Journal
Textpattern Solutions
12 June 2007 › 19 comments
As can be seen clearly in the following photo, my dad not only wholeheartedly endorses Textpattern, but its use on personal computers as well…
I figure since the rest of my fellow co-authors (Cody, Kevin, Mary and Rob) have already written up their posts about the book release, I should make it “official” on my blog too. Textpattern Solutions was published on May 21st, and has recently made its way to bookstores around the USA (with other countries soon to follow). The book, appropriately titled, covers the flexible open source content management system Textpattern.
In the esprit de corps of open source community, I will be giving half of whatever money I make from the book sales (yet to be seen) right back to the core Textpattern developers. I figure, if not for their hard work, the CMS wouldn’t even exist and the book would never have been written. I simply consider myself a beneficiary of their tireless (oft unsung) labor.
Overall, Textpattern Solutions has been well received. There have been a few reviews written on Amazon (4.5 of 5.0 rating). So far, my favorite snippet of feedback about the book has come from Nils Valentin.
“The Textpattern software package is what the Germans would call a ‘Eierlegende Wollmilchsau – a sheep that gives also milk, eggs and meat.’ It seems like you can make it do almost anything you can come up with.”
Courtesy of my wife, who is fluent in Russian, I was also able to hear what the TXP users over at Textpattern.ru have been saying. In short, they like it but think the book cover conveys the message: “Without a bottle of vodka and a hammer, there’s no way to crack this book.” Fair enough, everyone’s entitled to their opinion. I’d like to think it’s a little more approachable!
If you know of any other book reviews, we’d love to hear about them. Needless to say, if you like the book and write your own review, let us know. I’m trying to keep track, adding snippets and links to the official book site.
http://textpatternsolutions.com/book-reviews/
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that there’s a free PDF download of Chapter 14, Writing Plugins. It was written by Rob Sable, a name in the TXP community that is synonymous with extending and enhancing Textpattern. He is a PHP guru, ‘nuff said. I use several of his plugins on my own site.
I just want to say it was a honor and privledge to write with the other authors: Mary Fredborg, Cody Lindley, Kevin Potts and Rob Sable. Special thanks to Dean Allen for creating Textpattern in the first place, Alex Shiels for being the lead TXP developer, and to Jon Hicks for writing a nice forward.
Discussion + Dissension
Comments closed after 2 weeks.
#1 Damien Buckley
Its a great book Nathan, well written and covering all aspects. I for one have a renewed appreciation of Textpattern and having got most of the way through the book have decided that I’ll be including a copy of it with every TXP site I build for clients – the first few chapters are great reading and training for users as well as designers. Good to hear some money’s going back to the developers too.
#2 Nate Klaiber
Still in the process of reading it myself and I am enjoying it. I absolutely love the picture of you and your dad – that’s awesome.
Congrats on finishing up the book. Ill be sure to keep you posted when I post the review.
#3 Yannick
Congrats on the release of the book Nathan. I’m still reading through it but enjoying it so far and it has certainly sparked me to fix certain aspects of how I initially setup by site in TXP so that it’s better.
Really nice picture of you and your dad also. :)
Keep up the good work. Blessings!
#4 Ian McFarlan
Great book thus far, Nathan. I’m thoroughly impressed – I have already begun tweaking my site. Thanks.
#5 Robert
Congrats on the book release Nathan! Definitely a good resource for anyone who is working with textpattern!
#6 Craig
Congrats Nathan. You deserve it.
#7 Nathan Smith
Thanks for all the kind words guys, much appreciated. Craig, that especially means a lot coming from you, being that I learned a lot about graphics from your tutorials! If anyone wants to know how to use Fireworks like it’s second nature, check out his site solarDreamStudios.com. He is the man.
#8 Jason Beaird
I am really looking forward to getting into my copy and using TXP as a foundation to flip my personal site. Unfortunately the “Summer of the Kitchen” is in full swing and Amy would agree that it’ll have to wait till that work is finished. I read through the preface a couple nights ago though and I’m all the more excited. I’m sure after all of our home improvement work is over, I’ll be chompin’ at the bit to get back into some non-work web projects. Many congrats, and that’s an awesome picture!
#9 Lance Willett
Congratulations! I know how much this means to you, so it’s great to finally see it published. I don’t use TXP, but if I did this would be my first purchase on Amazon.
#10 Jason Reynolds
Can’t wait to get this in my hands and finally “get” Textpattern. You have such a natural ability to instruct people about web programming and design. Your coauthors are of course equally as proficient with all things internet, so I am looking forward to this read. Congratulations on being a published author.
#11 Nathan's Mom
I’m so PROUD of you for being a published author! Some people only dream of doing that, but you made it happen! That’s the greatest picture of you and Dad, of course I’m a little biased. Mom
#12 Matthew smith
Wow, what an honor to follow Nathan’s Mom! :)
I’ve been reading it this week while we’re on vacation Nathan. Its superb. I only wish I had this book around when I started with TXP. I had to learn all this stuff by asking crazy questions over at the forum. Well done on working together to get this hashed out.
This comes at a great time as Zem is moving on to new things, and some new developers step to the plate.
Over the last couple of months I asked to be part of the core team from a design perspective and they were quite kind to accept me into their ranks. Its a great group and I love working with such talented people.
Much thanks go to you and the other authors for putting the work into the book in order that TXP might grow. Thanks man!
#13 Andy
Way to go, Nathan. I have to confess that I occasionally peek into the back end of Godbit.com’s textpattern setup to learn from ya. I hope to get to read that nice yellow book too.
#14 Nathan Smith
Matthew: Yeah, it’ll definitely be different without Zem, but I think that Textpattern still has a lot to offer, and has a solid future ahead.
Andy: Hey, no problem man. Maybe when you’re logged in next time, you could write up an article or two? Nudge nudge. :)
#15 Nathan Logan
So Cody gave me a signed copy (woohoo!). Now I just need your signature and I can retire after the eBay auction…
#16 kartooner
@Nathan Logan: Not before I retire from my diabolical plan that you’ve stolen, copy cat.
@Nathan Smith: I’m proud of you man. You were just polishing your contribution up in Austin and I felt privileged to get a sneak peak, even if I didn’t understand what I was looking at.
I hope this book outsells all the other books on Textpattern (cough).
In all seriousness, this is just rad and I congratulate all of you for putting out a concise, easy-to-understand manual/go-to guide on such a brilliant CMS.
#17 Nathan Smith
@Nathan Logan – Sure thing man, but it might have to wait ‘til SXSW ’08.
@Kartooner – “All the other books on Textpattern,” nice. Glad you like it.
#18 Mary
Ehehehe, your mom sounds familiar. When I finally get my copy of the book (they forgot me! agh!) I am instructed to then fork it over so she can bring it to work and show everybody and their dog. I just hope she doesn’t start grabbing random people as she walks by.
I wonder about the others’ moms… Hmm, probably best that they all never meet, or who knows the mischief they’d get into. With my mom it would surely involve taking picture after picture to feed her scrapbooking addiction:
#19 Nathan Smith
@Mary – Yeah, that sounds about right. My dad kept telling people that “the butler did it,” as if it was a mystery novel. Funny, considering the fact that in the intro I actually clarified Textpattern Solutions isn’t a mystery novel.