Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, & technology book reviews, plus social, political, & economic commentary
This fourth edition of Ben Frain’s Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS continues an information flow that has now spanned a decade and helped numerous new and experienced web designers. The book is well written and well illustrated with plenty of code examples to support key topics and instructions. The major principles of responsive … Continue reading Responsive Web Design with HTML5 & CSS, Fourth Edition – #bookreview
Learning Dart Learn how to program applications with Dart 1.0, a language specifically designed to produce better-structured, high performance applications Ivo Balbaert and Dzenan Ridjanovic (Packt – Kindle, paperback) The programming language Dart was introduced in late 2011 by Google as a potential replacement for aging JavaScript. But JavaScript, of course, has continued to … Continue reading Learning Dart – A solid guide to basic development using Google’s Dart #programming language – #bookreview
Instant Handlebars.js Learn how to create and implement HTML templates into your projects using the Handlebars library Gabriel Manricks (Packt Publishing – e-book, paperback) “Short, fast, and focused.” These are the three promises offered for Gabriel Manricks’ new book, Instant Handlebars.js, from Packt Publishing. And, at just 62 pages in print format, it lives up … Continue reading Instant Handlebars.js – A short but effective how-to guide – #programming #bookreview
Functional JavaScript Introducing Functional Programming with Underscore.js Michael Fogus (O’Reilly – paperback, Kindle) When I first started tinkering with JavaScript, object-oriented programming (OOP) was the rage, and JavaScript frequently was touted as one of the key object-oriented languages. After all, according to many online descriptions, almost everything within JavaScript “is OO.” Now, in this enjoyable … Continue reading Functional JavaScript – Applying functional techniques and Underscore.js – #programming #bookreview
Creating Mobile Appls with jQuery Mobile Shane Gliser (Packt Publishing – paperback, Kindle) The long tagline on the cover of Shane Gliser’s new book deftly sums up its contents: “Learn to make practical, unique, real-world sites that span a variety of industries and technologies with the world’s most popular mobile development library.” Gliser unabashedly describes … Continue reading Creating Mobile Apps with jQuery Mobile – A good & wide-ranging how-to guide – #programming #bookreview
The Modern Web Multi-Device Web Development with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript Peter Gasston (No Starch Press – Kindle, paperback) After a quick first glance, you might look right past this book. You might assume its title, “The Modern Web,” simply introduces some kind of heavily footnoted, academic study of the Internet. Not so, Web breath. … Continue reading The Modern Web: Multi-Device Web Development with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript – #bookreview
Building Web, Cloud, & Mobile Solutions with F# Daniel Mohl (O’Reilly – paperback, Kindle) F# (pronounced “F-sharp”) is a relatively new functional, open-source programming language developed by Microsoft and the F# Software Foundation. F# can be used to create scalable applications with ASP.NET MVC 4, ASP.NET Web API, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Azure, HTML5, Web Sockets, … Continue reading Building Web, Cloud, & Mobile Solutions with F# – #programming #bookreview
HTML5 and JavaScript Web Apps Wesley Hales (O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle) Increasingly, the world of Web development is taking on a “mobile first” attitude. And for good reason. Sales of desktop and laptop computers are shrinking, while sales of mobile devices seem to be swelling into a flood. “Consumers are on track to buy one … Continue reading HTML5 and JavaScript Web Apps – With emphasis on the Mobile Web – #programming #bookreview
Despite its widespread success, JavaScript has a reputation for being a computer language with many flaws. Still, it is now everywhere on the planet, so it is here to stay, very likely for a long, long time. Not surprisingly, several new languages have emerged that jump over some of JavaScript’s hurdles, offer improved capabilities, and … Continue reading JavaScript as Compilation Target: ClojureScript and Dart – #programming #bookreview
Adobe Edge Animate: The Missing Manual Chris Grover (O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle) Chris Grover’s well-written and updated new book shows you how to build animated HTML 5 graphics for the iPhone, the iPad, and the Web, using familiar Adobe features. By the sixth page of the first chapter, you are using the software to begin … Continue reading Adobe Edge Animate: The Missing Manual – #bookreview
Books, Commentary, & More 