First the disappointing news: Wrox has decided to cancel the Symphony Start to Finish book.
First proposed a year ago, the book was intended to cover the next major version of the platform, Symphony 3. But since we lost our only full-time developer in December of last year, the pace of development on that version has slowed down considerably and, in the end, Wrox was unwilling to accommodate the extended timeline.
Having already drafted ten chapters and poured hundreds of hours into the project, I’ve considered many alternatives, from shopping for a new publisher to self-publishing, from finishing the book as planned to retrofitting it for Symphony 2 or publishing a whole series of shorter books. Each of these options is appealing in its own way, but each also has its own challenges and drawbacks.
In the end, I've decided to redirect my efforts toward overhauling Symphony’s free online documentation. I think this is the best way to serve our users right now.
To the extent that my manuscript can be helpful in this process, we’ll use it. But I don't have any plans to publish it otherwise. Once the project’s documentation is where it should be, I’ll reassess whether there’s still scope for a book (or more likely for a multi-author series of short, advanced guides).
I hope that any disappointment the community feels over the cancellation of the book will be tempered by the excitement of knowing that all that time and energy is going help us take our docs to the next level.
Wish us luck :)
Comments
Craig, after reading your post, i thought that it would be nice... but i didn't find any 'donate' icon on the site. i'm more than sure that the community would also be eager (and happy) to help you with the book.
What doesn't kill us, makes us stronger. Thank you, Craig, for your continuous work on making Symphony amazing.
It's certainly a shame Craig, not least because you won't be remunerated for your months of toiling and writing. But equally I'm glad that your efforts were not entirely in vain and will see the light of day in other formats.
I am more than willing to donate equal to the price of purchasing the book from new, as I would have bought it without question.
I think we need a convenient way to donate to the Symphony project in general to support the good folks who develop the core system and actively maintained extensions, write docs and books and so on...
Sorry about the book Craig.
Craig, will the -undoubtably insanely great- docs have a chapter about DRY workflows invented in the community here, but maybe currently not visible enough for new members, such as:
Agreed.
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