Author Topic: PIXINSIGHT BOOK?!  (Read 29996 times)

Offline llpastro

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Re: PIXINSIGHT BOOK?!
« Reply #15 on: 2015 September 19 07:28:31 »
Perhaps a netter word would be "completely" documented.

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Offline Alejandro Tombolini

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Re: PIXINSIGHT BOOK?!
« Reply #16 on: 2015 September 19 10:19:28 »
Congrats for your job Warren, that book will be very helpful!
Saludos, Alejandro.

Offline NGC7789

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Re: PIXINSIGHT BOOK?!
« Reply #17 on: 2015 September 19 10:38:12 »
Thank you gents! One thing I did want to mention, there's a couple of words I disagreed with in the promo and have asked Springer to change.  One is 'poorly' documented. While PI's documentation may not be complete, it is always excellently documented by Juan.

Looks like they've changed "poorly" to "inadequately". I guess that's better :)

Offline Geoff

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Re: PIXINSIGHT BOOK?!
« Reply #18 on: 2015 September 19 20:12:14 »
Thank you gents! One thing I did want to mention, there's a couple of words I disagreed with in the promo and have asked Springer to change.  One is 'poorly' documented. While PI's documentation may not be complete, it is always excellently documented by Juan.

Looks like they've changed "poorly" to "inadequately". I guess that's better :)
Hi Warren.  Perhaps you could push them to "incompletey documented"
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Offline jkmorse

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Re: PIXINSIGHT BOOK?!
« Reply #19 on: 2015 September 21 08:18:41 »
I kinda like "documentation lag"
Really, are clear skies, low wind and no moon that much to ask for? 

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Offline Juan Conejero

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Re: PIXINSIGHT BOOK?!
« Reply #20 on: 2015 September 21 15:34:16 »
"... poorly documented ..."
"... inadequately documented ..."

I've worked professionally in the printing and publishing industry for years, and this is the first time I see a book advertisement criticizing the book's main subject. Innovative!
Juan Conejero
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Offline Philippe B.

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Re: PIXINSIGHT BOOK?!
« Reply #21 on: 2015 September 22 01:08:32 »
I throw my two cents about this topic.

- I am a little reserved about advertising of a "buying" product other than PI team.
Warhen, I'm glad for you if you write a book but the best is to avoid many advertising here. Your book is not finished. OK. Go back when it will be ready and ask PI team if you can do advertising here. 
I have bought your video but as many books on astrophotography software it stays at the 1rst level of the possibilities of the functions. Many of them use standard settings where the most interesting is to go deeper in the choices of theses settings. It is a choice. No problem. But useless for PI users who want to go deeper in the full settings range of every important process.

For example, when doing StarAlignment with special distortion correction on large CCD and very special optics (Riccardi Honders for example), we have spent hours and hours to find the right settings to make a real correction. Some settings are far from the standard ones. New splines distortion image solver script is now a better result for this. We cannot write a book for this. But we are several users in France to use now this method. We will do a special event in November for Hi level PI users of AIP (our association)

I will not buy your book because PI moves constantly and some very usefull process are changing every year.
A good book is not to describe at a time (2015-2016) every process but the way to abord an image for processing. In 2017 or 2018, your book will be useless if you describe all function like your video. But I understand PI users need documentation. If a book can do the job, why not.

A good book on PI should explain the philosophy of PI. From pre-processing to final processing. For example doing a good chapter on all denoising possibilities, when, where, how... and explain the philosophy of denoising.


In my association, AIP, we are doing Pixinsight training. It is free. When I am doing the training I try to explain why I will do this process or this other one. Why this choice. And question are coming.


- Another thing, it is not because you will claim PI documentation is missing, useless or so, the things will be better.  It takes a long time to do a good reference documentation. Juan tries to do the best documentation for each processes. I prefere he uses his time to do new stuff, process, scripts, bug correction for PI than spend his time to do a huge documentation. Every setting in all process have a small information (when mouse over) and it is a good start.
The best in this forum is users can share some settings, even simple, with examples. It is a good starting point. It is how I learned PI, and how I wrote my website (for french users first, as there are many PI website user in english)

So, in respect to the work of PI team (Juan, Carlos...), I ask you to avoid critics on PI documentation. One day it will come and we will not need a book for that !


Regards



Offline Cosmick

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Re: PIXINSIGHT BOOK?!
« Reply #22 on: 2015 September 22 02:23:58 »
this is the first time I see a book advertisement criticizing the book's main subject.

There seems to be some misunderstanding going on here. They are talking about the lack of published books on Pixinsight - not Pixinsight itself.

"PixInsight has been inadequately documented in print--until now."
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Offline Juan Conejero

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Re: PIXINSIGHT BOOK?!
« Reply #23 on: 2015 September 22 03:11:28 »
"inadequately", while undoubtedly better than "poorly" (originally used in the same advertisement), is still pejorative, even along with the "in print" specifier. IMO, Instead of insisting in a negative fact, a much more constructive (and efficient) way to advertise this book could be simply "This book is a thorough documentation for PixInsight", or even "This is the most comprehensive book about PixInsight to date", just to put two easy examples. Just a reflection on common advertising methods, not something really important.
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Offline Cosmick

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Re: PIXINSIGHT BOOK?!
« Reply #24 on: 2015 September 23 04:00:00 »

a much more constructive (and efficient) way to advertise this book could be simply "This book is a thorough documentation for PixInsight", or even "This is the most comprehensive book about PixInsight to date", just to put two easy examples. Just a reflection on common advertising methods, not something really important.

Yes, I agree. Would also have avoided any misunderstandings.
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Offline cdesselles

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Re: PIXINSIGHT BOOK?!
« Reply #25 on: 2015 September 26 19:37:08 »
this is the first time I see a book advertisement criticizing the book's main subject.

There seems to be some misunderstanding going on here. They are talking about the lack of published books on Pixinsight - not Pixinsight itself.

"PixInsight has been inadequately documented in print--until now."

I think this is exactly the point in the advertisement.  We all know that documentation exists within PI itself via mouseovers, etc.  A feature I particularly like as it saves a lot of effort looking up the particular topic in another source.  But a comprehensive resource as is being compiled by Warren also has a lot of value and I find it very desirable, especially if I'm undecided on what tool to use next or for a particular problem.  Something the mouseovers can't do. 

To each task we must use the proper tool: The print documentation for basic processing decisions, the mouseovers for detailed info on specific tasks within the chosen tools.  I think they complement each other very well.  I do plan on purchasing the book when it is available.

(Warren:  Will signed copies be available to some of your good PI buddies here?  hint-hint...  http://pixinsight.com/forum/Smileys/default/grin.gif
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Offline Warhen

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Re: PIXINSIGHT BOOK?!
« Reply #26 on: 2015 November 23 21:51:09 »
Hi everyone, Geez- I'm sorry I missed this thread. I've not checked in for quite some time. Juan, I agree. I got Springer to change the language once, and I'll be sure that it's tweaked again. Your suggestions are more in line with what we want to communicate.

Update: Nora at Springer has put in for a change of language in the book ad on November 24. Sorry that the wording was less than ideal, it should be changed fairly soon.

I'm in the process of illustrating the book now. Twenty-five of thirty-six chapters are complete with screen caps, captions, etc. This might be as hard as the actual writing was! Of course, rewriting is inevitable and continues throughout. My thanks to my technical proofreaders (Milovic, Brecher, Wright, Forman) and to the PTeam.

The manuscript will be delivered to Springer before year-end. I'd imagine Springer could have it ready by the middle of 2016. Thanks for all of your support!

Phillipe, of course PI is very dynamic and will continue to evolve. And, one glance over this forum demonstrates that a book can't be all things to all people, nor can it hope to document neither the depth of PI, nor the countless scenarios people encounter in image processing. Still, there was a call for a book and I took up the challenge, I believe with Juan's blessing. If nothing else, it will be an accurate description of image processing with the convenience of being in one place. It's much more in-depth than the video tutorials were, and I'm working very hard to make it the best it can be.     

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends, and thanks to all!

   
« Last Edit: 2015 November 24 12:42:13 by Warhen »
Best always, Warren

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Offline Geoff

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Re: PIXINSIGHT BOOK?!
« Reply #27 on: 2016 March 08 23:00:26 »
How's the book progress Warren?  Looking forward to getting a copy as soon as it's available.
Geoff
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Offline cdesselles

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Re: PIXINSIGHT BOOK?!
« Reply #28 on: 2016 March 10 04:12:24 »
How's the book progress Warren?  Looking forward to getting a copy as soon as it's available.
Geoff

Me too!  Waiting can be such a drag on one's well being.  But I'd rather wait on a great book than jump into a merely good book just to satisfy my lack of patience.  I'm trusting Warren to deliver the best he is possibly able to achieve.
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Offline Warhen

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Re: PIXINSIGHT BOOK?!
« Reply #29 on: 2016 April 13 06:56:30 »
Hello my friends, Just a quick update on the Inside PixInsight book http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319256801?token=prtst0416p. My editor Nora Rawn at Springer said "...Your book is very clear and thorough—and remarkably typo-free which is always a treat! Your hard work is very clear and the result is a very usable guide that will surely serve as a wonderful resource... Again, thanks for all of your hard work—it’s a tremendous manuscript!" The manuscript is now with Springer's printer, SPI Global in India and I should see a proof in about 7 weeks. Patience, breathe deep...

Many thanks again to Dr. Ron Brecher (main technical reviewer), Carlos Milovic (technical reviewer), Dr. Stu Forman and Richard S. Wright Jr. (proofreaders) for their invaluable help, and to Maestro Juan and all of you for your support!
Best always, Warren

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