Hi, I just looked at a bunch of random parts of this and think it's great! You guys are just being too humble :-).
One request: can you syntax highlight the big blocks of input code? I might have some helpful tex code for that (using lstlistings) if you want, which we use for SMC printing of sage worksheets. Is this book the sort of thing that could legally also get converted to worksheets and made available inside SMC (or on a static website with sage cell server)? Rob Beezer just got a grant related to doing more of that sort of thing. It could also help immensely in expanding the range of people who can easily use Sage. Is your main goal with a traditional publisher really **PEER REVIEW**? Because what happens is they will take 82% of all revenue, then they will get somebody like me (or someone else likely reading this) to actually do 100% of the peer review **for free**. It's just like with journal publication. The only thing the traditional publisher actually does that has value is marketing (usually not much) and copyediting -- usually not very well, and even then, you could pay somebody to do it for not so much. All I'm saying is there might be a better route to peer review, in which you don't have to give up so much, and the value is greater. Who knows, your book -- made **extremely available and accessible ** -- might be just what is needed for Sage to start growing in usage again (which it hasn't done for years). - William On Sat, Oct 8, 2016 at 9:29 PM, john_perry_usm <john.pe...@usm.edu> wrote: > Dear Sage-edu readers > > My institution offers a special course for math and math licensure majors > which relies on a computer algebra system. Some years ago, we decided to > switch from a proprietary system to Sage, and we haven't regretted it, > except for one thing: we couldn't really find a textbook that quite met our > curious mix of needs. So, we resolved to write our own, and the selfsame > institution supported us with a summer grant. > > It took a while, and we attach the result both for your silent entertainment > (e.g., "It took them this long to write THIS?!?") and for your constructive > input, if you wish. We are interested in any relevant input (not e.g., "It > took them this long to write THIS?!?" but, for instance, everything from the > title & the license to the very goals, organization, and structure, to say > nothing of unjustifiable outright mendacity -- you might have to read a > little bit to see what we mean by that). > > We will use this in our Spring edition of the course (no humane treatment > board approval required, amazingly) but the electronic text will be > available at no charge, and with our current publishing arrangement > (non-peer-reviewed, on demand publisher) we can submit revisions at any time > & know that future printings will incorporate the changes. Eventually we may > seek a more traditional publishing arrangement, if only for a formal peer > review, but regardless we first would like input on the text itself from > smart people who are interested in using Sage for education -- as that, > perhaps, is the best sort of peer review we could use. > > If nothing else, we hope it conveys our respect for the Sage community. > > regards > john perry > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "sage-edu" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to sage-edu+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to sage-edu@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/sage-edu. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- William (http://wstein.org) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-edu" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sage-edu+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to sage-edu@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/sage-edu. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
