The Pragmatic Programmers
The Rails View
In this book you'll learn how to build up solid, sustainable layouts and popular interface elements with semantic HTML5 and CSS3. You'll explore ways to make working with forms more manageable, and you'll discover when you can responsibly generate markup and use advanced presenters - all without leaving the designers on your team out in the cold. You'll even learn how to tame HTML emails so you can ensure your message reaches its intended audience. Master the asset pipeline introduced in Rails 3.1 as you use Sass and Coffeescript to make your interface more enjoyable and your code shorter, and explore ways to present your application to that ever-growing mobile audience. You'll see how to ensure that your interface stays snappy by evaluating its performance. This book gives you comprehensive, objective guidance in a realm full of subjective opinions. Use it, and you'll create elegant, well-structured views that are a joy to build upon. ...
In this book you'll learn how to build up solid, sustainable layouts and popular interface elements with semantic HTML5 and CSS3. You'll explore ways to make working with forms more manageable, and you'll discover when you can responsibly generate markup and use advanced presenters - all without leaving the designers on your team out in the cold. You'll even learn how to tame HTML emails so you can ensure your message reaches its intended audience. Master the asset pipeline introduced in Rails 3.1 as you use Sass and Coffeescript to make your interface more enjoyable and your code shorter, and explore ways to present your application to that ever-growing mobile audience. You'll see how to ensure that your interface stays snappy by evaluating its performance. This book gives you comprehensive, objective guidance in a realm full of subjective opinions. Use it, and you'll create elegant, well-structured views that are a joy to build upon. ...
Rails Recipes
Written for novice to intermediate Rails developers, Rails Recipes: Rails 3 Edition is packed with solutions to 70 of the most vexing problems you’re likely to face on the job. From building custom forms and powering pages with JQuery to integrating with legacy databases, it's all here. Each recipe has been updated to reflect the latest features of Rails 3 and each lays out a distinctive solution to a problem you may be facing today or could well encounter tomorrow. In addition, you'll find half the book is stocked with new eye-opening solutions to such common problems as how to extend Rails, test and deploy your sites, or add a web service to your actions. And each recipe not only lays out a succinct solution, but explains its rationale and the technologies that make it work. ...
Written for novice to intermediate Rails developers, Rails Recipes: Rails 3 Edition is packed with solutions to 70 of the most vexing problems you’re likely to face on the job. From building custom forms and powering pages with JQuery to integrating with legacy databases, it's all here. Each recipe has been updated to reflect the latest features of Rails 3 and each lays out a distinctive solution to a problem you may be facing today or could well encounter tomorrow. In addition, you'll find half the book is stocked with new eye-opening solutions to such common problems as how to extend Rails, test and deploy your sites, or add a web service to your actions. And each recipe not only lays out a succinct solution, but explains its rationale and the technologies that make it work. ...
Technical Blogging
Become more influential and earn extra money by blogging. Whether you want to create a popular technical blog from scratch or take your blog to the next level, this book shows you how. You'll learn how to promote your blog, understand traffic statistics, and build a community. And once you've built it, you'll learn how to benefit from it: advance your career, make money from your blog, use it to promote your products or company, and take advantage of your blog to the fullest. And when your blog takes off, Antonio will show you how to avoid the pitfalls of success. Technical Blogging is the only guide you'll need to create and maintain a successful technical blog. ...
Become more influential and earn extra money by blogging. Whether you want to create a popular technical blog from scratch or take your blog to the next level, this book shows you how. You'll learn how to promote your blog, understand traffic statistics, and build a community. And once you've built it, you'll learn how to benefit from it: advance your career, make money from your blog, use it to promote your products or company, and take advantage of your blog to the fullest. And when your blog takes off, Antonio will show you how to avoid the pitfalls of success. Technical Blogging is the only guide you'll need to create and maintain a successful technical blog. ...
The Developer's Code
There are no trite superlatives here. Packed with lessons learned from more than a decade of software development experience, author Ka Wai Cheung takes you through the programming profession from nearly every angle to uncover ways of sustaining a healthy connection with your work. You'll see how to stay productive even on the longest projects. You'll create a workflow that works with you, not against you. And you'll learn how to deal with clients whose goals don’t align with your own. If you don't handle them just right, issues such as these can crush even the most seasoned, motivated developer. But with the right approach, you can transcend these common problems and become the professional developer you want to be. ...
There are no trite superlatives here. Packed with lessons learned from more than a decade of software development experience, author Ka Wai Cheung takes you through the programming profession from nearly every angle to uncover ways of sustaining a healthy connection with your work. You'll see how to stay productive even on the longest projects. You'll create a workflow that works with you, not against you. And you'll learn how to deal with clients whose goals don’t align with your own. If you don't handle them just right, issues such as these can crush even the most seasoned, motivated developer. But with the right approach, you can transcend these common problems and become the professional developer you want to be. ...
Programming Clojure, 2nd edition
Programming Clojure, 2nd Edition is a significant update to the classic book on the Clojure language. You'll get thorough coverage of all the new features of Clojure 1.3, and enjoy reorganized and rewritten chapters that reflect the significance of new Clojure concepts. Many code examples have been rewritten or replaced, and every page has been reevaluated in the light of Clojure 1.3. As Aaron and Stu show you how to build an application from scratch, you'll get a rich view into a complete Clojure workflow. And you'll get an invaluable education in thinking in Clojure as you work out solutions to the various parts of a problem. Clojure is becoming the language of choice for many who are moving to functional programming or dealing with the challenges of concurrency. ...
Programming Clojure, 2nd Edition is a significant update to the classic book on the Clojure language. You'll get thorough coverage of all the new features of Clojure 1.3, and enjoy reorganized and rewritten chapters that reflect the significance of new Clojure concepts. Many code examples have been rewritten or replaced, and every page has been reevaluated in the light of Clojure 1.3. As Aaron and Stu show you how to build an application from scratch, you'll get a rich view into a complete Clojure workflow. And you'll get an invaluable education in thinking in Clojure as you work out solutions to the various parts of a problem. Clojure is becoming the language of choice for many who are moving to functional programming or dealing with the challenges of concurrency. ...
The Cucumber Book
Matt Wynne and Aslak Hellesoy show you how to express your customers wild ideas as a set of clear, executable specifications that everyone on the team can read. You'll learn how to feed those examples into Cucumber and let it guide your development. You'll build just the right code to keep your customers happy, and not a line more. Although it was born in the Ruby community, you can use Cucumber to test almost any system, from a simple shell script or Perl script, to web applications written in PHP, Java, or any platform. ...
Matt Wynne and Aslak Hellesoy show you how to express your customers wild ideas as a set of clear, executable specifications that everyone on the team can read. You'll learn how to feed those examples into Cucumber and let it guide your development. You'll build just the right code to keep your customers happy, and not a line more. Although it was born in the Ruby community, you can use Cucumber to test almost any system, from a simple shell script or Perl script, to web applications written in PHP, Java, or any platform. ...
Build Awesome Command-Line Applications in Ruby
As Ruby pro David Copeland explains, writing a command-line application that is self-documenting, robust, adaptable and forever useful is easier than you might think. Ruby is particularly suited to this task, since it combines high-level abstractions with "close to the metal" system interaction wrapped up in a concise, readable syntax. Moreover, Ruby has the support of a rich ecosystem of open-source tools and libraries. Ten insightful chapters each explain and demonstrate a command-line best practice. You'll see how to use these tools to elevate the lowliest automation script to a maintainable, polished application. You'll learn how to use free, open source parsers to create user-friendly command-line interfaces as well as command suites. You'll see how to use defaults to keep options simple for everyday users, while giving advanced users options for more complex tasks. ...
As Ruby pro David Copeland explains, writing a command-line application that is self-documenting, robust, adaptable and forever useful is easier than you might think. Ruby is particularly suited to this task, since it combines high-level abstractions with "close to the metal" system interaction wrapped up in a concise, readable syntax. Moreover, Ruby has the support of a rich ecosystem of open-source tools and libraries. Ten insightful chapters each explain and demonstrate a command-line best practice. You'll see how to use these tools to elevate the lowliest automation script to a maintainable, polished application. You'll learn how to use free, open source parsers to create user-friendly command-line interfaces as well as command suites. You'll see how to use defaults to keep options simple for everyday users, while giving advanced users options for more complex tasks. ...
Agile Coaching
To lead change, you need to expand your toolkit, and this book gives you the tools you need to make the transition from agile practitioner to agile coach. Agile Coaching is all about working with people to create great agile teams. You'll learn how to build a team that produces great software and has fun doing it. In the process, you'll grow a team that's self-sufficient and skillful. This book provides you with deeper knowledge of how agile practices work and how to inspire your team to improve. Discover how to coach your team through the agile lifecycle, from planning to writing software. Learn the secrets of running effective agile meetings and how to get your team following a consistent approach to creating software. You'll find chapters dedicated to introducing Test-Driven Development, designing Retrospectives, and making progress visible. ...
To lead change, you need to expand your toolkit, and this book gives you the tools you need to make the transition from agile practitioner to agile coach. Agile Coaching is all about working with people to create great agile teams. You'll learn how to build a team that produces great software and has fun doing it. In the process, you'll grow a team that's self-sufficient and skillful. This book provides you with deeper knowledge of how agile practices work and how to inspire your team to improve. Discover how to coach your team through the agile lifecycle, from planning to writing software. Learn the secrets of running effective agile meetings and how to get your team following a consistent approach to creating software. You'll find chapters dedicated to introducing Test-Driven Development, designing Retrospectives, and making progress visible. ...
CoffeeScript
CoffeeScript: Accelerated JavaScript Development offers a thorough introduction to this new language, starting from the basics. You'll learn to use time-saving features like list comprehensions and splats, organize your code into modules with extensible classes, and see how to deploy your work to multiple environments. Each chapter is example-driven and includes challenging exercises to push your CoffeeScript know-how further. Through the course of the book, you'll build a fast-paced multiplayer word game‚ writing both the client (with jQuery) and server (with Node.js) in CoffeeScript. And because the two languages are so deeply intertwined, you'll deepen your understanding of JavaScript along the way. CoffeeScript makes it easier than ever to write powerful, standards-compliant JavaScript code. This book lets you start doing it today. ...
CoffeeScript: Accelerated JavaScript Development offers a thorough introduction to this new language, starting from the basics. You'll learn to use time-saving features like list comprehensions and splats, organize your code into modules with extensible classes, and see how to deploy your work to multiple environments. Each chapter is example-driven and includes challenging exercises to push your CoffeeScript know-how further. Through the course of the book, you'll build a fast-paced multiplayer word game‚ writing both the client (with jQuery) and server (with Node.js) in CoffeeScript. And because the two languages are so deeply intertwined, you'll deepen your understanding of JavaScript along the way. CoffeeScript makes it easier than ever to write powerful, standards-compliant JavaScript code. This book lets you start doing it today. ...
Designed for Use
Weaving together hands-on techniques and fundamental concepts, you'll learn how to make usability the cornerstone of your design process. Each technique chapter explains a specific approach you can use during the design process to make your product more user friendly, such as storyboarding, usability tests, and paper prototyping. Idea chapters are concept-based: how to write usable text, how realistic your designs should look, when to use animations. Filled with illustrations and supported by psychological research, expert developer and user interface designer Lukas Mathis gives you a deep dive into research, design, and implementation – the essential stages in designing usable interfaces for applications and websites. Lukas inspires you to look at design in a whole new way, explaining exactly what to look for, and what to avoid, in creating products that people will be excited about. ...
Weaving together hands-on techniques and fundamental concepts, you'll learn how to make usability the cornerstone of your design process. Each technique chapter explains a specific approach you can use during the design process to make your product more user friendly, such as storyboarding, usability tests, and paper prototyping. Idea chapters are concept-based: how to write usable text, how realistic your designs should look, when to use animations. Filled with illustrations and supported by psychological research, expert developer and user interface designer Lukas Mathis gives you a deep dive into research, design, and implementation – the essential stages in designing usable interfaces for applications and websites. Lukas inspires you to look at design in a whole new way, explaining exactly what to look for, and what to avoid, in creating products that people will be excited about. ...
Agile in a Flash
Agile in a Flash cards teach leadership, teamwork, clean programming, agile approaches to problem solving, and tips for coaching agile teams. Use the cards for learning, as ice breakers for conversations, as constant reminders, and as a potent source of useful tips and hard-won wisdom. The Agile in a Flash deck is broken into four sections: agile concepts, planning, teamwork, and coding. The front of each card features a concise list of the concepts you need to know and remember. The back provides further detail, with sage nuggets of knowledge based on the authors two decades of experience coaching and doing agile-style projects. ...
Agile in a Flash cards teach leadership, teamwork, clean programming, agile approaches to problem solving, and tips for coaching agile teams. Use the cards for learning, as ice breakers for conversations, as constant reminders, and as a potent source of useful tips and hard-won wisdom. The Agile in a Flash deck is broken into four sections: agile concepts, planning, teamwork, and coding. The front of each card features a concise list of the concepts you need to know and remember. The back provides further detail, with sage nuggets of knowledge based on the authors two decades of experience coaching and doing agile-style projects. ...