Re: A Tcl/Tk Magazine?

Robert Hicks wrote:
> While reading through my latest "Perl Review" magazine, I wondered if
> there would be interest in starting something of the same for the Tcl
> community. It could start as a PDF only thing but would be chalk full
> of articles about the various uses of Tcl.
>
> I know the Tcl community is smaller, thus drawing on a smaller pool of
> authors but I thought I would throw something into the ether to see if
> there was interest.
>
> Robert
>

Finally arriving to this thread a bit late...

I've read all the suggestions and ideas with some interest. I'm sure
we'd have no problem attracting writers/contributors.

However: I'm not sure anyone here has any idea how much work producing
such a publication would be. Even if we assume that there are no capital
costs involved with printing, the time involved would be considerable.
>From a production standpoint, producing a PDF publication is no
different from producing a printed publication. The only difference is
output.

I know a little about this. Apart from working as a technical writer in
a previous life, I currently make my living as a book publisher. I do
production of printed materials (books) on a daily basis. It's a
full-time (40+ hours per week) job. (Coding is something I do to
exercise my brain in way completely different from my daily job.)

Production of printed materials involves several things. First is the
writing and editing of the material. Next is the designing of said
material in a readable and visually pleasing manner, using standard
publication tools for graphics and page layout. Then, there is the
conversion of the designed material to the appropriate output format.

That's just actually getting the publication put together, which
encompasses several skill sets, some of which will likely be found in
the community in greater abundance than others. Actually getting the
magazine into readers' hands is an entirely different matter
altogether--a marketing question.

I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade here. But it seems to me that
given how long it took to get the main Tcl/Tk website updated--an effort
that is much closer to the core skills of many community
members--striving to produce a printed/printed-style journal of
equivalent polish and substance is a large challenge indeed. And, given
how nicely the website presents the case for Tcl/Tk--and given how rich
a resource the wiki and compl.lang.tcl are--I'm not sure such an effort
is really needed.

(Needless to say, I'm not volunteering to do this.)

-- 
Cheers,
Kevin Walzer, PhD
WordTech Software - "Tame the Terminal"
http://www.wordtech-software.com
sw at wordtech-software.com