Scripting Languages

Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide, Second Edition

Average customer rating:

You must have one
The weight is equal to the knowledge within
Has faults, but best I've seen so far
All the information you need
a good ruby book

Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide, Second Edition
Dave Thomas , Chad Fowler , and Andy Hunt
Manufacturer: Pragmatic Bookshelf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Agile Web Development with Rails (Pragmatic Programmers)
Rails Recipes (Pragmatic Programmers)
Ruby Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly))
Ruby for Rails: Ruby Techniques for Rails Developers
Ajax in Action

Accessories:

Ship it! A Practical Guide to Successful Software Projects
Agile Web Development with Rails: A Pragmatic Guide (Pragmatic Programmers)

ASIN: 0974514055

Book Description

Ruby is an increasingly popular, fully object-oriented dynamic programming language, hailed by many practitioners as the finest and most useful language available today. When Ruby first burst onto the scene in the Western world, the Pragmatic Programmers were there with the definitive reference manual, Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide.

Now in its second edition, author Dave Thomas has expanded the famous Pickaxe book with over 200 pages of new content, covering all the improved language features of Ruby 1.8 and standard library modules. The Pickaxe contains four major sections: <ul>

An acclaimed tutorial on using Ruby. </li>

The definitive reference to the language. </li>

Complete documentation on all built-in classes, modules, and methods </li>

Complete descriptions of all 98 standard libraries.</li></ul>

If you enjoyed the First Edition, you'll appreciate the expanded content, including enhanced coverage of installation, packaging, documenting Ruby source code, threading and synchronization, and enhancing Ruby's capabilities using C-language extensions. Programming for the World Wide Web is easy in Ruby, with new chapters on XML/RPC, SOAP, distributed Ruby, templating systems, and other web services. There's even a new chapter on unit testing.

This is the definitive reference manual for Ruby, including a description of all the standard library modules, a complete reference to all built-in classes and modules (including more than 250 significant changes since the First Edition). Coverage of other features has grown tremendously, including details on how to harness the sophisticated capabilities of irb, so you can dynamically examine and experiment with your running code. "Ruby is a wonderfully powerful and useful language, and whenever I'm working with it this book is at my side" --Martin Fowler, Chief Scientist, ThoughtWorks

Customer Reviews:

You must have one.......2007-06-21

Dave Thomas is surely one of the best writers I've ever seen. He doesn't treat you like an idiot, so it's perfect for experienced programmers to learn very fast many aspects of the Ruby language.

The weight is equal to the knowledge within.......2007-05-22

Fantastic book. Very well laid out and informative. For a ruby/programming newbie, check out why the lucky stiff's "poignant guide to ruby" as well and you'll have all the tools you need.

Has faults, but best I've seen so far.......2007-05-21

I taught myself to program in Ruby using this book. I was already experienced in Fortran and IDL, but Ruby is my first object-oriented language. Although the book can be confusing, and is not written at a beginner level, I was able to get what I needed from it, and still enjoy cruising through the book to learn more about Ruby. I keep it on my nightstand, but hey...I'm a geek.

If you are new to object-oriented programming I would first recommend reading "The Object Oriented Thought Process" by Matt Weisfeld before actually learning Ruby.

All the information you need.......2007-04-11

A Great way to learn ruby and a great reference guide once you have - contains all the information I needed to learn ruby, clearly set out in a chapter progression that facilitates moe advanced learning as you go along.

a good ruby book.......2007-03-11

An interesting book if you want to learn about ruby. It's very useful

Average customer rating:

Excellent reference
Definitely Definitive But...
Must-have resource for the serious web developer
Good, but too informal
Definitive Guide

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide
David Flanagan
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook
Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference (Dynamic Html)
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ASIN: 0596101996

Amazon.com

Provides a rapid and thorough exposition of the JavaScript programming language, as well as an in-depth reference section covering each JavaScript function, object, method, and even handler. Experienced programmers will quickly find the information they need to start writing JavaScript programs.

Book Description

This Fifth Edition is completely revised and expanded to cover JavaScript as it is used in today's Web 2.0 applications. This book is both an example-driven programmer's guide and a keep-on-your-desk reference, with new chapters that explain everything you need to know to get the most out of JavaScript, including: <ul>

Scripted HTTP and Ajax</li>

XML processing</li>

Client-side graphics using the canvas tag</li>

Namespaces in JavaScript--essential when writing complex programs</li>

Classes, closures, persistence, Flash, and JavaScript embedded in Java applications</li> </ul>

Part I explains the core JavaScript language in detail. If you are new to JavaScript, it will teach you the language. If you are already a JavaScript programmer, Part I will sharpen your skills and deepen your understanding of the language.

Part II explains the scripting environment provided by web browsers, with a focus on DOM scripting with unobtrusive JavaScript. The broad and deep coverage of client-side JavaScript is illustrated with many sophisticated examples that demonstrate how to: <ul>

Generate a table of contents for an HTML document</li>

Display DHTML animations</li>

Automate form validation</li>

Draw dynamic pie charts</li>

Make HTML elements draggable</li>

Define keyboard shortcuts for web applications</li>

Create Ajax-enabled tool tips</li>

Use XPath and XSLT on XML documents loaded with Ajax</li>

And much more</li> </ul>

Part III is a complete reference for core JavaScript. It documents every class, object, constructor, method, function, property, and constant defined by JavaScript 1.5 and ECMAScript Version 3.

Part IV is a reference for client-side JavaScript, covering legacy web browser APIs, the standard Level 2 DOM API, and emerging standards such as the XMLHttpRequest object and the canvas tag.

More than 300,000 JavaScript programmers around the world have made this their indispensable reference book for building JavaScript applications.

"A must-have reference for expert JavaScript programmers...well-organized and detailed."
-- Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript

Customer Reviews:

Excellent reference.......2007-05-25

This book is an absolutely excellent reference for what Douglas Crockford rightfully calls "the world's most misunderstood language". It contains useful examples with plenty of source, in-depth and accessible explanations, and great coverage of Javascript's core features.

Unless you are developing a javascript framework like ExtJS, YUI, JQuery, or something equally complex, it seems most likely that you will be using this book as a reference. There is no better reference that I've seen, so you can't go wrong there.

If you are in fact writing a framework like one of the ones mentioned above, this book is an indispensable resource. It contains excellent examples of how to write an extensible object-oriented framework that is not only powerful, but easily extended and maintained.

If you are just looking for a quick introduction to the javascript language, this may not be the book for you. If your current job position requires an in-depth knowledge of javascript, you cannot go wrong buying this book.

Definitely Definitive But..........2007-05-18

The information in the book is absolutely solid, but WOW is the information mundanefully unappealing. There was ZERO thought into keeping the reader interested with content layout, bordering, graphic design, illustration, examples, etc. It is a good resource to have handy. I hate to be the superficial simpleton in the bunch but I'm rather BIG on ascetically appealing text... (it helps with my acute A.D.D. ... j/k ;) this is not that. It's like reading the paper version (vs. online version) of the wall street journal... dampened by the rain and chewed up by the neighbors chihuahua. For those like me try, 1. "JavaScript in easy steps" 2."JavaScript for the world wide web" and 3."Pro JavaScript Techniques"... in that order.

Must-have resource for the serious web developer.......2007-04-11

Comprehensive reference, not overly technical yet not wanting for detail. I've checked out numerous books from numerous local libraries and even bought some only to sell or give them away after a few weeks. After studying this book i can say this is a resource i will wear out.

Good, but too informal.......2007-04-10

A good overview of JavaScript and an in depth coverage of libraries, 'native functions' etc. Some descriptions are not as formal as I expected, the exact semantics of the language is left to interpretation. For the compiler writers out there, go to the ECMA specification directly!

Definitive Guide.......2007-04-09

Worthy of its title, this book is very well organized and covers everything you need to know about JavaScript and it does so concisely.

This fifth edition is up-to-date enough to stand very useful for quite some time to come - a wealth of interrelated information all in one place.

This book is a must-have reference for any web developer interested in adding interactivity to their web content.

Average customer rating:

Great for experienced programmers
"Learning Python" is right
A more appropriate title would have been "Learning to program using Python"
Not for beginners...
fast shipping

Learning Python, Second Edition
Mark Lutz , and David Ascher
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Programming Python
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ASIN: 0596002815

Amazon.com

The authors of Learning Python show you enough essentials of the Python scripting language to enable you to begin solving problems right away, then reveal more powerful aspects of the language one at a time. This approach is sure to appeal to programmers and system administrators who have urgent problems and a preference for learning by semi-guided experimentation.

First off, Learning Python shows the relationships among Python scripts and their interpreter (in a mostly platform-neutral way). Then, the authors address the mechanics of the language itself, providing illustrations of how Python conceives of numbers, strings, and other objects as well as the operators you use to work with them. Dictionaries, lists, tuples, and other data structures specific to Python receive plenty of attention including complete examples.

Authors Mark Lutz and David Ascher build on that fundamental information in their discussions of functions and modules, which evolve into coverage of namespaces, classes, and the object-oriented aspects of Python programming. There's also information on creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for Python applications with Tkinter.

In addition to its careful expository prose, Learning Python includes exercises that both test your Python skills and help reveal more elusive truths about the language.

Book Description

Portable, powerful, and a breeze to use, Python is the popular open source object-oriented programming language used for both standalone programs and scripting applications. Python is considered easy to learn, but there's no quicker way to mastery of the language than learning from an expert teacher. This edition of Learning Python puts you in the hands of two expert teachers, Mark Lutz and David Ascher, whose friendly, well-structured prose has guided many a programmer to proficiency with the language.

Learning Python, Second Edition, offers programmers a comprehensive learning tool for Python and object-oriented programming. Thoroughly updated for the numerous language and class presentation changes that have taken place since the release of the first edition in 1999, this guide introduces the basic elements of the latest release of Python 2.3 and covers new features, such as list comprehensions, nested scopes, and iterators/generators.

Beyond language features, this edition of Learning Python also includes new context for less-experienced programmers, including fresh overviews of object-oriented programming and dynamic typing, new discussions of program launch and configuration options, new coverage of documentation sources, and more. There are also new use cases throughout to make the application of language features more concrete.

The first part of Learning Python gives programmers all the information they'll need to understand and construct programs in the Python language, including types, operators, statements, classes, functions, modules and exceptions. The authors then present more advanced material, showing how Python performs common tasks by offering real applications and the libraries available for those applications. Each chapter ends with a series of exercises that will test your Python skills and measure your understanding.

Learning Python, Second Edition is a self-paced book that allows readers to focus on the core Python language in depth. As you work through the book, you'll gain a deep and complete understanding of the Python language that will help you to understand the larger application-level examples that you'll encounter on your own. If you're interested in learning Python--and want to do so quickly and efficiently--then Learning Python, Second Edition is your best choice.

Customer Reviews:

Great for experienced programmers.......2007-06-17

Learning Python is an efficient way to learn python if you are familiar with one or more other programming languages. The book does a nice job of comparing and contrasting python's qualities with those of other languages (C++ and Java in particular) and provides many concise examples that highlight specific features well. For me, Learning Python was a great way to get going with software development in python.

If you are fairly new to programming, however, this book probably isn't for you. The first few parts try to be a more general introduction to programming, but they aren't enough for those truly new to programming languages. As an experienced developer, you will likely skim through the first few parts of this book quickly.

It's also not an exhaustive reference manual, and with Python 2.5 now released the book is getting a bit dated. But the core language features have not changed much, and there is plenty of online material describing that changes since version 2.2/2.3 that this book is based on.

"Learning Python" is right.......2007-06-05

The title of this book says it all: "Learning Python" is a great book to read if you want to learn Python. Granted, Python is not the hardest language in the world to learn, and I'm not sure that this book goes into enough detail about Python's trickier features (generators, anonymous functions, etc.). Still, I was able to sit down, read this book, work through the examples, and walk away feeling like I really knew how to develop software in Python. Most learn-a-language books are too dense for you to learn the language from the book alone, but "Learning Python" definitely made it as easy as possible.

A more appropriate title would have been "Learning to program using Python".......2007-05-15

This book spends a LONG time going over some of the fundamental concepts of programming. Although it does include very thorough coverage of the Python language itself, it suffers in many places from not knowing who its target audience is. For example, there are many comparisons made between Python and Java (and even C); however, one would assume that anybody with even a passing familiarity with another language knows what a "variable" is or that you shouldn't type the "c:\python22> " part when following along with the examples. If this demeanor was limited to the first few chapters, it might not have bothered me, but throughout the book, the authors can't seem to figure out if they're talking to experienced programmers or people who need to be reminded where the "on switch" is. Chapter 19, for example, is 12 full pages of "the concepts of Object-Oriented programming".

However, it's worth slogging through page after page of intro to programming material to get to the discussions on some of Python's advanced features, which they do cover well. I had previously tried learning Python from the online tutorial and although I made some progress, I could tell I was missing some concepts. After reading this book, I feel like I understand the "Python philosophy" - a few days ago, I wrote "datetime.date( *[ int( x ) for x in token.split( '-' ) ] )" in a program - on purpose! (That creates a date object from a string in the form "2007-05-13", if you're curious).

If you've got a reasonable amount of programming experience, you might want to start with "Python in a Nutshell" instead, though; as well written as this book is, it could have been two-thirds as long and still contained all the information I needed from it.

Not for beginners..........2007-05-07

This book bills itself as a book for beginners to programming but actually it's for experienced C programmers who are making the transition to Python. Someone with little coding experience will quickly get discouraged due to all the poorly explained terminology and constant references to C. Also, the pattern of the book is to give an introductory chapter on basic concepts then two or three chapters that get into extremely detailed explanations. At the end of one of those mind-numbing journeys through obscure details, the author will often will often say something like "But I would suggest you avoid doing this because..." Huh? Then why even bother to explain it? I can't believe Python is as dense and involved as this book makes it. If the authors would only spend as much time on simple, logical explanations as they do on explaining why Python is superior to every other programming language on the planet, this book might be useful.

fast shipping.......2007-05-06

The shipping is very fast, and the condition of the book is cool!

Professional Ajax, 2nd Edition (Programmer to Programmer)

Average customer rating:

excellent in several respects
Surprisingly easy to read for a programming book
Brief review
Best code explanations ever
Very well done

Professional Ajax, 2nd Edition (Programmer to Programmer)
Nicholas C. Zakas , Jeremy McPeak , and Joe Fawcett
Manufacturer: Wrox
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Professional JavaScript for Web Developers (Wrox Professional Guides)
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JavaScript: The Definitive Guide
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ASIN: 0470109491

Book Description

Professional Ajax 2nd Edition provides a developer-level tutorial of Ajax techniques, patterns, and use cases. The book begins by exploring the roots of Ajax, covering how the evolution of the web and new technologies directly led to the development of Ajax techniques. A detailed discussion of how frames, JavaScript, cookies, XML, and XMLHttp requests (XHR) related to Ajax is included. After this introduction, the book moves on to cover the implementation of specific Ajax techniques. Request brokers such as hidden frames, dynamic iframes, and XHR are compared and contrasted, explaining when one method should be used over another. To make this discussion clearer, a brief overview of HTTP requests and responses is included.

Once a basic understanding of the various request types is discussed, the book moves on to provide in-depth examples of how and when to use Ajax in a web site or web application. Different data transmission formats, including plain text, HTML, XML, and JSON are discussed for their advantages and disadvantages. Also included is a discussion on web services and how they may be used to perform Ajax techniques. Next, more complex topics are covered. A chapter introducing a request management framework explores how to manage all of the requests inside of an Ajax application. Ajax debugging techniques are also discussed.

The last part of the book walks through the creation of two full-fledged Ajax web applications. The first, FooReader.NET, is an Ajax-powered RSS reader. The second, called AjaxMail, is an Ajax-enabled email system. Both of these applications incorporate many of the techniques discussed throughout the book.

Professional Ajax 2nd edition is written for Web application developers looking to enhance the usability of their web sites and web applications and intermediate JavaScript developers looking to further understand the language. Readers should have familiarity with XML, XSLT, Web Services, PHP or C#, HTML, CSS. This book is not aimed at beginners without a basic understanding of the aforementioned technologies. Also, a good understanding of JavaScript is vitally important to understanding this book. Those readers without such knowledge should instead refer to books such as Beginning JavaScript, Second Edition (Wrox, 2004, ISBN: 978-0-7645-5587-9) and Professional JavaScript for Web Developers (Wrox, 2005, ISBN: 978-0-7645-7908-0).

Professional Ajax 2nd edition adds nearly 200 pages of new and expanded coverage compared to the first edition. Some of the new topics covered here include: <ul>

Ajax Libraries including the Yahoo! Connection Manager, Prototype, and jQuery

Request Management with Priority Queues and the RequestManager Object

Comet push-based web systems and HTTP streaming

Maps and Mashups with Geocoding, Google Maps API and Yahoo! Maps API

Ajax Debugging with FireBug and Microsoft Fiddler

ASP.NET AJAX Extensions (formerly code-named "Atlas") </ul>

And of course the Second Edition retains and updates the core first edition content including: <ul>

the range of request brokers (including the hidden frame technique, iframes, and XMLHttp) and explains when one should be used over another

different Ajax techniques and patterns for executing client-server communication

Ajax patterns including predictive fetch, page preloading, submission throttling, incremental field and form validation, periodic refresh, multi-stage download and more

Syndication with RSS, Atom, and XParser

JSON and creating an autosuggest textbox example

web site widgets for a news ticker, weather information, web search, and site search

Ajax Frameworks JSpan, DWR, and Ajax.NET Professional

A Web-based RSS/Atom aggregator case study

An AjaxMail case study </ul>

Customer Reviews:

excellent in several respects.......2007-03-23

Last year (2006), I plowed through practically every available book on Ajax. This one really stands out for its excellent historical overview of how Ajax grew to exist. It also is one of the few that covers the use of hidden frames and Iframes as an Ajax technique (it has been around longer but is still used widely). The writing is outstanding. If you can only buy one Ajax book, this one should be it.

A free copy of chapter 1, "What is Ajax?" is available online at [...]

Surprisingly easy to read for a programming book.......2007-02-20

The information you need to get started on ajax programming happens very quickly in this book. The way it is presented also helps a great deal. While it still has it's dry parts, this book was actually surprisingly easy to read(meaning I wasn't falling asleep after 5 minutes of reading)

Brief review.......2007-01-04

I haven't got a chance to go through all details yet, but looks pretty good so far.

Best code explanations ever.......2006-09-04

As a newcomer to Ajax, I cant comment on the coverage but it seemed reasonably comprehensive.

But the code walkthroughs were terrific - completely readable, easy to follow and sometimes even quite fun to read. I cant remember reading better code runthroughs ever.

Very well done.......2006-05-18

This book is very well done. It is a good introduction to AJAX and gets you up to speed quick.

CONS:
1. Not enough treatment on the server side of things in the beginning chapters. Needed a little more on serializing XML, but then how do you do that in a platform-agnostic way. I was a little disappointed that there were little or no examples in java/jsp/servlet during the Basics, Patterns and XML chapters. Could have used that. Assumes knowledge of PHP.

2. Need a little more treatment of XML/XPath/XSLT. Gets a little bit confusing when the technologies are all combined.

3. I feel like the patterns chapter could have followed the XML/XPath/XSLT chapter.

4. Maybe JSON could be left for the back of the book since the X in AJAX stands for XML. Just a thought.

5. About 65 pages of the book are just on AjaxMail, which has numerous examples, but was a lot of reading to go through on one application.

PROS:

1. Not a beginner's book. Assumes knowledge of many things, like PHP, network protocols, HTTP, etc. I'm glad a lot of those details were left out and AJAX was focused on.

2. Gets you up and running with good, working examples.

3. The patterns chapter is very helpful in deciding how to use the stuff.

4. Good chapter on widgets.

5. Bang for the buck when talking about the AJAX frameworks that are out there. Fairly good treatment of JPSpan, DWR and AJAX.NET.

DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model

Average customer rating:

Did I have a stroke?!
Completely useless
Good intro to manipulating the DOM with Javascript
By far the best book I have read on Javascript/DOM
Very clear and practical

DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model
Jeremy Keith
Manufacturer: friends of ED
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions
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ASIN: 1590595335

Book Description

We know from the success of titles such as Web Standards Solutions, Cascading Style Sheets: Separating Content from Presentation, and the Web Designer's Reference that web designers are increasingly concerned with making sites that don't just look pretty, but are also built using current best practices. There are three main technologies married together to create usable, standards-compliant web designs: XHTML for data structure, Cascading Style Sheets for styling your data, and JavaScript for adding dynamic effects and manipulating structure on the fly using the Document Object Model. This book is about the latter of the three. DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model gives you everything you need to start using JavaScript and the Document Object Model to enhance your web pages with client-side dynamic effects. Jeremy starts off by giving you a basic crash course in JavaScript and the DOM, then move on to provide you with several real world examples built up from scratch including dynamic image galleries and dynamic menus, and show you how to manipulate web page style using the CSS DOM, and create markup on the fly.

Customer Reviews:

Did I have a stroke?!.......2007-06-07

This book just makes me soooo glad that I can do the same things with Flash. The more I read, the more I felt like I must have had a stroke. Just when you think you're on the edge of grasping a block of code, Mr. Keith extends the code a few more pages for testing/checking purposes, because it needs fine-tuning, etc. The material is definitely for people who think like programmers - not designers - extremely difficult to follow. I hate javascript even more now after struggling through this book. I have no idea why anyone would rather write brain-twisting code for a simple animation than create the same thing in Flash with minimal code required!

Completely useless.......2007-06-01

In general the DOM is grossly inconsistent across different browsers and versions. To create scripts that will be able to stand up against these inconsistencies requires an in-depth coverage of every conceivable node of the DOM tree. The author did an exceedingly poor job of describing the DOM and provided little to no information on how to compensate for the extensive browser incompatibilities. The only good thing about this book is that it makes for a great door stopper.

Good intro to manipulating the DOM with Javascript.......2007-05-15

Very easy to follow, good explanation of the DOM. The author did a good job of using examples and building on them as new concepts were introduced. Also did a good job of encouraging little snippets of reuseable code. Although he did a pretty reasonable intro upfront to Javascript in general, it would help if a reader had some programming background (especially in object-oriented concepts). Recommended.

By far the best book I have read on Javascript/DOM.......2007-05-12

I was like many of you, I saw some code here or there on the internet, I browsed through W3C documents and online tutorials. This book just puts it all together in a way I thought was perfect. I gives great examples and thoroughly explains each method with out going overboard on detail. It's to the point and I would recommend this to any web developer.

Loved it, with I could find more publications written this well.

Very clear and practical.......2007-05-12

I recommend this book for people who care to write high quality javascript code. Using this book I learned new techniques for manipulating (X)HTML documents in a very powerful way.

Web Standards Creativity: Innovations in Web Design with XHTML, CSS, and DOM Scripting

Average customer rating:

Fantastic.
Best web design book yet
Great content in need of a redesign
Good Information -- Distracting Design
Cookbook of creating usable, accessible, and interactive websites.

Web Standards Creativity: Innovations in Web Design with XHTML, CSS, and DOM Scripting
Andy Budd , Andy Clarke , Ian Lloyd , Cameron Adams , Rob Weychert , Ethan Marcotte , Dan Rubin , Jeff Croft , Mark Boulton , Simon Collison , and Derek Featherstone
Manufacturer: friends of ED
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design (Voices That Matter)
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ASIN: 1590598032

Book Description

<ul>

Be inspired by 10 web design lessons from 10 of the worlds best web designers</li>

Get creative with cutting-edge XHTML, CSS, and DOM scripting techniques</li>

Learn breathtaking design skills while remaining standards-compliant</li> </ul> Here at friends of ED, we know that as a web designer or developer, your work involves more than just working to pay the bills. We know that each day, you strive to push the boundaries of your medium, unleashing your creativity in new ways to make your websites more engaging and attractive to behold, while still maintaining cross-browser support, standards compliance, and accessibility. That's why we got together ten of the world's most talented web designers to share their secrets with you. Web Standards Creativityis jam-packed with fresh, innovative design ideas. The topics range from essential CSS typography and grid design, effective styling for CMS-driven sites, and astonishing PNG transparency techniques, to DOM scripting magic for creating layouts that change depending on browser resolution and user preference, and better print layouts for web pages. We're sure you will find something here to inspire you! This full-color book's examples are not just stunning to look at, but also fully standards-compliant, up-to-date, and tested in current browsers including Internet Explorer 7. Playing by the rules doesn't have to mean drab or dull websitesWeb Standards can be fun!

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic........2007-05-15

If you're a web developer, and you've already got the basics of javascript/DOM scripting, semantic XHTML and CSS, then this book is for you. It's the first book I've found that shows best practices for integrating all three of these basic technologies. As web developers we can often fall into the trap of being comfortable in one technology and then trying to solve every website problem with that technology. This book helps bridge the gap and begins to show how to use each of these technologies for what they're really good at--no more, and no less.

Best web design book yet.......2007-05-14

This is the best web design book that I have found yet. Inspiring examples that use practical applications and will fuel your desire to learn more. This book is also beautifully designed... usually I highlight in my books but not this one... I will only tag it with sticky notes. Not a beginner's book. You may understand some of the example but most concepts, I feel, will be lost on the reader. If you are new to web design, I would suggest reading beginning CSS Web Development: From Novice to Professional, then CSS Mastery, then getting into this book. As a web designer, I would suggest that you learn CSS... and learn it well before you start building pages for clients or you may find yourself rebuilding may of your pages.

Great content in need of a redesign.......2007-05-10

I absolutely agree with one of the other reviewers who mentioned the extremely distracting design of this book. Whoever made the bizarre decision to make EVERY SINGLE page a different color, often printed with background images, should think about some of the authors' principals of accessibilty, and design not interfering with content. It makes it impossible to jump to a specific section or go back in the text and find anything.
Aside from the ill-conceived design, this book is excellent. Each author delves into not just "tips and tricks" but how to refine and improve a design, and implement that more sophisticated design on the web.

Good Information -- Distracting Design.......2007-05-04

There's no doubt the information in this book is great. Ian Lloyd's chapter on using the DOM to overcome some of the previously unnoticed shortcomings of print style sheets was particularly interesting.

The amount of information in the book is by no means overwhelming - its concise. Had the superfluous, non-illustrative design elements not been there, I estimate I could have read the book cover to cover on a short plane ride. Instead it's taken me a few long sittings and a few ibuprofen (to battle the headaches) to get in all the information.

The reason I didn't give this book five stars is because of the distracting nature of the design. This may seem nit-picky to some, but I think it becomes a usability/readability concern. It seems like every other page (give or take a few) is a different color, many with background images behind the text. Why? Maybe there's a reason... Maybe it's random. It's definitely distracting, taking away from the content itself.

It's understandable that the folks at Friends of Ed thought design embellishments would work with the underlying theme... IMHO, it's a little overdone.

Cookbook of creating usable, accessible, and interactive websites........2007-05-03

Web Standards Creativity: Innovations in Web Design with XHTML, CSS, and DOM Scripting by Cameron Adams, Mark Boulton, Andy Clarke, Simon Collison, Jeff Croft, Derek Featherstone, Ian Lloyd, Ethan Marcotte, Dan Rubin, and Rob Weychert --whew--was an excellent resource for any web developer. Each of the authors had their own chapter based on different aspects to create accessible, usable, and standards based websites. Andy Budd wrote the introduction and let readers know that this book was an extension to his previously published CSS Mastery--and I would agree. This book was broken into 3 main sections and 10 total chapters.

The first section was dedicated to Layout Magic. The chapters covered such topics as background images, page structure and contents such as menus, content highlights, and the masthead. We got a glimpse of how you can best manage, or tame, a wild CMS using CSS, Javascript, and Flash (sIFR). We move on to discussions related to switching your layouts based on your body selectors. This chapter exposes tips and tricks to create a website with several layout options--by switching a class on the body--all of the underlying markup is the same. Next we take our skills and apply them to a layout that jumps out of the grid or boxy layout. For those of you who have read Transcending CSS this chapter will be familiar as Andy Clarke walks us through a layout while using element selectors, descendant selectors, and adjacent sibling selectors. If you love pink, you will love this layout! The last chapter in this section discusses some creative uses of PNG's. I would say this was one of my favorite chapters of the entire book. Jeff Croft does a great job discussing the different image formats, their uses, and why PNG is now a viable option for your websites. He shows some great examples with the alpha transparency and it's uses for things like image captions, icons, and even watermarking and masking. This section gives you a solid foundation to begin creating some very exciting layouts.

The second section bridges the gap between print design and web design. Mark Boulton starts this section off by giving a brief history to the grid in print design and how this can be applied to the web. He shows us how to use background images and a little bit of math, allowing you to create websites that align to a horizontal grid. For those who have seen subtraction.com, or even Mark's personal site, markboulton.co.uk, you can see this example in action. The next chapter talks about Typography. I think that this chapter could have been expanded into it's own book--there is much to be discussed here. This chapter gives you the tools you need to creatively use elegant typography in your layouts'without sacrificing accessibility. These two chapters give a great primer on getting inspiration from other areas of design--including print.

The final section is related to the DOM and some tricks to enhance your website. The first chapter talks about printing. Using a mixture of print stylesheets and the DOM we are able to print specific sections of a page, while hiding the unnecessary elements of the page. The user is given total control--so this solution only helps to save a user from wasting mass amounts of paper (they can select to print the entire page if they would like). The next chapter discusses extending your layouts based on the size of the browser port (resolution-dependent, though not directly dependent on the screen resolution). The tricks here allow you to create a layout that looks great in a smaller viewport, and re-arranges the layout for those who use more screen real estate. This is not stretching with the viewport (fluid), but actually re-arranging your columns and navigation based on the viewport. Some very valuable tips in this chapter. The last chapter finishes us off with an accessible sliding navigation. This example can be found all around the web, but most of them don't always address the accessibility needs and issues that may arise. Derek Featherstone does a great job of putting accessibility at the forefront of creating the sliding navigation, while still giving you a stunning end product.

This book was a great read, and is packed full of great tips, tricks, and usable scripts to enhance the overall usability of your website. All of this is done without hindering the accessibility for the widest audience. This book is highly recommended for those who are looking for the best practices to achieve different effects. To be honest, some of the chapters were very elementary--while others were more advanced--but everything was explained very well by the authors and the code examples.

Average customer rating:

Excellent book to learn the basics
A good intro on Unix shell scripting and the problems it solves
Nice overview of Bourne/sh scripting
Okay
Practical and useful

Classic Shell Scripting
Arnold Robbins , and Nelson H.F. Beebe
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
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ASIN: 0596005954

Book Description

Shell scripting skills never go out of style. It's the shell that unlocks the real potential of Unix. Shell scripting is essential for Unix users and system administrators-a way to quickly harness and customize the full power of any Unix system. With shell scripts, you can combine the fundamental Unix text and file processing commands to crunch data and automate repetitive tasks. But beneath this simple promise lies a treacherous ocean of variations in Unix commands and standards. Classic Shell Scripting is written to help you reliably navigate these tricky waters. Writing shell scripts requires more than just a knowledge of the shell language, it also requires familiarity with the individual Unix programs: why each one is there, how to use them by themselves, and in combination with the other programs. The authors are intimately familiar with the tips and tricks that can be used to create excellent scripts, as well as the traps that can make your best effort a bad shell script. With Classic Shell Scripting you'll avoid hours of wasted effort. You'll learn not only write useful shell scripts, but how to do it properly and portably. The ability to program and customize the shell quickly, reliably, and portably to get the best out of any individual system is an important skill for anyone operating and maintaining Unix or Linux systems. Classic Shell Scripting gives you everything you need to master these essential skills.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book to learn the basics.......2007-03-13

I've scrolled through lots of books, there is so much information out there, but this book has a tendency to keep it simple and to the point. It has good illustrative examples that not only are useful but also serve as a good practice guide.

A good intro on Unix shell scripting and the problems it solves.......2007-02-16

The purpose of this handy little book is to help someone who is working with Unix through the labyrinth of tools available and learn how and when to use them. It is important to note what is mentioned in the preface - "Throughout this book, we use the term Unix to mean not only commercial variants of the original Unix system, such as Solaris, Mac OS X, and HP-UX, but also the freely available workalike systems, such as GNU/Linux and the various BSD systems: BSD/OS, NetBSD, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD." I quote the book because the word "Unix" is about as descriptive as the word "car". The intended audience is anyone who is computer literate, already knows how to program, and is regularly faced with diverse problems in the workplace that must be solved with Unix tools. This book should give you a taste of which tool to turn to and when.

This book can be divided basically into two halves. The first half is a tutorial on writing Unix scripts. The book starts with a brief history of the Unix language and the philosophy behind Unix tools. Slowly, each chapter builds up your skill at script writing. You are shown how to differentiate between shells, how to work with text extensively, how to use loops, pipelines, variables, and decision statements, and how to work with files. There are detailed example scripts at every step along the way. By the end of chapter seven, you should know enough about basic shell scripting to be dangerous.

Starting in chapter 8, you are showed more application-related information. First, Chapter 8 shows and discusses some ready-made scripts for some tasks for which there is no out-of-the-box Unix solution. Some of the handy solutions shown are for path searching and automating software builds. Chapter 9 is a crash course on awk, and is aptly named. It is just enough to be dangerous. You learn how to solve common text processing problems with awk, but you'll need more resources to be really knowledgable. Chapter 10 explains the usage of common commands for listing files, modifying their timestamps, creating temporary files, finding files in a directory hierarchy, applying commands to a list of files, determining the amount of filesystem space used, and comparing files. Next there are two applied chapters showing you how to merge several databases and how to perform spellchecking by using scripting. Chapter 13 changes the subject a bit and talks about the concept of processes in Unix and how you can use their statistics to accomplish a number of monitoring and control tasks. Chapter 14 talks about problems you may run into if you try to take advantage of shell-language extensions, while Chapter 15 addresses the issue of writing secure scripts to the extent it is possible to do so. Writing man pages, and the basics of the Unix filesystem are the subjects of the last two chapters of the book.

I would say it is a good modern introduction to the subject of shell scripting and Unix tools and how to use them. It doesn't dive deeply into any particular topic, but it will get you started by broadly introducing you to the problems most Unix script writers and system admins face regularly and how to get started solving those problems. I highly recommend it for that purpose.

Nice overview of Bourne/sh scripting.......2006-11-17

This book provides a nice overview of the Bourne/sh shell's commands. I wish there were more examples with complete scripts. Korn shell users might want to consider "Korn Shell: Programs for Your Survival at Work" by Larry L. Smith. Bash users might want to consider "Bash Shell: Essential Programs for Your Survival at Work" by Larry L. Smith. Some of the examples in Randal K. Michael's "Mastering UNIX Shell Scripting" are also helpful.

Okay.......2006-03-12

I would say this is a pretty good book that covers it's subject very well, buti didn't use it much because i had also bought Unix in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition, which covered the basics and differences between the shells briefly, which was all i needed at the time. but i looked through this and read some stuff that helped and it is a good book if you plan on doing extended shell scripting. it was just a little more than i actually needed

Practical and useful .......2005-09-20

Great book. The emphasis is nicely split between actually using the shell itself and the whole supporting cast of unix tools (sed, awk, cut, join, sort etc.) The idea of carefully crafting solutions using the unix toolbox mindset is key. I also like the fact he doesn't try to teach to multiple shells, but first tries to emphasize portability by sticking mainly to a POSIX standard, and only later adds info about non standard shell topics. If I could only have one book on shell scripting, this would be it. The best description is 'Practical'.

Average customer rating:

Top-notch tome
Excellent
Basic libraries coverage with a good example application.

Prototype and Scriptaculous in Action
Dave Crane , Bear Bibeault , and Tom Locke
Manufacturer: Manning Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Ajax in Practice
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ASIN: 1933988037

Book Description

Prototype and Scriptaculous are libraries that extend standard Ajax. They make it easier to program Ajax and provide powerful features like drag and drop and animation. In this book, developers learn by playing and see how the libraries work in the real world.

As experience with Ajax increases, developers want the standard Ajax capabilities they repeatedly use to be preprogrammed for them--and that's exactly what Ajax libraries do for them. They reduce the pain of handling cross-browser inconsistencies, they add useful language features, and provide sophisticated functionality. Of these, Prototype is the most popular JavaScript and Ajax framework for low-level user interface features such as animation, drag and drop, and pre-built widgets. Together, they free the developer up to concentrate on building the application. They make a rich user experience easy to achieve.

This book guides the reader through the Prototype and Scriptaculous libraries feature-by-feature. In just 350 pages, readers will find over 100 small working examples to help them explore the libraries. As well, they will develop a web-based image gallery that teacher them how to use Prototype and Scriptaculous in the real-world.

Customer Reviews:

Top-notch tome.......2007-06-25

Javascript has exploded onto the web development scene in the last few years, and powers much of the web 2.0 and Ajax revolution. Every web developer now needs to know how to do common Ajax tasks. Thankfully, Prototype and Scriptaculous In Action makes it both easy and enjoyable.

This is a comprehensive book. The size (510 pages) was initially intimidating, but Prototype and Scriptaculous In Action is exceedingly well written and a genuine pleasure to read. The thorough and thoughtful organization of the book provides some real structure to the discussion, making complex subjects easily digestible. This is the defacto bible of Prototype and Scriptaculous, and these days I turn to this book more than anything else on my shelf.

The book is divided up into four multi-chapter parts, any of which could stand on it's own as a definitive guide. The chapters are full of useful examples, and there's strong emphasis given to migrating existing sites to Prototype and Scriptaculous, which is a major plus. You could turn to any section of the book and immediately see how to inject some new behavior into your existing application, but if you take the time to read from cover-to-cover you'll be rewarded with some deep understanding of both the libraries and Javascript itself.

I'll summarize the four parts of the book:

Part 1, Getting Started, introduces the Prototype and Scriptaculous libraries, focusing heavily on Prototype and Ajax. There's a lot of information on re-designing an existing site for Ajax. Two full chapters are devoted to Prototype's Ajax features. You can get up and running VERY quickly after glancing through these chapters. There's also a lot of depth, and consideration is given to the pervasive effects Ajax has on architectural issues and the new ways that an application will have to manage HTTP traffic.

Part 2, Scriptaculous Quickly, covers effects, controls and drag-n-drop. This is hands-down the best Scriptaculous documentation currently available, anywhere. The core effects are explored and tweaked, and there's lot of very practical examples demonstrating some of the niftiest stuff, like running effects in parallel versus sequentially. And the drag-and-drop coverage is incredibly clear, making it easy, almost trivial, to implement. The Scriptaculous coverage is indispensable, and you'll return to it again and again if you implement Scriptaculous-enabled pages.

Part 3, Prototype in Depth, explores Prototype's Javascript-oriented features. There's a fantastic chapter on functions contexts, and the discussion of closures is one of the best I've seen. There's a lot of information about Javascript fundamentals, and how Prototype can be used to implement inheritance, address arrays, and manipulate the DOM in the browser.

And finally, Part 4 Advanced Topics, has two unrelated chapters. The first chapter overhauls an example app, giving it a Prototype and Scriptaculous makeover. The last chapter is about integration with Ruby on Rails. Prototype was initially written as the Ajax interface to Rails, so there's some strong integration.

As a long-time enterprise web developer, dealing with Javascript has always been a chore. But now I actually (gasp) look forward to tasks that involve Javascript. I'm a convert, and I have Prototype and Scriptaculous in Action to thank.

Excellent.......2007-05-22

I wrote a longer review that Amazon has apparently lost. Oh well. This is an excellent book, very well written. The authors are the rarest kind of technical author: they can actually construct prose that is pleasant to read, not deadly boring, but which works well as a reference book later. The book's organized thoughtfully--it's certainly much more than just an API reference. There's also quite a lot of general advanced Javascript information here, too.

There's at least one other book on these libraries in production from Pragmatic Programmers. If you're considering that, I strongly suggest downloading the sample chapters of both books and comparing. The Crane book is much more appealing to me (not to mention it's available now, not in six months).

Basic libraries coverage with a good example application........2007-04-19

This book lacked detailed coverage of the programming techniques and advanced topics of prototype and scriptaculous. The authors covered the basics by discussing only the API's of the libraries (more attention was given to scriptaculous API's, even though its usage is obvious and prototype API's are more extensive). With 500 pages and the libraries as the title, I expected details about the inner workings of the API's and discussions about its usages/ applications. Instead, 150 pages were devoted to verbose repetitive coverage of scriptaculous' API, which could easily have fitted into 50 pages at most. ALL of the info on scriptaculous could easily have been read online at its wiki site - the book provided no further insight (ch. 5 is especially useless)! Prototype's coverage was decent, but lacked details on several parts of its API. Although prototype and scriptaculous are tightly integrated with Rails, there was only 1 chapter devoted to its discussion, which served more like an overview than a usage guide. Based on content on the libraries alone, I would give this book 3 stars. However, if you're in need of an example application, then it may deserve 4 stars. This book provides a good example of applying prototype's ajax and scriptaculous web 2.0 techniques to a photo gallery website. It shows the advantages these libraries have over plain javascript and dhtml. The extra 100 pages wasted on scriptaculous would better serve Rails' RJS templates or a more complete/ thorough discussion of prototype. Of course it can be argued that the book is not titled, "Prototype, Scriptaculous, and Rails in Action," but it should be.

Average customer rating:

Mostly as good as everyone says
Programming literature
An amazing journey
just you wait
What "Java-script" would be if the name wasn't already taken...

Groovy in Action
Dierk Koenig , Andrew Glover , Paul King , Guillaume Laforge , and Jon Skeet
Manufacturer: Manning Publications
ProductGroup: Book
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The Definitive Guide to Grails (Definitive Guide)
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ASIN: 1932394842

Book Description

Groovy, the brand-new language for the Java platform, brings to Java many of the features that have made Ruby popular. Groovy in Action is a comprehensive guide to Groovy programming, introducing Java developers to the new dynamic features that Groovy provides. To bring you Groovy in Action, Manning again went to the source by working with a team of expert authors including both members and the Manager of the Groovy Project team. The result is the true definitive guide to the new Groovy language.

Groovy in Action introduces Groovy by example, presenting lots of reusable code while explaining the underlying concepts. Java developers new to Groovy find a smooth transition into the dynamic programming world. Groovy experts gain a solid reference that challenges them to explore Groovy deeply and creatively.

Because Groovy is so new, most readers will be learning it from scratch. Groovy in Action quickly moves through the Groovy basics, including:

Simple and collective Groovy data types

Working with Closures and Groovy Control Structures

Dynamic Object Orientation, Groovy style

Readers are presented with rich and detailed examples illustrating Groovy's enhancements to Java, including

How to Work with Builders and the GDK

Database programming with Groovy

Groovy in Action then demonstrates how to Integrate Groovy with XML, and provides,

Tips and Tricks

Unit Testing and Build Support

Groovy on Windows

An additional bonus is a chapter dedicated to Grails, the Groovy Web Application Framework.

Early PDF chapters of Groovy in Action are available from the Manning Early Access Program (MEAP) at http://www.manning.com/koenig. As part of this program, readers can also discuss the early manuscript with the author and help shape the manuscript as it's being developed by joining the Author Forum.

Customer Reviews:

Mostly as good as everyone says.......2007-06-22

What more can be said of a book extolled by dozens of reviewers, a book that seems to have matched its subject in ubiquity, a book that will likely become to Groovy what the "pickaxe book" is to Ruby? As much as I would love to be a lone voice (or rather a lone whisper) of dissent, the clarity, simplicity, and accuracy of most of Groovy in Action cannot be overlooked. Let no one be fooled by the size of the book - to learn the gist of Groovy, all you really need is a leisurely stroll through chapters 2 through 7 (chapter 1 is the mandatory introduction/history chapter which, in the frustrating tech book tradition, doubles as the "free sample" chapter). Of course, most of its clarity and concision GIA inherits from the language it describes. Still, it is encouraging to have a book that is as valuable a reference as it is a tutorial, and GIA shines in both capacities.

With all its accolades, GIA does have two caveats. First, it is getting closer and closer to being out of date. Groovy 1.1 is already in Beta, and it has an impressive list of features not covered in this Groovy 1.0 book: EJB3 support, JUnit4 and TestNG integration and annotations, just to name a few. I am reminded of Pragmatic Programmers' Agile Web Development with Rails, whose second edition shipped a year after its first. I sincerely hope GIA 1.0 buyers will not be similarly cheated.

The second caveat is the coverage of Grails. Grails may be the single most attractive Groovy application to date yet its coverage in GIA is flaky at best. The authors decide to abandon their polished, clear, and concise writing style and instead author the entire chapter as a bland conversation amongst themselves. In addition to failing to grasp the humor in such presentation, I find that this style hinders me from following along with the tutorial. It makes scanning back for missed steps or clarifications extremely difficult. Furthermore, vapid attempts at humor occupy space that could be otherwise devoted to some omitted topics, such as mapping domain objects to specific tables or using data sources. Coverage of these topics would have been far more valuable than the authors' purported beer garden conversations with a DBA named Martin.

Despite the pour Grails coverage and the looming Groovy 1.1, Groovy in Action is a must-have for anyone who is even mildly interested in Groovy or dynamic languages in Java in general. Coupled with the ease, clarity, and downright beauty of the Groovy language, GIA can turn even a passing interest in Groovy into a burning passion.

Programming literature.......2007-05-15

It is a Gordian challenge to write an interesting and readable book about nothing but a programming language. Dierk König and his co-authors actually did succeed in cutting the knot. They even accomplished much more: they added lots of insight about object orientation, programming language design and good software development. As long as I only had the PDF availabe, it served me as THE reference for all my questions about Groovy. Now the printed copy makes my commuting time worthwhile. Cover to cover. 700 pages of computer LITERATURE.

An amazing journey.......2007-03-29

The book contains a lot of Groovy interesting features, with samples tested to work,asides the writting style exciting to you to discover the new programming world open in front of your eyes thanks to the exceptional Groovy features.

I consider it as much as a Groovy bible.

just you wait.......2007-03-22

All you need is an imagination and probably an IQ >= 130 (shouldn't be a problem for your average software engineer). If you can satisfy these requirements, then read this book and imagine the future. I am by no means a "scripter", but I am certainly a seasoned java programmer. If you ever thought you needed some glue to automate your already harmonious existence with the computer, just get this book and dream. When you read the pages of this book, you can't help but to wish you worked in a consulting company with its brilliant authors. These fellas have come up with the most interesting thing since ... well ... JAVA!

What "Java-script" would be if the name wasn't already taken..........2007-03-14

Scripting languages, although initially derided as "toy languages", have continued to evolve and mature over time. Now, no serious programmer (in my opinion) would deny that a scripting language can save a ton of time and effort for many programming problems. Groovy In Action by Dierk Konig with Andrew Glover, Paul King, Guillaume Laforge, and Jon Skeet covers the Java scripting language known as Groovy, and does an excellent job in doing so.

Contents:
Your Way to Groovy
Part 1 - The Groovy Language: Overture - The Groovy Basics; The Simple Groovy Datatypes; The Collective Groovy Datatypes; Working With Closures; Groovy Control Structures; Dynamic Object Orientation - Groovy Style
Part 2 - Around The Groovy Library: Working With Builders; Working With The GDK; Database Programming With Groovy; Integrating Groovy; Working With XML
Part 3 - Everyday Groovy: Tips And Tricks; Unit Testing With Groovy; Groovy On Windows; Seeing The Grails Light
Appendix A - Installation And Documentation; Appendix B - Groovy Language Info; Appendix C - GDK API Quick Reference; Appendix D - Cheat Sheets; Index

If you're familiar with the Java language and syntax, then you've already conquered a great deal of what you need to know about Groovy. The authors show how simple a Groovy script can be, and how much can be accomplished in many fewer lines than an equivalent Java program. In part 1, you get the mental framework for how Groovy works, the model for scripts, and many examples of code that cover a broad spectrum of what's possible. Part 2 goes a bit more into the guts of the language, giving you a reference guide to the different language features. This is where you'll spend a lot of time as you start to work with the language and explore the various methods and properties that are available. And finally, the last part shows real-life solutions and scenarios that you can use to either learn how to solve your particular problem or get ideas on solutions you may not have thought about before. When you look at this as a combination tutorial/reference/cookbook title all in a single volume, you start to grasp what a great job they did...

I was especially intrigued with the integration material. Compiled Groovy scripts are actually turned into Java bytecode the same as a compiled Java program would be. With the addition of the Groovy jar files into your project, you can use the scripts in your own programs with no additional effort. I'm really wondering if adding the Groovy jar files to a Domino application would allow you to use Groovy scripts for agents. If so, that gives me a powerful new addition to the Domino development toolbox. Now if I can only find some time to give it a try...

It goes without saying that if you're interested in Groovy, you'll want this book. And if you're interested in leveraging your Java knowledge into a whole new area, I'd completely recommend checking this out. It's very good...

Average customer rating:

most useful python book to have on your shelf
once read, does't read so many times
Good book for taking your python skills to the next level
Good stuff
Wish I had bought this earlier!

Python Cookbook
Alex Martelli , Anna Ravenscroft , and David Ascher
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Learning Python, Second Edition
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ASIN: 0596007973

Book Description

Portable, powerful, and a breeze to use, Python is the popular open source object-oriented programming language used for both standalone programs and scripting applications. It is now being used by an increasing number of major organizations, including NASA and Google. Updated for Python 2.4, The Python Cookbook, 2nd Edition offers a wealth of useful code for all Python programmers, not just advanced practitioners. Like its predecessor, the new edition provides solutions to problems that Python programmers face everyday. It now includes over 200 recipes that range from simple tasks, such as working with dictionaries and list comprehensions, to complex tasks, such as monitoring a network and building a templating system. This revised version also includes new chapters on topics such as time, money, and metaprogramming. Here's a list of additional topics covered: <ul>

Manipulating text </li>

Searching and sorting </li>

Working with files and the filesystem </li>

Object-oriented programming </li>

Dealing with threads and processes </li>

System administration </li>

Interacting with databases </li>

Creating user interfaces </li>

Network and web programming </li>

Processing XML </li>

Distributed programming </li>

Debugging and testing</li></ul> Another advantage of The Python Cookbook, 2nd Edition is its trio of authors--three well-known Python programming experts, who are highly visible on email lists and in newsgroups, and speak often at Python conferences. With scores of practical examples and pertinent background information, The Python Cookbook, 2nd Edition is the one source you need if you're looking to build efficient, flexible, scalable, and well-integrated systems.

Customer Reviews:

most useful python book to have on your shelf.......2007-06-06

I'm new to python but not programming. Like a lot of people I had a need to get up to speed really quickly on Python so I purchased several Python books (Learning Python, Python Essential Reference, and this book). What I've found is that once you learn the basics, I find myself using this book much more than the others. It's a great little "cheat". You start with wanting to accomplish something-or-other and simply look it up in the appendex and there is a real good chance you'll find something similar that will at least get you started. The scope that they cover is really impressive, and the examples are simple and to the point. Just what I need. There is not tons of description for each thing, just enough to get you started. This is truly and invaluable resource.

once read, does't read so many times.......2007-05-19

I expected this book explain the detail sample of python libraries that python library help does not explains.
This book gathers many examples wide domain of program, network, web programming, language basics, xml, design patterns, and so on.

But not include the detail explannation of python's libraries, I think gathering many samples is very easy in this internet world, so, to know many samples from the book like this is only the time consuming.

TO know short samples of library and extend yourself without detail knowledge of libraries, this book is worth reading, otherwise, choise another book.

Good book for taking your python skills to the next level.......2007-05-14

This is an excellent book for anyone who knows programming, and knows a little bit of python already. It is formatted exactly as a cookbook, many 2-3 page recipes for solving a specific common problem. As such it has many coded examples, all of which demonstrate good programming style and may introduce the reader to some of the more obscure features of the language. It also covers a very wide array of topics, many of which are pure gold. And possibly the best aspect of the book is that it makes a great compliment to resources available on the internet (which are mostly scattered and unorganized).
The drawbacks are that it doesn't cover any topics to a great depth, which is understandable given the nature of the book. Also, it talks about small atomic solutions, but will not help you develop your skills at developing large software systems with python. Lastly, as of this review, python 2.5 has been out for months, and python 3000 is in the works, so look for a new edition or a more contemporary text.

Good stuff.......2007-05-07

Lots of great ideas in this book. It will help you get your head around Python. A little advanced so I would start with Learning Python or Python for Absolute Beginners.

Wish I had bought this earlier!.......2007-04-11

Used it to improve some of the Python scripts I wrote for work. Unfortunately I bought this volume only *after* submitting my articles to Linux Journal, rather than before (in particular, the ODF article in the May'07 issue would have benefited).

Guido doesn't need this book, but mere Python mortals like me will find it very useful.

Programming Book:

Programming Book

Programming Book