Books on SPIP in English?

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1

Hi

This is my first message to this list, so be gentle :). I'm a web
developer who's just starting out with SPIP, and having kissed a lot
of CMS frogs already I hope this is my princess, and it was
recommended to me by a French colleague. I'm currently running and
testing it on localhost with XAMPP but hope to deploy it live very
soon.

So my first question is:

Are there any books on SPIP in English? A look on Amazon shows plenty
of books in French, and although my French is ok it's not really up to
reading a technical book.

I can't see anything in the English documentation or in the English
forum about books. If there aren't any books, no big, the online Help
is pretty good as is the webmaster's guide, but it's nice to have
something to leaf through offline.

Merci beaucoup :slight_smile:

Fred

2

On 06/08/10 16:58, Fred Riley wrote:

This is my first message to this list, so be gentle :).

We are always gentle here :slight_smile:

Are there any books on SPIP in English?

Not printed books. http://programmer.spip.org/ is a very good book-like site. Mark has done a lot of work on translating the content into French, so it's good like you sound as if you will use it!

Paolo

3

Thanks (grazie? merci?) Paolo - that really is very good work by Mark.
I've done some interpreting and translation in the past and I know
that it's very hard work. The 'book' looks to be very comprehensive.
One slight improvement, which I make as a suggestion, might be to
convert it to a PDF for printing, for us anziani who prefer written
manuals :wink:

Ok, so looking at this work, and the also excellent Webmasters guide
in English (Webmasters - SPIP), it looks like the
simplest way of creating a SPIP site with a custom interface is to
copy all the files from /squelettes-dist/ to /squelettes/ then edit
them, and also copy and edit the spip_style.css stylesheet - is this
correct, or is there something else I need to take into account?

It's an educative experience, as an English native speaker, to use a
system written in another language - it gives me some idea as to what
it must be like for non-English speakers to use systems coded in
English. It's interesting to be in other people's shoes :o)

I also like the fact that SPIP is so lightweight, compared to monsters
like Drupal and Joomla, and looks to have a far shallower learning
curve. I look forward to using it 'in action' on some of my sites.

Cheers

Fred

On 6 August 2010 22:00, Paolo <paolo2@taize.fr> wrote:

On 06/08/10 16:58, Fred Riley wrote:

This is my first message to this list, so be gentle :).

We are always gentle here :slight_smile:

Are there any books on SPIP in English?

Not printed books. http://programmer.spip.org/ is a very good book-like
site. Mark has done a lot of work on translating the content into French, so
it's good like you sound as if you will use it!

Paolo

_______________________________________________
spip-en@rezo.net - http://listes.rezo.net/mailman/listinfo/spip-en

4

On 08/08/10 18:59, Fred Riley wrote:

Thanks (grazie? merci?)

Born in Gloucester.

convert it to a PDF for printing, for us anziani who prefer written
manuals :wink:

The French version is available online as a book (order it to receive a printed copy). I think there are some plans to do the same with the English, but there would not be so much demand, I think.

simplest way of creating a SPIP site with a custom interface is to
copy all the files from /squelettes-dist/ to /squelettes/ then edit
them, and also copy and edit the spip_style.css stylesheet - is this
correct, or is there something else I need to take into account?

That sounds like a very good start.

It's an educative experience, as an English native speaker, to use a
system written in another language

Yes, the next step is a course in French :wink:

> a far shallower learning

curve. I look forward to using it 'in action' on some of my sites.

It's very simple indeed to use « BOUCLES » to produce interesting results from the database and integrate them into HTML.

Cheers

à bientôt !

Paolo

5

All, the english book ( printed ) should be available soon .

-----Original Message-----
From: Paolo <paolo2@taize.fr>
Date: Sun, 08 Aug 2010 21:50:05
To: <spip-en@rezo.net>
Subject: Re: [Spip-en] Books on SPIP in English?

On 08/08/10 18:59, Fred Riley wrote:

Thanks (grazie? merci?)

Born in Gloucester.

convert it to a PDF for printing, for us anziani who prefer written
manuals :wink:

The French version is available online as a book (order it to receive a printed
copy). I think there are some plans to do the same with the English, but there
would not be so much demand, I think.

simplest way of creating a SPIP site with a custom interface is to
copy all the files from /squelettes-dist/ to /squelettes/ then edit
them, and also copy and edit the spip_style.css stylesheet - is this
correct, or is there something else I need to take into account?

That sounds like a very good start.

It's an educative experience, as an English native speaker, to use a
system written in another language

Yes, the next step is a course in French :wink:

> a far shallower learning

curve. I look forward to using it 'in action' on some of my sites.

It's very simple indeed to use « BOUCLES » to produce interesting results from
the database and integrate them into HTML.

Cheers

à bientôt !

Paolo

_______________________________________________
spip-en@rezo.net - http://listes.rezo.net/mailman/listinfo/spip-en

6

Quoting Fred Riley <fred.riley@gmail.com>:

Ok, so looking at this work, and the also excellent Webmasters guide
in English (Webmasters - SPIP), it looks like the
simplest way of creating a SPIP site with a custom interface is to
copy all the files from /squelettes-dist/ to /squelettes/ then edit
them, and also copy and edit the spip_style.css stylesheet - is this
correct, or is there something else I need to take into account?

Hi

I don't think you should modify spip_style.css as it will be overwritten at the next update of the system. if you want to bypass some of spip_style.css classes or properties, you should overwrite them in your customised habillage.css or whatever you call your personal css file.

George

Oh! and there is no need to copy all the files from squelettes-dist, only those you intend to customise.

7

On 9 August 2010 09:41, <george@middleeastwatch.net> wrote:

I don't think you should modify spip_style.css as it will be overwritten at
the next update of the system. if you want to bypass some of spip_style.css
classes or properties, you should overwrite them in your customised
habillage.css or whatever you call your personal css file.

You're quite right, George - that's what I've done, as there was
something about this in the excellent Webmaster's guide.
Congratulations to all those who've written the documentation - it's
nice to come across an Open Source project with such good
documentation, where you don't have to dig into code to find out
what's going on. I'm a great fan of OS, but many products are badly
let down by inadequate documentation - this isn't the case with SPIP.
Nice to see a very wide range of languages as well - this is a far
more popular product than I was aware. I was only told about SPIP by a
French colleague who recommended it - I'd not have even heard of it
otherwise.

Oh! and there is no need to copy all the files from squelettes-dist, only
those you intend to customise.

Good point.

Cheers

Fred

8

"Et hop, le voici, le voilà ."

You could find the english version of the book here :
http://www.lulu.com/product/12192385

There is a coupon code (-15%) "PLAGE305" at this moment, but i'm not sure
it will work on this book. Let me know if you use this coupon.

Enjoy, and a BIG thanks to all of you who translate this book.

Ben.

On Sun, Aug 8, 2010 at 8:04 PM, <ben.spip@gmail.com> wrote:

All, the english book ( printed ) should be available soon .

-----Original Message-----
From: Paolo <paolo2@taize.fr>
Date: Sun, 08 Aug 2010 21:50:05
To: <spip-en@rezo.net>
Subject: Re: [Spip-en] Books on SPIP in English?

On 08/08/10 18:59, Fred Riley wrote:

Thanks (grazie? merci?)

Born in Gloucester.

convert it to a PDF for printing, for us anziani who prefer written
manuals :wink:

The French version is available online as a book (order it to receive a printed
copy). I think there are some plans to do the same with the English, but there
would not be so much demand, I think.

simplest way of creating a SPIP site with a custom interface is to
copy all the files from /squelettes-dist/ to /squelettes/ then edit
them, and also copy and edit the spip_style.css stylesheet - is this
correct, or is there something else I need to take into account?

That sounds like a very good start.

It's an educative experience, as an English native speaker, to use a
system written in another language

Yes, the next step is a course in French :wink:

> a far shallower learning

curve. I look forward to using it 'in action' on some of my sites.

It's very simple indeed to use « BOUCLES » to produce interesting results from
the database and integrate them into HTML.

Cheers

à bientôt !

Paolo

_______________________________________________
spip-en@rezo.net - http://listes.rezo.net/mailman/listinfo/spip-en

9

On 11 August 2010 23:21, Ben. <ben@rezo.net> wrote:

"Et hop, le voici, le voilà ."

You could find the english version of the book here :
http://www.lulu.com/product/12192385

Woo-hoo! Merci beaucoup! I'll certainly get that. Nice to see an
online bookseller that's *not* Amazon.

Enjoy, and a BIG thanks to all of you who translate this book.

D'accord :slight_smile:

Cheers

Fred