I've been using this wiki-to-print extension today, and it's
wonderful! However, I have come up with a few details that I would
like to mention and hopefully have addressed in the future. Is this
list a good place for these points, or should I open bugzilla tickets,
or what?
1) The connection to PediaPress seems unreliable. Clicking "Order Book
from PediaPress" returns an error about as often as it succeeds. I
will try to record more data about this failure mode next time I see
it
2) The books generated by PediaPress look amazing (I've just ordered
my first one, so I will tell you how it looks when it gets here).
However, I would like to be able to adjust the cover image, and
possibly list multiple editors on the cover
3) In the generated PDF files, at the top of the GFDL license, there
is a shortcut link to "WP:GFDL". This shortcut won't work on
en.wikibooks. We either need to localize this to say "WB:GFDL", or we
need to provide a fully-qualified URL to a place where a person can
actually find the GFDL.
4) In addition to the GFDL, I would like to be able to specify
additional boiler-plate preface and appendix text, such as an "About
Wikibooks" page that will be automatically included in all books
(perhaps as checkbox option, if some people don't want it). This way
when/if we start to distribute/sell these books, recipients will know
what the book is, where to find the electronic copy of it, how to edit
and improve it, etc. I'm working on a page now (at
[[Wikibooks:Collections Preface]]) that people can include manually
for now, but having to manually include this page in every collection
we make will be annoying.
5) PDF rendering times, especially for some of the larger books I've
tried (>200 pages) are very slow. Is this an acceptable server load?
6) I've noticed problems with rendering nested list structures, like:
*First
*:Note about the first (this renders wrong)
*Second
*:Note about the second (this also renders wrong).
These are some of the biggest issues I've seen so far, and they're
very small! I look forward to seeing how things progress on the
development of this extension.
--Andrew Whitworth