出版与作家生涯2015gitbook.com
GitBook：现代出版工具链
GitBook: A modern publishing toolchain
导读
这篇介绍 GitBook 这一现代出版工具链，评论者从自建写作流水线、开源格式、实际使用体验和产品命名等角度展开讨论。对写作者而言，它展示了如何用版本控制、Markdown 和自动化构建把排版琐事交给工具，从而把精力集中在写作本身。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
把排版、构建、错误检查等“无聊的事”自动化，让每次修改到看到成品只需一分钟，把时间留给写作。
- 02
用 Git 等版本控制管理书稿，像管理代码一样管理写作历史、协作修改和发布版本。
- 03
尽量用 Markdown、AsciiDoc 等纯文本格式写作，避免格式锁定，方便转换、长期维护和多端发布。
- 04
面向读者的作品或产品要注意命名与体验，过于技术化的包装可能把普通读者挡在门外。
HN 评论精选
自建自动化工具链能大幅缩短反馈周期，让作者专注写作。
我目前合著一本书，最终自己搭了一套工具链：带实时预览的 AsciiDoc 网页 IDE、检查常见错误的脚本（比如未闭合表格会搞乱后文）、强制内部风格规范的脚本、用 Docker 按出版社样式构建书的 makefile，以及 push 后自动构建并发布 PDF/docx 的配置。投入虽大但完全值得——推送改动约一分钟就能看到更新后的 PDF，非常自由。建议写书的人建立这样的流程或使用 GitBook 这类工具，把无聊的事处理掉，专注写作。
aidanhs查看英文原文
This is pretty interesting. For the book I'm co-authoring at the moment[0] I ended up putting together my own toolchain, including: 1. A dead-simple web IDE for asciidoc with live preview[1] 2. A script for checking for common AsciiDoc mistakes (e.g. an unterminated table will mess up all text following it). 3. A script which enforces the house style. 4. A makefile which runs docker (of course) to build the book with Manning styling. 5. A buildbot configuration on my server to run 2, 3 and 4 above on `git push` and move the generated pdf and docx into a directory served by nginx. Though it may seem like a lot, this investment has been totally worth it - the ability to push a change and be viewing the updated pdf in ~1 minute is very liberating. I can't imagine what it'd be like to not have this kind of thing in place. I can share some more of the above if there's interest. If you're ever thinking of writing a book yourself, I'd highly recommend making the investment into a process like the above (or a tool like GitBook, though I've never tried it and it seems to be more than just a build tool) so you can get the boring stuff out of the way and focus on what you want to be doing - writing. [0] http://docker-in-practice.github.io/ [1] https://github.com/aidanhs/AsciiDocIde
开源格式和工具链可避免锁定，并支持社区扩展。
我是 GitBook 联合创始人 Aaron。我们坚信开源，书籍格式和工具链都是开源的，这让我们能共同打造更好的出版工具，没有厂商锁定，开发者还可以写插件扩展功能。
AaronO查看英文原文
Hi I'm Aaron, one of the GitBook co-founders checking in. You are giving great feedback and I'm more than happy to answer any questions you have. BTW, in case some of you missed it, we're a big believer in open-source, in fact our book format and toolchain is open: https://github.com/GitbookIO/gitbook This allows us to build better publishing tools together, no vendor lock-in and developers can build plugins to extend GitBook's features, here's a few: http://plugins.gitbook.com/.
版本控制和 Markdown 对写作者友好，但数据统计与定制仍有不足。
我用 GitBook 写书，对熟悉 git 的写作者来说很友好。喜欢的点：大部分开源可折腾、版本控制、Markdown 支持、读者邮件列表、捐赠与销售、每周流量邮件、构建快、可申请教育折扣。问题：流量统计按页面加载计数，比 Google Analytics 低 2-3 倍，国家分布也明显不准；落地页定制选项不够。
captn3m0查看英文原文
I'm using gitbook to write a book currently (so I'm biased), but its an excellent platform for writers (especially those familiar with git). My best bits: - Most of the product is open-source, which means I can tinker with their publishing platform. - Version control - Markdown support - Mailing lists for readers (so you can send email updates) - Support for donations and selling (I'm not using it, though) - A traffic email sent every week - Builds are pretty fast - They even offer an educational discount on the pro plans if you ask nicely. A few issues I've faced: - The traffic stats are not realistic. It counts page loads, which are down by a factor of 2-3 as per my google analytics. Also, the country demographics are very clearly wrong (unless there is a readership of my book in Philippines that I don't know of) - Landing page customization. They do have a few options, but I'd like more options If there is someone who has tried both softcover.io (by Michael Hartl) and gitbook, I'd like to hear their thoughts.
过于技术化的命名和体验会限制作品触达更广泛的读者。
这个想法很有意思，有可能发展成真正的出版平台，但名字可能拖后腿。“GitBook”太技术化，这个名字和偏 git 的用户体验可能成为跨越早期采用者的障碍。
bkanber查看英文原文
Really interesting idea. I think this has the potential to grow into a real publishing platform, but also think that their name might hurt them. "GitBook" is very techie, and the name and the git-geared UX might be a hurdle towards moving past early adopters.
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