Code a Coding Book: Publish a paperback with Node, Haskell, Vim, Markdown, ASTs, and lots of piping.

eBook + Paperback via Amazon:
https://jonathanleemartin.com/books/

Ever wondered where those beautifully-formatted books come from? As a developer, you actually have better tools and expertise at your disposal to craft stunning paperbacks than many publishing houses! Join us for a whirlwind overview of the tools, open source libraries and challenges that go into turning words into a paperback (and EPUB, MOBI, LaTeX, PDF…)

Transcript

1. Code a Coding Book
   Publish a paperback with Node, Haskell,
   Vim, Markdown, ASTs, and lots of piping.
   JonathanLeeMartin.com/books
   

   View Slide

2. I’m Jonathan Lee Martin.
   @nybblr
   

   View Slide

3. I teach developers
   to craft exceptional software.
   

   View Slide

4. I’ve worked with over 300 developers —
   from career switchers to senior developers
   at Fortune 100 companies — through their
   journey into software development.
   

   View Slide

5. Functional React 3 days
   Practical TDD 5 days
   Full Stack JavaScript 8 week
   Express in a Hurry 1 day
   Remote Collaboration 5 days
   Functional Programming in JS 3 days
   

   View Slide

6. Let’s do something together.
   jonathanleemartin.com
   Functional React 3 days
   Practical TDD 5 days
   Full Stack JavaScript 8 week
   Express in a Hurry 1 day
   Remote Collaboration 5 days
   Functional Programming in JS 3 days
   

   View Slide

7. “The composition of vast books is a
   laborious and impoverishing
   extravagance.”
   — Jorge Luis Borges
   

   View Slide

8. To write a book, you must
   first invent the universe.
   (mostly with JavaScript)
   

   View Slide

9. Today, we’ll cover:
   1. High-level timeline of writing the book
   2. AST preprocessing for Web, ePub, MOBI, LaTeX, PDF
   3. Tech behind online distribution
   4. Unique challenges going from digital to print
   5. Q + A
   

   View Slide

10. Timeline
    From concept to print
    

    View Slide

11. Timeline
    1. Planning
    2. Writing
    3. Digital pipeline
    4. Technical reviews
    5. Editing
    6. Officialese
    7. Final digital layout
    tweaks
    8. Digital distribution
    9. Print pipeline
    10. Print layout
    revisions
    11. Prepress
    12. Proofing, proofing,
    proofing
    13. Proof hard copy
    14. Submit to Amazon
    15. Optimize
    marketing copy
    16. Real work begins!
    3–4 months
    

    View Slide

12. Preprocessing
    Markdown ASTs for
    

    View Slide

13. Preprocessing
    1. Markdown to
    JSON AST
    2. Image path
    transforms
    3. Cached SVG
    rendering
    4. AST
    concatenation
    5. Figure numbering
    6. Chapter
    numbering
    7. Unique header
    IDs
    8. Table of contents
    9. Syntax
    highlighting
    10. Diffing code
    blocks
    11. Intraline diff
    hints
    12. Term indexing
    

    View Slide

14. Output Preprocessing
    1. Web (preview + debugging)
    2. ePub (main eBook format)
    3. MOBI (Kindle)
    4. PDF via TeX (LaTeX + XeLaTeX)
    

    View Slide

15. Distribution
    Online eBook
    

    View Slide

16. github.com/nybblr/bookseller-api
    
    

    View Slide

17. Print
    From digital to
    

    View Slide

18. Q + A
    1. How does that highlight-diff filter work?
    2. Why pipes instead of Make or Gulp?
    3. Why not use an off-the-shelf solution for
    writing / rendering / distribution?
    4. What’s the book actually about?
    

    View Slide

19. Let’s do something together.
    jonathanleemartin.com
    

    View Slide