R. G.'s Book, and Chinese (Germanium) For Lunch

[markm]

Just Got Mine! Autographed too. I can't wait to get started.

Dave

I received mine yesterday as well......Autographed!
I showed the signed page to my kids and their reaction was "WOW!.......You actually KNOW the guy that wrote that Book!"
To which I replied.......smugly I may add......Yes!
Ahh, but only On-Line!
Anyway, Thank You R.G., I have started reading and it looks great!
One question, as far a "Technology Of", where's the Orange Squeezer write-up?

[Chuck]

Mine is here as well...

Happy Layouts

[96ecss]

Just Got Mine! Autographed too. I can't wait to get started.

Cool!

As you note, that's the third edition. I always have trouble translating from R.G.-English to real-people-English, so if there are places which are confusing or need better wording, or are just flat wrong, please yell.

By the way, the entire thing except the covers was typeset and laid out in Microsoft Word. That was so difficult that I'll never do that again. Part of the proceeds from this will go to getting a copy of a real publishing layout program so the next one is simpler.

And there is a next one in the works. I'm working in fits and starts on "The Art of Distortion", a moderately comprehensive (within the limits of FX building) discussion of what distortion is, how to understand it, and how to get good distortion, as well as what the commercial pedals we know from history did. Kind of a "Technology of Distortion Pedals" on steroids. But it's going to take a while. It's not going to be next month. Maybe next year.

I brought mine to work today and read the first 25 or 30 pages. Very easy to read and understand. The translation from R.G. English to real people English went well. Thanks R.G for publishing this again.

Dave

[R.G.]

You guys are so kind.

So we're going to see a virtual explosion in PCB layouts, right?   

[96ecss]

 Give me some time to fully absorb it and I would like to do a bunch of them. I plan on doing a bunch of the Run Off Groove stuff and some of Joe Davisson's stuff like the Blackfire T and Obsidian. I'm sure once I get the hang of it, I'll find a bunch of other layouts to do as well. I also would like to design something of my own. But that's down the road a bit.

I don't think it would be possible for Mark M to do layouts any faster than he does them now. I gave up trying to build all his new stuff because I couldn't keep up. 

Dave

[newperson]

if you need someone to layout another book for you i would do this.  i use Quark for layout at work and have done small books (100pgs) before.  i can send you my email if you like.
-paul.

[R.G.]

Paul, thanks for your very kind offer. I may need some help, and it's good to know someone who does this kind of thing.

I actually have come a long way up the curve by now. When I think about what I didn't know when I started that book, it's frightening.

Microsoft Word is NOT how to do book layout. I looked at Quark and Indesign, both of which are very well thought of for preprint, and did a lot of evaluation and the winner at this point is...

Scribus. It's probably not what I'd use for smaller or more-intricate layout stuff like magazine or commercial print jobs, but it makes the ins and outs of book layout simple enough for me, and understandable. It works very well. I actually re-laid "PCB Layout" in Scribus in two days just tinkering with the program part time. That it is free under the GPL is nice, but I wasn't picking the program based on price.

It sure brings home the homilies about writing prose in plain, unadorned script devoid of formatting, then merging the text and graphics in the layout phase, not the writing phase.

Actually Paul, one quick question. I made the inner margins and gutter relatively wider than the outside margins because I remember hating trying to read books where the text crawls right into the fold. But I've read that classical book layout makes the inner margins plus gutter merge into one inner "margin" separating the two blocks of text that is visually the same size as the outer edge margins. Who's right, if there is a right? Or does the answer vary depending on binding style?

[mdh]

By the way, the entire thing except the covers was typeset and laid out in Microsoft Word. That was so difficult that I'll never do that again. Part of the proceeds from this will go to getting a copy of a real publishing layout program so the next one is simpler.

LaTeX is free (as in beer AND speech) and is up to the task of typesetting pretty much anything, if you just learn some markup and let it do its thing.  It is particularly good for mathematical and graphics-heavy content, which is probably why so many math, physics and other technical papers and books use LaTeX or some other set of TeX macros.  Plus, there's a lot of serious typesetting theory behind the way it behaves, so it generally produces very pretty and readable output.  Do yourself the favor of checking it out!

[R.G.]

I have used LaTEX at one time. In my dim past I also wrote techie documents in GML for script formatting, which contains some similar stuff. There is so much WORK involved with getting either one to produce final copy because you never see what you're getting and there's a big formatting run between each experiment.

I think there is a semi-WYSIWYG front end for LaTEX now, but it still doesn't thrill me.

[Apehouse]

wooohooo!!!
received mine copy today. Autographed as well.
Incredibly excited to read it. I've designed a number of boards for myself and now i have this weird fascination and excitement about learning what I've been doing, or approaching, wrong.
The book itself looks very straightforward and easy to understand (from me browsing through it).
My only complaint so far is that theres a big dent in the cover from where my mailman stuffed it into the mailbox. So really, no complaints so far..

Between this and my Workhorse amp i hope RG doesn't design a car or house because i may end up going veeeery deep into debt.
thanks for all your hard  and quality filled work!
-Greg

[theundeadelvis]

R.G., I'm not sure how expensive it was for you to do this, but for future editions you may consider a POD publisher like authorHOUSE. I worked there for over a year (located here in Bloomington, IN) as a author rep. You don't have to invest in any inventory (unless you want to) and you book receives world wide distribution. Any major book store in North America has the ability to stock or special order the book as well as bookstores across the pond. You royalties are up to you, but normally range 20%-50% of retail. Also, it's a non-exclusive contract so you could still have your printer do runs for people like Small Bear if you wanted. You can do it for under $600, but for your particular book it would probably $1500 or so. Hey, they fired me (quota driven sales position), but I still believe in what they do. Hey, they published "Legally Blonde"!