I think the book has been worked on in 4 formats:

1. On PubSweet in HTML at the book sprint. Input: Original. Output: PDF, HTML(?), epub(?)
2. Jekyll static website in markdown and HTML. Reason: maintain and edit in git(?). Input: manual with some scripting conversion from HTML above(?). Output: HTML.
3. Gitbook in markdown and HTML. Reason: get back PDF and epub outputs(?). Input: manual with some scripting conversion from markdown and HTML above(?). Output: HTML, epub, PDF.
4. LaTeX. Reason: PDF (and thus print) output from Gitbook unsatisfactory, LaTeX beautiful. Input: manual with some scripting (pandoc?) conversion from Gitbook markdown and HTML. Output: PDF.

As of the 2016-05-22 release (3) and (4) will still be used, to output HTML and epub, and PDF, respectively.

I think @clemsos did the vast majority of the conversion work.

Is this an accurate recounting?

Two hypothetical questions:

(a) If we did any work on the book after the birthday release, would it make sense to maintain both Gitbook and LaTeX versions, keeping them in sync manually? Or could the LaTeX version (nicely and easily) be used to output HTML and epub?

(b) If you were starting a similar book project -- a period of intense collaboration, followed by long-term editing and publication, with zero tools predetermined -- what would you do? Start and stick with pubsweet? Start and stick with LaTeX? Something else?

Curious what anyone thinks, but I guess especially @clemsos and @christopheradams. Thanks for reading my 99% idly curious questions.