2012Q3 Grant Proposal: Improve WriteAt suite by exporting books to pdf and epub formats
Tue, 14-Aug-2012 by
Alberto Simões
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<![CDATA[
<dl>
<dt><strong><a name="name" class="item">Name:</a></strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>Aliaksandr Zahatski</p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="email" class="item">Email:</a></strong></dt>
<dd>
<p><a href="zahatski">zahatski</a></p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="amount_requested" class="item">Amount Requested:</a></strong></dt>
<dd>
<p>1000$</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="synopsis">Synopsis</a></h2>
<p>WriteAt <a href="http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?WriteAt">http://search.cpan.org/perldoc</a> - suite for making books and
maintaining docs in pod6 format. It is built on top of the Perl6::Pod implementation of Synopsis26.</p>
<p>Currently WriteAt supports exporting books from pod6 to HTML format. This grant will allow me to add the export feature to pdf and epub formats.</p>
<h2><a name="benefits_for_the_perl_community">Benefits for the Perl Community</a></h2>
<p>The tools developed as a part of this project could be used
to write books and technical documents in pod6 as welll as to make them
available for reading on most common devices, easy publishing
online and printing.</p>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="deliverables">Deliverables</a></h2>
<ul>
<li><strong><a name="latex" class="item">improve Perl6::Pod module by exporting to latex (pod6latex)</a></strong>
</li>
<li><strong><a name="improve_writeat_module_by_exporting_pod6_files_to_pdf_and_epub_books" class="item">improve WriteAt module by exporting pod6 files to pdf and epub books</a></strong>
</li>
<li><strong><a name="extend_cpan_package_of_writeat_by_a_template_of_a_simple_book_with_export_to_html_pdf_and_epub_formats" class="item">extend CPAN package of WriteAt by a template of a simple book with
export to html, pdf and epub formats</a></strong>
</li>
<li><strong><a name="ubuntu_packaging_of_completed_writeat_suite" class="item">Ubuntu packaging of completed WriteAt suite</a></strong>
</li>
</ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="project_details">Project Details</a></h2>
<p>The WriteAt is a free open source suite for book writers.
It helps making and preparing books for publishing and printing.
WriteAt uses pod6 as markup language.</p>
<p>"Compared to POD, Perl 6's Pod is much more
uniform, somewhat more compact, and considerably more expressive." (S26)</p>
<p>The typical WriteAt book template looks like this:</p>
<pre>
=TITLE MyBook
=SUBTITLE My first free book
=AUTHOR Alex Green
=DESCRIPTION Short description of the book
=begin CHANGES
Aug 18th 2010(v0.2)[zag] preface
May 27th 2010(v0.1)[zag] Initial version
=end CHANGES
=CHAPTER Intro
D<Pod> is an easy-to-use markup language with a simple, consistent
object model underlying the document. Pod can be used for writing language
documentation, documenting programs and modules, as well as for
other types of document composition.</pre>
<p>As you see it is simple. Because pod6 is extendable, it is possible to
split big files into parts:</p>
<pre>
=Include src/preface.pod6
=Include src/basics.pod6</pre>
<p>or insert images:</p>
<pre>
=Image berries.png</pre>
<p>A real book sample, a free book "Everything about Perl 6", can be downloaded from <a href="https://github.com/zag/ru-perl6-book">https://github.com/zag/ru-perl6-book</a>.</p>
<p>The current version of WriteAt is 0.02. It supports exporting pod6 books
to HTML. WriteAt is located at <a href="https://github.com/zag/writeat">https://github.com/zag/writeat</a> and
the CPAN distribution is avalable from here: <a href="http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?WriteAt">http://search.cpan.org/perldoc</a>,
also avalable at launchpad.net : <a href="https://launchpad.net/~zahatski/+archive/ppa">https://launchpad.net/~zahatski/+archive/ppa</a>.</p>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="inch_stones">Inch-stones</a></h2>
<ul>
<li><strong><a name="latex" class="item">Latex formatter Perl6::Pod::To::Latex (Perl6::Pod)</a></strong>
<p>Exports to latex pod6's blocks and formats the code.</p>
</li>
<li><strong><a name="pod6latex" class="item">export script for pod6 files - pod6latex (Perl6::Pod)</a></strong>
</li>
<li><strong>make export books files to pdf via latex (WriteAt)</strong>
</li>
<li><strong><a name="epub" class="item">make export books files to epub (WriteAt)</a></strong>
</li>
<li><strong><a name="formats" class="item">add a template of a simple book and GNUmakefile for exporting it
to html, pdf and epub formats (WriteAt)</a></strong>
</li>
<li><strong><a name="update_ubuntu_ppa_package_to_complete_versions_of_perl6_pod_and_writeat_modules" class="item">update Ubuntu ppa package to complete versions of
Perl6::Pod and WriteAt modules.</a></strong>
</li>
</ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="project_schedule">Project Schedule</a></h2>
<p>Working on this grant could start as early as the August 2012, and will take 2 to 3 months to complete. All the resulting source will be added to public repositories.</p>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="completeness_criteria">Completeness Criteria</a></h2>
<ul>
<li><strong><a name="perl6_pod_will_be_released_to_cpan_with_pod6latex_export_script" class="item">Perl6::Pod will be released to CPAN with pod6latex export script</a></strong>
</li>
<li><strong><a name="writeat_will_be_released_to_cpan_with_gnumakefile_template_with_an_option_of_exporting_to_html_pdf_and_epub_formats" class="item">WriteAt will be released to CPAN with GNUmakefile template with an option of exporting to html, pdf and epub formats.</a></strong>
</li>
<li><strong><a name="ubuntu_ppa_packages_of_the_complete_writeat_suite_will_be_published_at_launchpad_net" class="item">Ubuntu ppa packages of the complete WriteAt suite will be published at launchpad.net</a></strong>
</li>
</ul>
<p>
</p>
<h2><a name="bio">Bio</a></h2>
<p>I am a software developer with ten year experience, specializing in
collaborative filtering, social data mining and e-commerce environment applications. I am capable of producing clear and accessible documentation for developers, and can communicate proactively with application users.</p>
<p>I am also a member of Minsk.pm and Moscow.pm groups, maintainer of rakudo port for FreeBSD. I write in Perl 5 and Perl 6. My CPAN account: <a href="http://search.cpan.org/~zag/">http://search.cpan.org/~zag/</a> and the github: <a href="https://github.com/zag">https://github.com/zag</a>.</p>
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Comments (3)
http://www.perlybook.org/ does something similar - at least it already does epub and mobi formats - for POD rather than POD6
It would be interesting to know how much is written in Perl6::POD format already - e.g. what the short/medium term value of this project is?
I'd like to know how POD6 compares against PseudoPod: https://metacpan.org/release/Pod-PseudoPod , which was used for the book Modern Perl and for other books. Furthermore, would it be possible to implement a converter from POD6 to DocBook/XML ? Otherwise, this grant sounds pretty good.
I don't think we should fund any project this young. Not only is the long term value of this project rather uncertain, the viability in the first place isn't proven, and the author is an unknown to the community. This does not sound like that much of a good idea.
