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GitBook — Writing made easy
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Raymond Duke
Why is this insanely slow? Basic actions such as copy/paste take 3-5 seconds. I've cleared cookies and that helps temporarily. The problem is that it wants to autosave/sync every second, I think.
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In my previous startup we tried to keep the terms of use on github but it was quite hard, considering that our lawyer would deliver them in Word format...
Writing my first book in GitBook now. Every writer I follow recommends Scrivener, and I appreciate all its features (and will probably give it a try later), but I already have a few systems in place to organize data, and love the minimalism of the GitBook editor. Plus I love Markdown. I'm not a developer, so it's fun to finally be able to play with the GitHub thingies like version control and such. Curious to test it all more once I send the book to an editor! I'm very happy with everything I've seen and used so far.
@matterandrew Cory Doctorow is using git 😄 http://boingboing.net/2009/02/13...
Hi it's Aaron from GitBook here,
I'm travelling today for the holidays, but I'll do my best to answer any questions you guys have !
P.S: You can also reach me by email at aaron@gitbook.com
@yoavanaki Well here's a few things GitBook is currently used for:
* Documentation:
** Public and API docs (e.g: open source projects)
** Internal documentation
** Enterprise documentation
* Books
** Technical dev related books
** More traditional non-fiction books (politics, journalism, guides, etc ...)
* White papers
** Both the french and taiwanese governments use it as part of their open-data efforts
* Research papers
** There's a lot of interest from academics, I think GitBook is much more approachable than Latex for example
There are many others. It's also been used for blogging or as an online public diary, which are odd but interesting use cases. There's many other interesting use cases, one answer is probably too short to cover them all, but we've seen teachers use GitBook with their students to write short novels.
I think there's a lot of value in bringing powerful tools such as content-versioning to other non code related verticals, with tools that are accessible to most, not only devs or tech enthusiasts.
@yoavanaki @aaronomullan We've been using it for DuckDuckGo's open source documentation: http://docs.duckduckhack.com/ This seemed to be the one solution that allowed us to keep our docs hosted in an open repository (so anyone can contribute) that's synced perfectly (for instantaneous changes) while providing features like search, built-in Next/Previous buttons, ability for custom CSS, a good mobile experience, etc.
Also, maybe more opinion than anything but unlike Gelato.io or Readme.io, Gitbook is free-form markdown, but without the initial technical overhead of Github pages or something like Pancake.io
I have doubts about the pricing, making the transition between a free to a paid account.
Isn't it too much having a 5 books limit on the first plan when most people (guessing) writes the first book and only later on, they decide if they want to write other books in the future?
Probably the entry level of paid plan could be the limit of 1 book?
Of course the user will not complain having the 5 books on the first paid level limit but it's only a way to facilitate the up-selling :)
@decision_ cool. I didn't even know you had this. https://www.producthunt.com/@dec...
@andrewwarner @decision_ thanks! yes it's useful to track products I've used/want-to-use or make recommendations to friends
The collaboration aspect is cool, though this seems to be missing a lot of the features that I've come to expect from the various "writing made easy" tools out there right now. Things like Hemingway mode (no backspace), typewriter mode (keeping cursor centered as you carriage return), fullscreen/distraction-free mode, etc.
Also, I feel like 'by default' I want my writing to be private (what I would consider to be a base feature) - being able to share my writing publicly feels like something I should need to pay for. Though I get that's not really the way github operates
At first glance, I think the execution on this product is excellent. Given the pricing model it seems more for product or API documentation. I will definitely keep this in mind. I think keeping your source code and the related (easy-to-read, easy-to edit, versioned and collaborative) documentation in the same repository makes a lot of sense.
What types of content do you think will work best with collaboration?
I think it could spur some really interesting pieces!
This is beautiful. I just started getting into writing and am shifting my blog hosting to Gitbook. Might as well switch from a text editor to Gitbook's editor!
That said, has anyone used this for personal blogging? I'm going to be trying to use it for that use case and would love to hear people's experiences.
Also, any big enterprise collaborations or opportunities?
Thanks for building a great product!!
This is brilliant. Definitely think that version control should move beyond code. I know a company that does this for building plans. It feels like creation tools are years ahead of collaboration tools, so adapting git to support more mediums just makes sense, and I love the execution here on GitBook.
I'm curious about the pricing. Charging a monthly fee makes this a hosting service not a writing service, right? I.e. I write something in March, but I have to pay for it indefinitely?
@afhill I could be wrong but I believe it is also an open source project - so conceivably someone could set up their own gitbook-like site.
@afhill We are only charging private books (accessible only by a specified list of collaborators); privates books are being used as drafts, private documentation, etc.
@lynnfredricks @afhill Yes the format and toolchain is open source (https://github.com/GitbookIO/git... the editor and GitBook.com platform are built on top of it to bring simplicity; but you can self-host your book if you want to (you are not vendor-locked) :)
For me the change tracking (version control) is one of the most interesting aspects. Imagine a law text which have to adopt again and again the society's changing understanding of the regulated topic. Years later everyone can read why everything is like it is today.
@llabball Exactly, for example here is the source of the French civil laws on GitHub: https://github.com/steeve/france... and the output on GitBook: https://www.gitbook.com/book/sam...
I've been looking for a way to get user requirements (#BusinessAnalysis) into a git workflow. This seems interesting!
I used GitBook to collaborate with other authors on my book quite related to the subject, Docs Like Code (https://docslikecode.com). I loved the ebook output but for print I had to use additional tools.
Pros:Lets authors use a development-like workflow
Cons:Some of the plugins were outdated or unmaintained; PDF was not print-ready to my specifications.
Totally love the new version of GitBook. It makes writing my first book so easy and fun. I wish more people will adopt GitBook.
Pros:Great user experience (fast and responsive), feature-full (code snippets, search bar)
Cons:The concept of "spaces" is somewhat confusing.
If you have a project that entails many chapters or is organized in an outline format, this is super-helpful. I love Git Book. Totally underrated software.
Pros:Open Source, easy to use, minimal UI, perfect tool for what it's meant to be used for. Lightweight.
Cons:Hard to think of any. It's under-rated.