Book Description

Physics for Flash Games, Animation, and Simulations teaches ActionScript programmers how to incorporate real physics into their Flash animations, games, user interfaces, and simulations.

• Introduces Flash physics in an accurate, but approachable way, covering what is required to produce physically realistic simulations (as opposed to animations that look roughly right)
• Packed full of practical examples of how physics can be applied to your own games and applications
• Addresses the diverse needs of game developers, animators, artists, and e-learning developers

The book assumes a basic knowledge of ActionScript and Flash. However, no previous knowledge of physics is required—only some very basic math skills. The authors present everything from basic principles to advanced concepts, so you’ll be able to follow the logic and easily adapt the principles to your own applications. The book builds on your physics knowledge, enabling you to create not only visual effects, but also more complex models and simulations.

What you’ll learn

• Basic math and physics you’ll need to incorporate realism into your games, animations and simulations
• How to incorporate a wide range of forces, including environmental forces such as gravity and friction, and forces due to fluids, such as drag and upthrust
• How to build a number of realistic simulations, like submarines and flight simulators Download Now »

Book Description

Pro Web Project Management is a collection of hard-won lessons the authors have learned managing modern web projects with small and medium budgets in a consulting environment. This isn’t a book about project management theory. Pro Web Project Management tells how to create real deliverables, get answers from indecisive clients, manage wayward programmers, and use checklists to wow clients. This book is made up of real examples, real lessons, real documents, and real tips woven together into a step-by-step walkthrough of a project’s life cycle.

Pro Web Project Management is written for both the full-time project manager and the aspiring project manager who might have a role that blends client support, web development, and project management. The project budget sweet spot for this book is $50,000 to $500,000. If you manage a project in this space, reading this book will make you a better project manager.

• Learn how to manage a modern web project with a budget of $50,000 to $500,000
• Get actionable tips on dealing with real project management challenges
• Learn the simple, defined process—refined over the years—to take simple and complex projects from proposal to successful launch

What you’ll learn

• How to run an effective meeting
• How to write scopes of work that lead to successful projects Download Now »

Book Description

Finally, Drupal Made Easy: A Step-By-Step Guide from Planning to Finished Site

The open source content management system Drupal offers amazing flexibility, sophistication, and power. The catch? Many first-time users find it difficult to get started, and most Drupal books don’t help with the initial stages. Drupal™ User’s Guide is different: easy to use, fun to read, practical, and complete!

Long-time Drupal site developer Emma Jane Hogbin guides you through every step of building sites with Drupal, from installation and site planning through launching your first site. Drawing on her experience teaching thousands of beginners, she covers both Drupal and Web design tasks, showing exactly how they fit together.

Drupal™ User’s Guide shows how to use Drupal 7’s newest improvements to build more modern, manageable sites for any business or organization. Hogbin covers crucial topics other Drupal books ignore, including search engine optimization and accessibility.

• Walk through installing Drupal on Mac OS X and Linux Web servers
• Get comfortable with Drupal 7’s new administrative interface
• Build a basic site in minutes
• Create S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely) site goals
• Audit your existing content so you can make the most of it
• Explore, choose, and customize Drupal themes
• Walk through building a community site with private discussion area Download Now »

Book Description

It’s true: if you know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you already have the tools you need to develop Android applications. Now updated for HTML5, the second edition of this hands-on guide shows you how to use open source web standards to design and build apps that can be adapted for any Android device.

You’ll learn how to create an Android-friendly web app on the platform of your choice, and then use Adobe’s free PhoneGap framework to convert it to a native Android app. Discover why device-agnostic mobile apps are the wave of the future, and start building apps that offer greater flexibility and a much broader reach.

• Convert a website into a web application, complete with progress indicators and other features
• Add animation with JQTouch to make your web app look and feel like a native Android app
• Make use of client-side data storage with apps that run when the Android device is offline
• Use PhoneGap to hook into advanced Android features, including the accelerometer, geolocation, and alerts
• Test and debug your app on the Web with real users, and submit the finished product to the Android Market

Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Getting Started
Chapter 2. Basic Styling Download Now »

Book Description

You’ll see a full spectrum of cutting-edge web development techniques, from UI and eye candy recipes to solutions for data analysis, testing, and web hosting.

Make buttons and content stand out with simple cross-browser styles; do animations that work on mobile devices without plugins; build and test HTML emails; and build a flexible layout that works on desktops and mobile devices. You’ll use the Backbone and Knockout JavaScript frameworks to build responsive user interfaces, and you’ll learn how tools like CoffeeScript and Sass offer better ways to develop and maintain your client-side code. You’ll write tests for your code that run in multiple web browsers, use Git to keep track of your work, and even get a little one-on-one time with the Apache web server.

Whether you’re new to front-end development, or you’ve got a few years of experience, you’ll become a more versatile developer by finding out how–and why–to use these solutions in your next web development project.

What you need:
Your favorite text editor, Mozilla Firefox 3.5 or higher, Google Chrome or Safari, and a working knowledge of HTML and JavaScript.

About the Author
Brian P. Hogan is an author, editor, trainer, and web developer who’s been building web sites professionally since 1995 as a freelancer and consultant. Download Now »

Book Description

Written by Sass creator Hampton Catlin and Michael Lintorn Catlin, Pragmatic Guide to Sass shows you how to you to improve your CSS, from the basics to advanced topics, from first installation to sprucing up your buttons. You’ll see how to code the right way in Sass thanks to short, clear examples. Two-page spreads show the explanation on one side and code examples on the other. You’ll learn how to improve your pages in minutes.

You’ll be able to perform amazing feats of CSS including using variables, calculating layouts, and modifying colors. Did you ever want to make a color 10% less saturated? We’ll show you how to do that without needing a calculator.

Plus, learn about Compass, Sass’s library of carefully built hacks, reusable parts, and frameworks. Find out how to shortcut cross-browser issues and develop mixins for shortening text and making lists more exciting. You’ll wonder how you spent all those years styling sites without it!

Make things even easier with Blueprint, and discover how to use its predefined classes that you can apply to your Web site. From selector scoping to bundling, debugging, and designing custom functions, Pragmatic Guide to Sass will help you build the pages you’ve always wanted.

What You Need:

• An installation of Sass and Compass
• Some basic command line knowledge Download Now »