Python for Informatics: Exploring Information

This is the source code for "Python for Informatics: Exploring Information" the web site for this book is http://www.pythonlearn.com/

LaTeX Files

The source file for the book is book.tex - this file includes the per-chapter files 00-cover.tex through AD-copyright.tex

Workflow

Once you have LaTeX and HeVeA installed properly the workflow is simple. To produce the PDF version of the book you type:

bash book.sh

This leaves the output on book.pdf and if you are on a Mac or Linux, it even attempts to open the PDF viewer for your system.

To produce the HTML version of the book you type:

bash html.sh

This produces files in the html folder. This folder contains the book, chapters in HTML and the images for the book.

To make EPUB or MOBI files I use the Calibre software. The steps that I take in Calibre are here:

Importing HTML into Calibre

I also have a server that builds the latest version from this repository at this URL:

http://do1.dr-chuck.com/py4inf/EN-us/

I don't yet have the files that make up the build server checked in because it is still a bit of a hack. If you want to set up your own build server - I will check the files in.

Software Installation - Macintosh

Running the script to produce the PDF is really easy and convenent on the Mac. Simply install this software:

https://tug.org/mactex/

Make sure to install the extras as well. If you have a recent Mac you cannot make the binary download of hevea work as it is a PowerPC binary. If you want to do the HTML generation, you need a variant of Linux.

Software Installation - Ubuntu

This is the rough set of steps I use on Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install texlive-latex-base
sudo apt-get install texlive-latex-recommended
sudo apt-get install texlive-fonts-recommended 
sudo apt-get install texlive-latex-extra
sudo apt-get install hevea
sudo apt-get install imagemagick

You could put them all on one long apt-get, but I like to see if they work :)

Once this is done, the book.sh and html.sh should both work just fine. For my own sanity, I have Parallels with an Ubuntu image that I can use to generate HTML. It was easier than keeping a four-year-old MacBook running with Rosetta support.

TO DO

I need to document and check in the code to run a build server. The build server is another way for a MacBook user without HeVeA to develop. Edit locally, check the PDF and then check in the changes wait a tick and then the HTML is made in the build server.

I also need to work up documentation as to how to fork this repo for a language translation effort on this book. I have refactored the source to make it easier to edit the book using git and my build server can handle any number of languages. If you are interested in starting a language translation project for this book - please read the Appendix on copyright and contact me.

I have no idea how LaTeX works on Windows. I would be happy to get a PR with some documentation.