QuirksBlog - Book

Posts about my books.
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The Mobile Book

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Back in May or June Vitaly Friedman of Smashing Magazine asked me to write a chapter for Mobile Book.

It was to be about the mobile market as a whole. I liked that; it was just what I had in mind for my next writing job, so I agreed and went to work in summer. Yesterday and today I sent in my final remarks about the print proofs.

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What do you want to know about the mobile market?

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19 comments (closed)

Pretty soon I’m going to write the opening chapter for the upcoming Smashing Mobile Book. The provisional title is “What’s going on in Mobile?” and I’m going to talk about how the mobile market works, and what web developers need to know to find their way around 10 operating system, 15 device vendors, and 25 browsers.

Before starting, though, I’d like to know which questions you have.

If you’re a web developer interested in mobile but only starting out, or even having a year of experience under your belt, what are the kind of things that frequently baffle you about the mobile market? Which parts don’t you understand? Which mechanisms would you like to see explained?

Note that I’m not going to write about technical issues. No CSS bugs in Android WebKit, JavaScript engines in Samsung bada, or WebGL support on BlackBerry. Instead, I’m going to try to paint a picture of the market as a whole, with the intention that I (and you) can predict what’s going to happen next, which OSs or vendors will survive and which ones will go under.

So. Please ask your question now, so that I can consider it for the chapter. What do you want to know about the mobile market?

The blue book of JavaScript & a contest

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10 comments (closed)

When I received my personal copies of the book back in October, I was of course overjoyed at being a Published Author. Nonetheless, I was sorely disappointed at one feature, or rather, the lack of one feature.

The pages of my book were gray, even though they were supposed to contain some blue accents. Unfortunately all blue colours, shades and nuances had been replaced by their gray equivalent, except on the cover. That made the book harder to read.

Meanwhile the problem has been solved, and gray copy owners can win a blue copy by participating in my contest.

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Book signing Sat. 10 March 4:30

Permalink | in Book, Conferences
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While visiting SxSW I'll also sign copies of the book for anyone who's interested. The signing session will take place on Saturday 10 March at 4:30 at the Adobe Day Stage Café.

While I'm there I'm also planning to pick up signed copies of Transcending CSS by Andy Clarke, Javascript and Ajax for the Web by Dori Smith and Tom Negrino, Bulletproof Ajax by Jeremy Keith, CSS Mastery by Andy Budd, and probably a few other interesting books.

I'll see some of you there.

On historical overviews in programming books

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11 comments (closed)

Two new reviews of the book appeared early this week. Roger Johansson reviewed it on his own site, and Mike West did so on Digital Web Magazine.

Thanks, both of you, for taking the time to read and write about my book, and for being so very positive about it. In the remainder of this entry I'd like to say a few words about an interesting difference of opinion that surfaces in them: the value of historical overviews in programming books.

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Excerpt of chapter 8 available

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WebReference has published an excerpt of chapter 8 of the book. If you're still wondering whether you should buy it, take a look and decide.

NL: publicatie van secties 9A, 9B en 9E van "ppk on JavaScript"

Permalink | in Book, Nederlands
2 comments (closed)

Op Naar Voren is te lezen een voorpublicatie uit het boek. Het gaat om enkele secties uit hoofdstuk 9: CSS modificatie.
Vertaling: Marrije Schaake.

(English: Naar Voren has translated and published part of chapter 9 of the book. Since it's in Dutch it's not of much interest to my international audience.)

Reminder: Friday book release party in Amsterdam

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7 comments (closed)

Just a reminder that my book release party in Amsterdam will take place next Friday (27 October). See this post for the details.

I'm still planning a London book release party, too, but unfortunately there's no news yet (translation: for the past few weeks I've been too lazy to arrange it).

Book takes off

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38 comments (closed)

Well, it seems that the book is finally taking off.

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Amsterdam book release party

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3 comments (closed)

As I said before, I'm planning book release parties in Amsterdam and London. The Amsterdam one has been finalised; details below. The London one is still under construction. It will take place early in November; details will follow when I have them.

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Example scripts and errata

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3 comments (closed)

I added some information to the Book section: an example scripts page and an errata page.

The example scripts page lists the example scripts, links to the working version and the JavaScript files, and gives a detailed list of where in the book the scripts are treated.

The errata page, unsurprisingly, contains the few errata I've found so far. I still haven't found a typo, though I did find three plurals that should be singulars, one of which is smack bang on the very first page of the very first chapter. As far as I'm concerned these aren't really typos, typos are just words taht are speled incorrectly.

Even though I went through most of the book now and found no typos, I'm still not convinced the book is actually free of them. No doubt a few will turn up once people start actually reading it.

Book distribution

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14 comments (closed)

Right, I seem to have been a bit premature in my book release entry. Although the book definitely exists by now, it turns out that it might easily take a few weeks before it has been shipped from printer to distributor, from distributor to the bookstore warehouse, and from the warehouse to the shelves. Therefore it's not strange that almost no-one has a copy of the book yet: you'll have to have a few more weeks patience, I'm afraid.

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"ppk on JavaScript" released

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25 comments (closed)

Well, today's the day. "ppk on JavaScript" has been released—in the US, that is. If you are actually holding a physical copy, please leave a comment with your location. This will allow me to follow my book as it penetrates the JavaScript world.

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Introduction of the book

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10 comments (closed)

As I promised before, I've now published the larger part of the Introduction of my book "ppk on JavaScript". Apart from some general notes, it introduces the eight example scripts that I use throughout the book. As you'll see, all these eight example scripts were written for real-world clients in order to earn real-world money.

The example scripts themselves are also online, and you can study them. The Introduction links to all of them. Since I refer to these example scripts throughout the book, I expect my readers to have a general idea of what they're doing and why.

I hope this pre-publication gives a better insight in the kind of book I've written.

Unfortunately the publication date has moved forward to 13 September (US). The rest of the world will have to wait about a month longer.

Book production

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6 comments (closed)

When I posted my book announcement on 2 June, I thought the huge project was almost done. Unfortunately I was wrong; right now I'm still working on the book. I thought I'd give you a quick update on what I'm doing right now.

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More about the book

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14 comments (closed)

During the @media conference several people asked what the book is about. Although the short answer is obviously "JavaScript!", they wanted a more detailed reply. This entry gives them (and anyone else who's interested) more information.

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Book release and table of contents

Permalink | in Book
2 comments (closed)

Two minor book-related points.

The book will probably be released in the second half of August, and not the first half, as I said before. That's the US publication only; Europe will have to wait another month since the book is printed in the US and literally shipped to the rest of the world.

By request I added the Table of Contents to the book page.

Book: ppk on JavaScript

Permalink | in Book
18 comments (closed)

It's done. My book is finished; I just delivered the last chapter (chapter 2, actually). It's called "ppk on JavaScript", it's published by New Riders, and I'm as proud as any parent of my newborn baby.

You can already order it through Amazon (US, UK, Canada, Japan), if you're so inclined.

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This is the blog of Peter-Paul Koch, web developer, consultant, and trainer. You can also follow him on Twitter or Mastodon.
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