Product Description
Everyone in the Ruby world seems to be talking about metaprogramming–how you can use it to remove duplication in your code and write elegant, beautiful programs. Now you can get in on the action as well.

This book describes metaprogramming as an essential component of Ruby. Once you understand the principles of Ruby, including the object model, scopes, and eigenclasses, you’re on your way to applying metaprogramming both in your daily work and in your fun, after-hours projects.

Learning metaprogramming doesn’t have to be difficult or boring. By taking you on a Monday-through-Friday workweek adventure with a pair of programmers, Paolo Perrotta helps make mastering the art of metaprogramming both straightforward and entertaining.

The book is packed with:
* Pragmatic examples of metaprogramming in action, many of which come straight from popular libraries or frameworks, such as Rails.
* Programming challenges that let you experiment and play with some of the most fun, “out-there” metaprogramming concepts.
* Metaprogramming spells–34 practical recipes and idioms that you can study and apply right now, to write code that is sure to impress. Continue Reading »

Product Description
Knowing how to create domain-specific languages (DSLs) can give you a huge productivity boost. Instead of writing code in a general-purpose programming language, you can first build a custom language tailored to make you efficient in a particular domain.

The key is understanding the common patterns found across language implementations. Language Design Patterns identifies and condenses the most common design patterns, providing sample implementations of each.

The pattern implementations use Java, but the patterns themselves are completely general. Some of the implementations use the well-known ANTLR parser generator, so readers will find this book an excellent source of ANTLR examples as well. But this book will benefit anyone interested in implementing languages, regardless of their tool of choice. Other language implementation books focus on compilers, which you rarely need in your daily life. Instead, Language Design Patterns shows you patterns you can use for all kinds of language applications.

You’ll learn to create configuration file readers, data readers, model-driven code generators, source-to-source translators, source analyzers, and interpreters. Each chapter groups related design patterns and, in each pattern, you’ll get hands-on experience by building a complete sample implementation. By the time you finish the book, you’ll know how to solve most common language implementation problems. Continue Reading »

Product Description
Whether you are running a large scale web app in a PHP-based environment, or if you are considering switching your site to PHP, our new book, php|architect’s Enterprise PHP Development will surely be a valuable resource for you and your development team. Written by well known PHP guru and iBuildings CTO Ivo Jansch, this comprehensive guide covers everything you will need to know including: PHP’s Evolution PHP in the Enterprise PHP’s Success Factors Enterprise Challenges Building and Developing The Team Requirements Gathering Business Goals Expectation Management Planning Architecture Tools Building Blocks Security Code Development Quality Assurance Testing Optimization Deployment Implementation Delivery User Training Marketing Evaluation Operations Maintenance Troubleshooting Development Methodologies Project Management This book is the only one of its kind and is unparalleled in terms of content and practical usefulness.

Written by well known PHP guru and Ibuildings CTO Ivo Jansch, this comprehensive guide covers everything you will need to know including:

* PHP’s Evolution
* PHP in the Enterprise
* PHP’s Success Factors Continue Reading »

Product Description
Windows Server 2008 R2 Unleashed is the most comprehensive and realistic guide to planning, design, prototyping, implementation, migration, administration, and support. Based on the authors’ unsurpassed experience working with Windows Server 2008 R2 since its earliest alpha releases, it offers indispensable guidance drawn from hundreds of production environments.

Microsoft MVP Rand Morimoto and his colleagues systematically introduce Windows Server 2008 R2 to IT professionals, identifying R2’s most crucial enhancements and walking through every step of installation and configuration. Next, they present comprehensive coverage of every area of Windows Server 2008 R2, including Active Directory, networking services, security, R2 migration from Windows Server 2003 and 2008, administration, fault tolerance, optimization and troubleshooting, core application services, and more.

The authors thoroughly address major Windows Server 2008 R2 enhancements and present extensive coverage of R2 innovations ranging from Hyper-V virtualization to DirectAccess and the enhancements in Failover Clustering. Every chapter contains tips, tricks, and best practices learned from actual deployments: practical information for using Windows Server 2008 R2 to solve real business problems.
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Product Description
The Stunning Hidden Interconnections Between Microbes and Humanity AD 452: Attila the Hun stands ready to sack Rome. No one can stop him–but he walks away. A miracle? No…dysentery. Microbes saved the Roman Empire. Nearly a millennium later, the microbes of the Black Death ended the Middle Ages, making possible the Renaissance, western democracy, and the scientific revolution. Soon after, microbes ravaged the Americas, paving the way for their European conquest. Again and again, microbes have shaped our health, our genetics, our history, our culture, our politics, even our religion and ethics. This book reveals much that scientists and cultural historians have learned about the pervasive interconnections between infectious microbes and humans. It also considers what our ongoing fundamental relationship with infectious microbes might mean for the future of the human species. The “good side” of history’s worst epidemics The surprising debt we owe to killer diseases Where diseases came from! !and where they may be going Children of pestilence: disease and civilization From Egypt to Mexico, the Romans to Attila the Hun STDs, sexual behavior, and culture How microbes may shape cultural cycles of puritanism and promiscuity
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