Mark Watson's opinions on Java, Ruby, Lisp, AI, and the Semantic Web

I am within a month or so of completing the third edition of my book. This book will always be available as a free PDF from my web site and as an instant-print book.

I would very much appreciate technical feedback on the manuscript which can be downloaded from my open content page: www.markwatson.com/opencontent/

A direct download link is: www.markwatson.com/opencontent/JavaAI3rd.pdf

Thanks in advance!

Labels: AI, Java, technical writing

Except for Ruby and Rails (where I use a combination of NetBeans and TextMate) I am switching over just about all of my projects to Eclipse and Mylyn because of Mylyn's task management functionality: if you have not given Mylin a try, please do :-)

I am working on the 3rd edition of my Java AI book and I set up Eclipse with TeXlipse today. Now, I have always liked using TeXShop on my Mac, and I still really like TeXSHop but the ability to have my book code examples and my Latex files in one working environment with Mylin task management makes it well worth the effort to switch setups.

Labels: Eclipse, Latex, Mylin, technical writing

It pays off in the long run to write some custom code and tweak your own working environment. How many programmers spend time writing code to improve other people's productivity but don't invest the time to automate their own work flow? Probably too many.

I have been working fairly hard in my free time on two "free web books" for my main we site. In the past I have simply created PDF files and made them available for my site. Although I write my "free web books" using a Creative Commons license, I decided that I wanted to make at least a small revenue stream so that I can spend more time on these projects. My plan has been to have all of my web books readable for free online with a small Google Adsense advertisement at the beginning of each chapter and offer through lulu.com the ability to buy PDFs with no advertising for a few dollars or get a printed book for about $12.

I would prefer spending my time writing rather than preparing HTML, PDF, and printer ready PDF. I think that I now have this process automated about as fully as I can, using custom Ruby code, shell scripting, and a "do everything" Makefile. I had experimented with using OpenOffice.org and writing some utilities to modify the generated HTML. I also experimented with the very cool SiSU system.

In the end, I went back to automating my writing setup using Latex, htlatex, pdflatex, custom Ruby code and shell scripts, and the OS X Latex editor TexShop. It feels good to get things working "just right".

Labels: Latex, Ruby, technical writing

I saw this in an Arstechnica article. I have used OpenOffice.org to write 3 of my last 4 books. OpenOffice.org does everything that I need for a variety of writing tasks (although I also like to use Latex) so I doubt that it lacks features that many businesses need. The integration of Microsoft Office with services like SharePoint may be compelling for some businesses, but even so, I would expect many businesses to look at the compelling cost savings with OpenOffice.org - free! Most people learn to use OpenOffice.org very quickly so re-training business costs should be low. Even businesses that want to stick with Microsoft Windows as their standard desktop should seriously look at saving some real money and switch from Microsoft Office.

I also believe that Microsoft's new Open XML format is flawed because of backward compatibility with many old Microsoft products and possibly with binary attachments that are difficult to process in 3rd party software. I have watched Microsoft's business model of customer lock in and standards non-compliance for too many years to not have natural suspicions about Open XML. The standards specification for Open XML is now 6,000 pages - a high level of complexity and a barrier for use by 3rd party developers until there are robust free libraries for processing Open XML.

Labels: IT, technical writing

Good news that

Minnesota and Texas may become the next states to adopt the OpenDocument Format as the required standard for their agencies, thanks to two state bills up for vote.

I expect Microsoft to apply aggressive lobbying to prevent this, but there are some polititions who try to act in the public interest so there is some hope that the proposed legislation will pass.

Both Sun and Microsoft are supplying OpenDocument translators for Microsoft Office - a good thing! Some people like Office and I believe in personal choice :-) BTW, If your document repository consists of Office documents, consider periodically using OpenOffice.org's batch option for converting a directory (and sub directories) of Office documents to ODF. I would strongly recommend doing this periodically and archiving the ODF documents with your Office documents: future-proof your access to our own work.

Labels: IT, technical writing

I do a lot of technical writing both because I enjoy communicating and to earn money. Recently, the AI project that I am working as architect and lead AI developer passed a performance milestone so we get more people and resources. As a result, I find myself writing more architectural documentation and doing less Lisp programming - so it goes :-)

As a computer scientist, I spend a reasonable amount of time tweaking my software development and technical writing work environments. For software development, I almost always prefer a fast Linux box with just the tools I need - no fluff to act as a distraction.

Unfortunately, my favorite writing environment is heavily Mac OS X dependent, largely because of the OmniGraffle technical drawing tool (I am addicted to using it and I highly recommend it.) So I am stuck on a Mac for writing most of the time. I also strongly prefer Latex over Microsoft Word or OpenOffice.org for writing (much more efficient use of my time!) While I am very happy using Emacs+autex for Latex work, there is something a little better: the free TeXShop Latex working environment for OS X.

Labels: Latex, technical writing

I had to start writing some software documentation this afternoon and also start a separate set of research notes. I am not sure why, but it seems like I get more work done (quicker) if I grab a Latex template file and just start typing - saving generating a PDF for viewing until the end of each work cycle. There does not seem to be any overhead at all for using Word or OpenOffice, but I still have the feeling that work goes faster just blasting in plain text, with a little markup.

I am too busy with consulting work to spend much time on it, but I started a new for fun writing project using Latex and some custom code for inserting both program listings and the output from running the program examples - it is clear to me why Latex + my custom code is more efficient for programming texts using than using a word processor. BTW, my new 'for fun' writing project is "AI Programming in Ruby".

Labels: Latex, technical writing