Book Description

R is the world’s most popular language for developing statistical software: Archaeologists use it to track the spread of ancient civilizations, drug companies use it to discover which medications are safe and effective, and actuaries use it to assess financial risks and keep economies running smoothly.

The Art of R Programming takes you on a guided tour of software development with R, from basic types and data structures to advanced topics like closures, recursion, and anonymous functions. No statistical knowledge is required, and your programming skills can range from hobbyist to pro.

Along the way, you’ll learn about functional and object-oriented programming, running mathematical simulations, and rearranging complex data into simpler, more useful formats. You’ll also learn to:

• Create artful graphs to visualize complex data sets and functions
• Write more efficient code using parallel R and vectorization
• Interface R with C/C++ and Python for increased speed or functionality
• Find new packages for text analysis, image manipulation, and thousands more
• Squash annoying bugs with advanced debugging techniques

Whether you’re designing aircraft, forecasting the weather, or you just need to tame your data, The Art of R Programming is your guide to harnessing the power of statistical computing.

Review
From the Author: Why Use R for Your Statistical Work? Download Now »

Book Description

Learn to program an array of customized devices and solutions

As a compact, highly efficient, scalable operating system, Windows Embedded Compact 7 (WEC7) is one of the best options for developing a new generation of network-enabled, media-rich, and service-oriented devices. This in-depth resource takes you through the benefits and capabilities of WEC7 so that you can start using this performance development platform today. Divided into several major sections, the book begins with an introduction and then moves on to coverage of OS design, application development, advanced application development, how to deploy WEC7 devices, and more.

• Examines the benefits of Windows Embedded Compact 7 (WEC7)
• Reviews the various elements of OS design, including configuring and building a customized OS runtime image, using debugging and remote tools, and more
• Explains how to develop native code applications with Visual Studio 2010, develop database applications with SQL server compact, and use the application deployment option
• Discusses how to deploy a WEC device, use the boot loader, launch WEC using BIOSLoader, and deploy a WEC power toy

If you’re interested in learning more about embedded development or you’re seeking a higher performance development platform, then this is the book for you.

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Book Description

This book is for students and professionals who are intrigued by the prospect of learning and using a powerful language that provides a rich infrastructure for creating programs. No programming knowledge is necessary to benefit from this book except for the section on Lua bindings, which requires some familiarity with the C programming language. A certain comfort level with command-line operations, text editing, and directory structures is assumed.Software developers who have experience with functions, strings, and associative arrays can skim Chapters 2 through 5 with the caveat that certain Lua colloquialisms are introduced there along with programming concepts.

Throughout the text, sections pertaining to a particular operating system are clearly marked and can be skipped by readers working on a different platform.

This book is organized to guide you through the basics of using Lua. Its structure is as follows:

• Installing Lua on your system (Chapter 1)
• Learning the fundamentals of programming in Lua (Chapters 2 through 10)
• Reviewing standard Lua functions (Chapter 11)
• Exploring application development with Lua using packages contributed by the community (Chapters 12 through 18)
• Using Lua’s many community resources (Chapter 19)

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Book Description

Visual Studio LightSwitch is a new development tool for building business applications for the desktop, the web, and the cloud with ease. You can easily do most of the designing for your application, but for building business applications you need to acquire the right skills. With this book you will gain confidence in working with LightSwitch, and the skills you acquire will greatly help you to develop applications yourself.

This Visual Studio LightSwitch Business Application Development book is dedicated to giving you hands-on experience, when it comes to developing applications on LightSwitch. Everything, right from downloading the software to creating your application to deploying it, is discussed extensively. All this is laid out in an easy to understand and step-by-step format.

You will learn how to set up your database and link to the data whether it is on a local or remote database. Once you know how to work with data, you will then learn to set up screens and use screen templates. Work with entities and LightSwitch specific data types; query and filter data with designer and code. Write simple and complex queries with and without writing code. You will also write custom code using the built-in event handlers.

No business software can function without addressing security issues and Visual Studio LightSwitch has a rock solid, deceptively simple way to handle security and you will learn to do this from scratch with ASP.NET. Once the application is built you will explore the different ways to deploy it.

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Book Description

Agile has become today’s dominant software development paradigm, but agile methods remain difficult to measure and improve. Essential Skills for the Agile Developer fills this gap from the bottom up, teaching proven techniques for assessing and optimizing both individual and team agile practices.

Written by four principals of Net Objectives—one of the world’s leading agile training and consulting firms—this book reflects their unsurpassed experience helping organizations transition to agile. It focuses on the specific actions and insights that can deliver the greatest design and programming improvements with economical investment.

The authors reveal key factors associated with successful agile projects and offer practical ways to measure them. Through actual examples, they address principles, attitudes, habits, technical practices, and design considerations—and above all, show how to bring all these together to deliver higher-value software. Using the authors’ techniques, managers and teams can optimize the whole organization and the whole product across its entire lifecycle.

Essential Skills for the Agile Developer shows how to

• Perform programming by intention
• Separate use from construction
• Consider testability before writing code
• Avoid over- and under-design Download Now »

Book Description

While there are several books on programming for Mac OS X, Advanced Mac OS X Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide is the only one that contains explanations of how to leverage the powerful underlying technologies. This book gets down to the real nitty-gritty. The third edition is updated for Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6 and covers new technologies like DTrace, Instruments, Grand Central Dispatch, blocks, and NSOperation.

Review
“Mark and Aaron’s Core Mac OS X and Unix Programming quickly became my favorite development book. It was the first book to cover the advanced topics not discussed elsewhere. I excitedly read it from cover to cover, eagerly eating up the information on topics I had never examined before. Advanced Mac OS X Programming is an incredible sequel, covering the new Mac OS X technologies that have emerged since. This book goes into a level of detail not offered by other documentation, but also includes easy to follow examples. After reading it, you’ll impress your peers with your clear understanding of advanced Mac OS X programming.”
—John A. Vink, television host and software engineer

“Advanced Mac OS X Programming has long been a required text and source of curriculum for my 10-week Mac and iOS programming course. This new edition brings anticipated updates covering the latest Apple developer technologies. The fresh content keeps this classic book relevant and critical to programmers of all levels working on Apple’s platforms. There is simply no other collection of published material that covers these advanced topics with equal depth and skill.” Download Now »