[R-sig-Geo] Feedback request and heads-up: open source book

[Robin Lovelace]

Hi all,

*Summary*

As mentioned on this list already there is a new book project on R-spatial
called Geocomputation with R. It's an open source and publicly accessible
project which can be found in its entirety here:
https://geocompr.robinlovelace.net/

The purpose of this email is to inform you that the book is now mostly
complete and ready for use. It's also to request feedback before it gets
sent to the printers in early October. There's a ~month long window of
opportunity to contribute, alongside others who have kindly helped already,
to the printed version:
https://github.com/robinlovelace/geocompr#contributing

...

*Details*

A major aim of the project is to provide high quality, up-to-date teaching
material free of charge to people around the world. We have been working on
it for over a year. But only in the last month have we got a cohesive draft
of all 15 chapters, so now is a good time to take a look and start using it
for your own teaching/learning: few things will change in the content.
However, we have a deadline at the end of September to submit the final
draft for the physical book.

Each of us is an experienced R user for geographic applications. We have
some development experience. And each chapter (except for 10, 14 and 15)
have undergone a formal process of 'technical review'. But there will still
inevitably be mistakes, parts that are not clear, and a huge amount of room
for improvement.

We are therefore sending this message to ask for feedback. People in the
wider R-spatial community, and especially readers of the r-sig-geo list
messages, have a huge amount of expertise. We would therefore be grateful
for suggestions from you. Especially useful would feedback on:

   - Any key functions or topics we're missing (note the commonly requested
   topic of spatial interpolation is well-covered in other resources, and gets
   a mention in an extended example at ).
   - Any bits of the explanation that are not crystal clear? Please let us
   know. We try to use plain English but there is definitely room for
   improvement in the prose in many sections.
   - Any exercises that don't make sense, are too easy/hard or are
   unhelpful?

We've had loads of support so far from many people in the form of comments,
reviews and suggestions. And the fact that R-spatial exists at all is
thanks to developers like Edzer and Roger who's code underlies much of what
we have written. So the final thing to say is thanks for being part of the
community that has made this possible. We hope the book contributes to the
community.

For info on how to contribute and the book directly via a Pull Request, see
here: https://geocompr.robinlovelace.net/index.html#how-to-contribute but
emails to me on this address are equally appreciated if you spot anything.

Robin, Jakub and Jannes.

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