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Posted to dev@openwhisk.apache.org by Michele Sciabarra <mi...@sciabarra.com> on 2018/09/19 16:32:27 UTC
Asking opinions about "Learning OpenWhisk" a book from O'Reilly I am
writing
Hello all,
I am not sure if it is appropriate to talk of this on the mailing list or not. If not please let me know and I will stop immediately and apologize for this post. I assume for now it is acceptable (because I saw similar discussions on other mailing lists on the Apache Group), so I post this.
As some community members already know, I wrote some chapters (6) of a book on OpenWhisk (so you know what you did when I disappeared for a few months :)), then I was close to release it as open source and I asked what to do of them on the Slack channel. In a sense the book was complete and ready to release.
To my surprise, instead of recommending to release the book as Open Source I was told instead that publishing it with a prestigious editor would have been better.
So I dared to propose the book to the (IMHO) most prestigious technical publisher I know, O'Reilly, and guess what, the book was approved!
The chapters I wrote so far focus on Javascript. However, I was recommended (by Carlos and Rodric) not to talk only of Javascript. There is a lot of stuff on Javascript people are looking for learning about other languages.
So I ended up with a plan to cover also Python and Go.
This is the planned TOC so far. I am asking for opinions on it:
TItle: Learning OpenWhisk
Part1: Introducing Serverless Development in JavaScript
- Serverless and OpenWhisk Architecture
- A Simple Serverless Application in JavaScript
- OpenWhisk CLI and JavaScript API
- Common Patterns in OpenWhisk
- Integration Patterns in OpenWhis
- Testing OpenWhisk Applications
Part 2: Advanced Serverless Development in Python and GoLang
- Using Python in OpenWhisk
- Using Databases in OpenWhisk
- Creating an Alexa Skill in Python
- Using GoLang in OpenWhisk
- Using Message Queues in OpenWhisk
- Creating a Slackbot in GoLang
Appendixes
- Deployment with wskdeploy
- Installing OpenWhisk in Kubernetes
The key concern is if a similar TOC is acceptable and making the best compromise, or the book could be too wide (and hard to read) for the potential audience.
In my opinion, it should be a good compromise between completeness without requiring too many skills. But here I am open to hearing other opinions. For example, I thought to stick only to javascript but then I would lose more advanced aspects that can be of interests to many developers.
Note I can share freely drafts or chapters of the book with members of the community is interested. Contact me privately. But keep in mind the publisher give me only 10 free copies so I cannot promise too many printed free copies :) :) :)
PS: the Animal! You know each O'Reilly book has an animal in the cover. After a lot of thinking, I proposed an animal not yet used but I think it fits a lot OpenWhisk: the Pagurus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagurus). Do you like the idea?
--
Michele Sciabarra
michele@sciabarra.com
Re: Asking opinions about "Learning OpenWhisk" a book from O'Reilly I
am writing
Posted by Carlos Santana <cs...@gmail.com>.
Congrats Michelle !!
TOC looks good, you have the architecture and building an app cover, and in
3 languages that's more than good IMO
One important info I would not leave out is WebActions what they and how to
deal with them.
I see many users having trouble finding good examples on building a
REST/WEB API, on how to parse headers, query parameters, path parameters,
content-types (binary, images, text, json) how to build the the http
response and errors. Also how to implement simple oAUTH single sign-on flow.
So maybe a simple web api with social login might be a good example.
-- Carlos
On Tue, Sep 25, 2018 at 7:22 AM David Breitgand <DA...@il.ibm.com> wrote:
> Hi Michele,
>
> Congratulations on the O'Reilly book proposal acceptance!
> I also suggest including wskadmin in the Appendixes.
>
> Another suggestion for the Appendixes is Lean OpenWhisk:
> https://github.com/apache/incubator-openwhisk/pull/3886
> I believe it will be merged by the time you write the book.
>
> Thank you.
>
> -- david
> ==============================================================
> David Breitgand, Ph. D.
> IBM Research -- Haifa, Israel
> Tel: +972-4-829-1007 <+972%204-829-1007> | Mobile: +972 54 7277-881
> "Ambition is the path to success, persistence is the vehicle you arrive
> in", William Eardley IV
> ==============================================================
>
>
>
>
> From: Michael Marth <mm...@adobe.com.INVALID>
> To: "dev@openwhisk.apache.org" <de...@openwhisk.apache.org>
> Date: 25/09/2018 02:05 PM
> Subject: Re: Asking opinions about "Learning OpenWhisk" a book
> from O'Reilly I am writing
>
>
>
> Hi Michele,
>
> Congratulations for getting an O'Reilly contract. That's awesome!
> Also, this list is totally the right place for this topic (IMO).
>
> I have a little comment about the TOC: the way I read it your intended
> audience are OW users (action developers), not developers of OW itself. Is
> that right? However, even for the former group it is often helpful to know
> how their action code actually gets executed. So maybe a chapter about the
> internal architecture of OW would be helpful.
>
> My2c
> Michael
>
>
> On 19.09.18, 18:32, "Michele Sciabarra" <mi...@sciabarra.com> wrote:
>
> Hello all,
>
> I am not sure if it is appropriate to talk of this on the mailing list
> or not. If not please let me know and I will stop immediately and
> apologize for this post. I assume for now it is acceptable (because I saw
> similar discussions on other mailing lists on the Apache Group), so I post
> this.
>
> As some community members already know, I wrote some chapters (6) of
> a book on OpenWhisk (so you know what you did when I disappeared for a few
> months :)), then I was close to release it as open source and I asked what
> to do of them on the Slack channel. In a sense the book was complete and
> ready to release.
>
> To my surprise, instead of recommending to release the book as Open
> Source I was told instead that publishing it with a prestigious editor
> would have been better.
>
> So I dared to propose the book to the (IMHO) most prestigious
> technical publisher I know, O'Reilly, and guess what, the book was
> approved!
>
> The chapters I wrote so far focus on Javascript. However, I was
> recommended (by Carlos and Rodric) not to talk only of Javascript. There
> is a lot of stuff on Javascript people are looking for learning about
> other languages.
>
> So I ended up with a plan to cover also Python and Go.
> This is the planned TOC so far. I am asking for opinions on it:
>
> TItle: Learning OpenWhisk
>
> Part1: Introducing Serverless Development in JavaScript
>
> - Serverless and OpenWhisk Architecture
> - A Simple Serverless Application in JavaScript
> - OpenWhisk CLI and JavaScript API
> - Common Patterns in OpenWhisk
> - Integration Patterns in OpenWhis
> - Testing OpenWhisk Applications
>
> Part 2: Advanced Serverless Development in Python and GoLang
>
> - Using Python in OpenWhisk
> - Using Databases in OpenWhisk
> - Creating an Alexa Skill in Python
> - Using GoLang in OpenWhisk
> - Using Message Queues in OpenWhisk
> - Creating a Slackbot in GoLang
>
> Appendixes
> - Deployment with wskdeploy
> - Installing OpenWhisk in Kubernetes
>
> The key concern is if a similar TOC is acceptable and making the best
> compromise, or the book could be too wide (and hard to read) for the
> potential audience.
>
> In my opinion, it should be a good compromise between completeness
> without requiring too many skills. But here I am open to hearing other
> opinions. For example, I thought to stick only to javascript but then I
> would lose more advanced aspects that can be of interests to many
> developers.
>
> Note I can share freely drafts or chapters of the book with members of
> the community is interested. Contact me privately. But keep in mind the
> publisher give me only 10 free copies so I cannot promise too many printed
> free copies :) :) :)
>
>
> PS: the Animal! You know each O'Reilly book has an animal in the
> cover. After a lot of thinking, I proposed an animal not yet used but I
> think it fits a lot OpenWhisk: the Pagurus (
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagurus
> ). Do you like the idea?
>
> --
> Michele Sciabarra
> michele@sciabarra.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Re: Asking opinions about "Learning OpenWhisk" a book from O'Reilly I am
writing
Posted by David Breitgand <DA...@il.ibm.com>.
Hi Michele,
Congratulations on the O'Reilly book proposal acceptance!
I also suggest including wskadmin in the Appendixes.
Another suggestion for the Appendixes is Lean OpenWhisk:
https://github.com/apache/incubator-openwhisk/pull/3886
I believe it will be merged by the time you write the book.
Thank you.
-- david
==============================================================
David Breitgand, Ph. D.
IBM Research -- Haifa, Israel
Tel: +972-4-829-1007 | Mobile: +972 54 7277-881
"Ambition is the path to success, persistence is the vehicle you arrive
in", William Eardley IV
==============================================================
From: Michael Marth <mm...@adobe.com.INVALID>
To: "dev@openwhisk.apache.org" <de...@openwhisk.apache.org>
Date: 25/09/2018 02:05 PM
Subject: Re: Asking opinions about "Learning OpenWhisk" a book
from O'Reilly I am writing
Hi Michele,
Congratulations for getting an O'Reilly contract. That's awesome!
Also, this list is totally the right place for this topic (IMO).
I have a little comment about the TOC: the way I read it your intended
audience are OW users (action developers), not developers of OW itself. Is
that right? However, even for the former group it is often helpful to know
how their action code actually gets executed. So maybe a chapter about the
internal architecture of OW would be helpful.
My2c
Michael
On 19.09.18, 18:32, "Michele Sciabarra" <mi...@sciabarra.com> wrote:
Hello all,
I am not sure if it is appropriate to talk of this on the mailing list
or not. If not please let me know and I will stop immediately and
apologize for this post. I assume for now it is acceptable (because I saw
similar discussions on other mailing lists on the Apache Group), so I post
this.
As some community members already know, I wrote some chapters (6) of
a book on OpenWhisk (so you know what you did when I disappeared for a few
months :)), then I was close to release it as open source and I asked what
to do of them on the Slack channel. In a sense the book was complete and
ready to release.
To my surprise, instead of recommending to release the book as Open
Source I was told instead that publishing it with a prestigious editor
would have been better.
So I dared to propose the book to the (IMHO) most prestigious
technical publisher I know, O'Reilly, and guess what, the book was
approved!
The chapters I wrote so far focus on Javascript. However, I was
recommended (by Carlos and Rodric) not to talk only of Javascript. There
is a lot of stuff on Javascript people are looking for learning about
other languages.
So I ended up with a plan to cover also Python and Go.
This is the planned TOC so far. I am asking for opinions on it:
TItle: Learning OpenWhisk
Part1: Introducing Serverless Development in JavaScript
- Serverless and OpenWhisk Architecture
- A Simple Serverless Application in JavaScript
- OpenWhisk CLI and JavaScript API
- Common Patterns in OpenWhisk
- Integration Patterns in OpenWhis
- Testing OpenWhisk Applications
Part 2: Advanced Serverless Development in Python and GoLang
- Using Python in OpenWhisk
- Using Databases in OpenWhisk
- Creating an Alexa Skill in Python
- Using GoLang in OpenWhisk
- Using Message Queues in OpenWhisk
- Creating a Slackbot in GoLang
Appendixes
- Deployment with wskdeploy
- Installing OpenWhisk in Kubernetes
The key concern is if a similar TOC is acceptable and making the best
compromise, or the book could be too wide (and hard to read) for the
potential audience.
In my opinion, it should be a good compromise between completeness
without requiring too many skills. But here I am open to hearing other
opinions. For example, I thought to stick only to javascript but then I
would lose more advanced aspects that can be of interests to many
developers.
Note I can share freely drafts or chapters of the book with members of
the community is interested. Contact me privately. But keep in mind the
publisher give me only 10 free copies so I cannot promise too many printed
free copies :) :) :)
PS: the Animal! You know each O'Reilly book has an animal in the
cover. After a lot of thinking, I proposed an animal not yet used but I
think it fits a lot OpenWhisk: the Pagurus (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagurus
). Do you like the idea?
--
Michele Sciabarra
michele@sciabarra.com
Re: Asking opinions about "Learning OpenWhisk" a book from O'Reilly
I am writing
Posted by Michael Marth <mm...@adobe.com.INVALID>.
Hi Michele,
Congratulations for getting an O'Reilly contract. That's awesome!
Also, this list is totally the right place for this topic (IMO).
I have a little comment about the TOC: the way I read it your intended audience are OW users (action developers), not developers of OW itself. Is that right? However, even for the former group it is often helpful to know how their action code actually gets executed. So maybe a chapter about the internal architecture of OW would be helpful.
My2c
Michael
On 19.09.18, 18:32, "Michele Sciabarra" <mi...@sciabarra.com> wrote:
Hello all,
I am not sure if it is appropriate to talk of this on the mailing list or not. If not please let me know and I will stop immediately and apologize for this post. I assume for now it is acceptable (because I saw similar discussions on other mailing lists on the Apache Group), so I post this.
As some community members already know, I wrote some chapters (6) of a book on OpenWhisk (so you know what you did when I disappeared for a few months :)), then I was close to release it as open source and I asked what to do of them on the Slack channel. In a sense the book was complete and ready to release.
To my surprise, instead of recommending to release the book as Open Source I was told instead that publishing it with a prestigious editor would have been better.
So I dared to propose the book to the (IMHO) most prestigious technical publisher I know, O'Reilly, and guess what, the book was approved!
The chapters I wrote so far focus on Javascript. However, I was recommended (by Carlos and Rodric) not to talk only of Javascript. There is a lot of stuff on Javascript people are looking for learning about other languages.
So I ended up with a plan to cover also Python and Go.
This is the planned TOC so far. I am asking for opinions on it:
TItle: Learning OpenWhisk
Part1: Introducing Serverless Development in JavaScript
- Serverless and OpenWhisk Architecture
- A Simple Serverless Application in JavaScript
- OpenWhisk CLI and JavaScript API
- Common Patterns in OpenWhisk
- Integration Patterns in OpenWhis
- Testing OpenWhisk Applications
Part 2: Advanced Serverless Development in Python and GoLang
- Using Python in OpenWhisk
- Using Databases in OpenWhisk
- Creating an Alexa Skill in Python
- Using GoLang in OpenWhisk
- Using Message Queues in OpenWhisk
- Creating a Slackbot in GoLang
Appendixes
- Deployment with wskdeploy
- Installing OpenWhisk in Kubernetes
The key concern is if a similar TOC is acceptable and making the best compromise, or the book could be too wide (and hard to read) for the potential audience.
In my opinion, it should be a good compromise between completeness without requiring too many skills. But here I am open to hearing other opinions. For example, I thought to stick only to javascript but then I would lose more advanced aspects that can be of interests to many developers.
Note I can share freely drafts or chapters of the book with members of the community is interested. Contact me privately. But keep in mind the publisher give me only 10 free copies so I cannot promise too many printed free copies :) :) :)
PS: the Animal! You know each O'Reilly book has an animal in the cover. After a lot of thinking, I proposed an animal not yet used but I think it fits a lot OpenWhisk: the Pagurus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagurus). Do you like the idea?
--
Michele Sciabarra
michele@sciabarra.com
Re: Asking opinions about "Learning OpenWhisk" a book from O'Reilly I am
writing
Posted by Michele Sciabarra <mi...@sciabarra.com>.
Looking for a complete working example?
Here you go! The code of chapter 2, that is already open and free:
https://github.com/learning-openwhisk/chapter2-contact
PS sorry if I am abusing the list, but I think this is free sample code of OpenwWisk useful for everyone.
--
Michele Sciabarra
michele@sciabarra.com
----- Original message -----
From: Randy Jenkins <rj...@gmail.com>
To: dev@openwhisk.apache.org
Subject: Re: Asking opinions about "Learning OpenWhisk" a book from O'Reilly I am writing
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2018 13:44:48 -0400
Hi Michele,
I am someone who has been following this project closely --- but from a
distance. If the opinion of a future user of OpenWhisk is helpful, here is
mine.
The TOC looks great. Looks like all of the basics should be covered in
those sections.
The one thing I would recommend is to provide at least one complete working
sample. For me, if I can get something up and running quickly and easily I
am more likely to dig in. I am a developer so learning new things is
common, a working example, even if very simple goes a long way for me.
If you need feedback from a potential implementer, I would be happy to
provide feedback in any capacity.
Best wishes and luck to you.
Randy Jenkins
On Wed, Sep 19, 2018 at 12:32 PM Michele Sciabarra <mi...@sciabarra.com>
wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I am not sure if it is appropriate to talk of this on the mailing list or
> not. If not please let me know and I will stop immediately and apologize
> for this post. I assume for now it is acceptable (because I saw similar
> discussions on other mailing lists on the Apache Group), so I post this.
>
> As some community members already know, I wrote some chapters (6) of a
> book on OpenWhisk (so you know what you did when I disappeared for a few
> months :)), then I was close to release it as open source and I asked what
> to do of them on the Slack channel. In a sense the book was complete and
> ready to release.
>
> To my surprise, instead of recommending to release the book as Open Source
> I was told instead that publishing it with a prestigious editor would have
> been better.
>
> So I dared to propose the book to the (IMHO) most prestigious technical
> publisher I know, O'Reilly, and guess what, the book was approved!
>
> The chapters I wrote so far focus on Javascript. However, I was
> recommended (by Carlos and Rodric) not to talk only of Javascript. There is
> a lot of stuff on Javascript people are looking for learning about other
> languages.
>
> So I ended up with a plan to cover also Python and Go.
> This is the planned TOC so far. I am asking for opinions on it:
>
> TItle: Learning OpenWhisk
>
> Part1: Introducing Serverless Development in JavaScript
>
> - Serverless and OpenWhisk Architecture
> - A Simple Serverless Application in JavaScript
> - OpenWhisk CLI and JavaScript API
> - Common Patterns in OpenWhisk
> - Integration Patterns in OpenWhis
> - Testing OpenWhisk Applications
>
> Part 2: Advanced Serverless Development in Python and GoLang
>
> - Using Python in OpenWhisk
> - Using Databases in OpenWhisk
> - Creating an Alexa Skill in Python
> - Using GoLang in OpenWhisk
> - Using Message Queues in OpenWhisk
> - Creating a Slackbot in GoLang
>
> Appendixes
> - Deployment with wskdeploy
> - Installing OpenWhisk in Kubernetes
>
> The key concern is if a similar TOC is acceptable and making the best
> compromise, or the book could be too wide (and hard to read) for the
> potential audience.
>
> In my opinion, it should be a good compromise between completeness without
> requiring too many skills. But here I am open to hearing other opinions.
> For example, I thought to stick only to javascript but then I would lose
> more advanced aspects that can be of interests to many developers.
>
> Note I can share freely drafts or chapters of the book with members of the
> community is interested. Contact me privately. But keep in mind the
> publisher give me only 10 free copies so I cannot promise too many printed
> free copies :) :) :)
>
>
> PS: the Animal! You know each O'Reilly book has an animal in the cover.
> After a lot of thinking, I proposed an animal not yet used but I think it
> fits a lot OpenWhisk: the Pagurus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagurus).
> Do you like the idea?
>
> --
> Michele Sciabarra
> michele@sciabarra.com
>
Re: Asking opinions about "Learning OpenWhisk" a book from O'Reilly I
am writing
Posted by Randy Jenkins <rj...@gmail.com>.
Hi Michele,
I am someone who has been following this project closely --- but from a
distance. If the opinion of a future user of OpenWhisk is helpful, here is
mine.
The TOC looks great. Looks like all of the basics should be covered in
those sections.
The one thing I would recommend is to provide at least one complete working
sample. For me, if I can get something up and running quickly and easily I
am more likely to dig in. I am a developer so learning new things is
common, a working example, even if very simple goes a long way for me.
If you need feedback from a potential implementer, I would be happy to
provide feedback in any capacity.
Best wishes and luck to you.
Randy Jenkins
On Wed, Sep 19, 2018 at 12:32 PM Michele Sciabarra <mi...@sciabarra.com>
wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I am not sure if it is appropriate to talk of this on the mailing list or
> not. If not please let me know and I will stop immediately and apologize
> for this post. I assume for now it is acceptable (because I saw similar
> discussions on other mailing lists on the Apache Group), so I post this.
>
> As some community members already know, I wrote some chapters (6) of a
> book on OpenWhisk (so you know what you did when I disappeared for a few
> months :)), then I was close to release it as open source and I asked what
> to do of them on the Slack channel. In a sense the book was complete and
> ready to release.
>
> To my surprise, instead of recommending to release the book as Open Source
> I was told instead that publishing it with a prestigious editor would have
> been better.
>
> So I dared to propose the book to the (IMHO) most prestigious technical
> publisher I know, O'Reilly, and guess what, the book was approved!
>
> The chapters I wrote so far focus on Javascript. However, I was
> recommended (by Carlos and Rodric) not to talk only of Javascript. There is
> a lot of stuff on Javascript people are looking for learning about other
> languages.
>
> So I ended up with a plan to cover also Python and Go.
> This is the planned TOC so far. I am asking for opinions on it:
>
> TItle: Learning OpenWhisk
>
> Part1: Introducing Serverless Development in JavaScript
>
> - Serverless and OpenWhisk Architecture
> - A Simple Serverless Application in JavaScript
> - OpenWhisk CLI and JavaScript API
> - Common Patterns in OpenWhisk
> - Integration Patterns in OpenWhis
> - Testing OpenWhisk Applications
>
> Part 2: Advanced Serverless Development in Python and GoLang
>
> - Using Python in OpenWhisk
> - Using Databases in OpenWhisk
> - Creating an Alexa Skill in Python
> - Using GoLang in OpenWhisk
> - Using Message Queues in OpenWhisk
> - Creating a Slackbot in GoLang
>
> Appendixes
> - Deployment with wskdeploy
> - Installing OpenWhisk in Kubernetes
>
> The key concern is if a similar TOC is acceptable and making the best
> compromise, or the book could be too wide (and hard to read) for the
> potential audience.
>
> In my opinion, it should be a good compromise between completeness without
> requiring too many skills. But here I am open to hearing other opinions.
> For example, I thought to stick only to javascript but then I would lose
> more advanced aspects that can be of interests to many developers.
>
> Note I can share freely drafts or chapters of the book with members of the
> community is interested. Contact me privately. But keep in mind the
> publisher give me only 10 free copies so I cannot promise too many printed
> free copies :) :) :)
>
>
> PS: the Animal! You know each O'Reilly book has an animal in the cover.
> After a lot of thinking, I proposed an animal not yet used but I think it
> fits a lot OpenWhisk: the Pagurus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagurus).
> Do you like the idea?
>
> --
> Michele Sciabarra
> michele@sciabarra.com
>