Re: manuals

> I've given some thought to this.  There's an online print-on-demand
> company called lulu.

i've looked at print on demand from time to time, because it's the obvious
way to do it cheaply (the book quality suffers but when it collapses, buy another),
and it reduces shipping costs and time considerably.  (shipping cost is still
moderately high -- the current books are over 2.5kg, but it would be better.)
i looked at lulu last month (i think it was) and i thought i spotted a difficulty, but perhaps i was simply
confused about something.  i'll look at it again and chat to you about it.

i didn't answer the question about the third edition manuals
because i'm not a good person to say how useful they are for the current system.
for other systems i've found printed manuals (even out of date) to be useful in
getting an overview of the whole before starting in to use it.  (i wish more of the ajax/web2
stuff had decent books. actually, i wish they had language specifications. but i digress.)
once i've got started the books become more of a souvenir.

because roger beat me up XXXXXXX errr ... nudged me about it again, i have just started a big upheaval on
the master copy of the software in the office, to rearrange the authentication system.
even printed `on demand' it probably won't be worthwhile doing a new set right away
until the software has settled.  (The changes don't actually make a big difference to the environment
as a whole, but various modules and command line options have changed significantly.)
even so, it's worthwhile seeing what will need to be done when it's sensible to try a print run.