Wikibooks:Book Ideas

Ideas for new books that haven't yet gotten off the ground. When you start one of these books, move the relevant discussion below to the new talk pages.

DBQ How-To
I'm trying to build a How-To for writing a DBQ... currently being built (slowly) at How to write a DBQ. - Pingveno 00:21, 14 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * If it's long enough it can be it's own short book in the history bookshelf. I can imagine this especially so if it's then differentiated into additional chapters between the Euro History/World History/US History tests Etothex 01:59, 14 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * It probably won't be long, so it might not be worth a space on the shelf. Maybe an entire How-To book should be written on writing essays (such as free response) and preparing for the tests themselves. - Pingveno 02:48, 14 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I've started plans for the How-To, but I'll need to obtain a good DBQ essay, along with the primary history source and any notes. There may be copyright problems with using any recent history sources, so whoever gets the DBQ would have to careful. Also, the How-to probably isn't currently up to Wikipedia standards for a stub or article under construction. - Pingveno 02:48, 14 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * I'd imagine that test questions themselves would be under copyright. The documents probably won't be in most cases because everything pre a certain date is public domain, and presidential speeches/etc are always in public domain. Etothex 03:51, 14 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * Yeh, so maybe test questions would have to be made up. Any history teachers out there? :-)

Ok, now I'm thinking about turning the How to write a DBQ (see above) into a book on the AP test, or maybe just AP History. It would take time to form, and has free competition, such as Oswego High School. Frankly, I'm not sure I have much time to put into making a book. I could just do the structuring and planning, and leave the rest to the community.

I could ask Oswego High School to release their material on essays, but am not sure who to talk to for legal advice. - Pingveno 00:46, 15 Dec 2003 (UTC)

French books: French for Anglophones, Programmation
I'm really sorry I get no feed-back for the french book. I asked what people wanted in chapter 13 (French culture) for weeks, but got no answer... Traroth 23:46, 14 Dec 2003 (UTC)
 * Do not get discouraged. Announce what you are doing at the French Wikipedia and see if you can get others there interested in helping out - Marsh 03:28, 15 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Avis aux amateurs : Le livre Programmation est initialisé. Il faudrait deja se mettre d'accord sur le sommaire.
 * For interested people the french Programmation book is started. Traroth 23:46, 14 Dec 2003 (UTC)

HTML, JavaScript and CSS Reference Manuals
I was thinking to start a free online reference for Web related technologies (HTML, JavaScript, CSS, ...) using a Wiki.

I was thinking to start with an HTML reference where each tag is described on one page and where everyone one can contribute. The reference should contain lots of examples and cookbook style recipes. It should highlight differences between browser. It should focus on the standard but should also specify all browser specific features.

Once the HTML reference is started at least two other related reference manuals should be created: JavaScript and CSS. These three manuals probably will make lots of references to each other.

Also, corresponding Cookbooks should be created, either as part of these reference manuals or as stand alone books.

Ideal features that do not seem to be supported by Wikibooks:
 * syntax coloring for code examples
 * sample HTML files that can be tested as one reads the reference
 * live testing of code
 * page templates so a whole book has a consistent layout

Existing books related to this subject: Programming:HTML, Programming:XHTML, Programming:JavaScript and Programming:CSS.

Links

 * http://w3.org/MarkUp/
 * http://w3.org/Style/CSS/
 * http://www.w3schools.com/
 * http://htmlhelp.com/
 * http://devedge.netscape.com/ (offline)
 * http://jennifermadden.com/ (JavaScript tutorials)
 * http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-262.htm
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XHTML
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascading_Style_Sheets

Mariuss 01:01, 8 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Windows Programming
Wikibooks has programming language tutorials but they're useless unless you can apply them to an operating system. They usually never go past doing something with a command prompt. (that's it, not even how to make a window) --V2os 23:27, 13 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Well, to go beyond that you run into the problem of needing to use system-specific libraries (except in the case of something like Java which is environment-independent). There are entire books on just programming basic windows GUI programs in C++. However, it is usually required that the reader know the fundamentals of whatever language is being used, and a lot of what's covered is beyond the scope of an "introductory" textbook. The other problem is that it's language dependant, so you couldn't just have a generic book on "Windows Programming"; instead, a book titled "C++ Programming for Windows" or something similar would be more appropriate. But once again, it should be emphasised that it's not an introductory book and that the basic knowledge of the language is required to understand the concepts and examples. Xerol 18:52, 25 October 2005 (UTC)