (manual) pages and HTML web pages. So one "source" document
| can generate three different types of output document file types.
|
| Most people use a enhanced TeX called LaTeX instead of "plain TeX"
| when using TeX. LaTeX can be read up on here:
| http://www.latex-project.org/ A good TeX document processor is
| TeXstudio at http://texstudio.sourceforge.net/ . I use this one myself
| (which is not necessary a strong endorsement because I'm nobody
| special).
|
| I feel the need to warn you that TeX is very powerful and, at least to
| me, quite difficult, with a fairly step learning curve. Which may be
| why the R project uses Texinfo because it is quite a bit easier to
| learn.
|
|
| > Q2: which (free) software was used for them?
|
| See the links above. On Fedora Linux, I get the TeX oriented software
| from a bunch of packages which start with "texlive". More information,
| including the processors for Linux, Windows, and Mac are at
| https://www.tug.org/texlive/
|
| > Q3: any other recommendations?
|
| You might consider LyX.
| http://www.lyx.org/
| LyX is a document processor. It would likely be easier to use than the
| above if you are used to MS Word or other word processing system. It
| is cross platform: Linux, Windows, and Mac. It stores files in its own
| textual format, which is somewhat human readable. LyX, like Texinfo,
| translates its format into TeX as an intermediate on its way to its
| ultimate destination. I am still learning LyX, but I personally like
| it.
|
| Your mention of LibreOffice is also a fairly good one. I, personally,
| use LibreOffice. But I don't use it for big documents. I have a
| learned aversion for word processors because it is so easy for them to
| be misused. In my opinion, a good document needs good metadata in it
| as well as just "looking pretty". Word processor users tend to focus
| on the format and not the content. That's just my opinion, based on
| what I've seen where I work.
|
| >
| > Seaching the internet gives me e.g.
| > [1]
| >
https://sites.google.com/site/richardbyrnepdsite/ebooks-and-audiobooks/create-your-own-ebooks
| > [2]  opensource.com/life/13/8/how-create-ebook-open-source-way
| > [3]
http://scottnesbitt.net/ubuntublog/creating-a-ebook-with-libreoffice-writer/
| >
| > but I m not sure, if there are better possibilities..
| >
| > Thanks for any hint or link by expert R users.
|
| Oh, well, that excludes me. I'm not an expert. But maybe it was helpful
anyway.
|
| >
| > Wolfgang Lindner
| > Leichlingen, Germany
|
| -- 
| If you sent twitter messages while exploring, are you on a textpedition?
|
| He's about as useful as a wax frying pan.
|
| 10 to the 12th power microphones = 1 Megaphone
|
| Maranatha! <><
| John McKown
|
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