Pragmatic Bookshelf

It's not just another book on Ajax. It's Pragmatic Ajax: a concise, complete look at a new way of envisioning and implementing browser-based applications. Ajax turns static web pages into interactive applications. Now you can deploy rich-client applications to clients without sacrificing the easy deployment of web applications. But to many folks, Ajax seems difficult. That's why we produced this book. As a Pragmatic guide, it strips away the mystery and shows you the easy way to make Ajax work for you. We cover the the basics of DHTML, JavaScript, and the infamous XmlHttpRequest call. You'll see how to add Ajax to existing programs, and design new applications to exploit the power of Web 2.0. Learn the three layers of Ajax framework, and when (and how) to use each. See how to create rich clients, use visual effects, add client-side validation, and handle forms. Write applications that degrade gracefully if clients don't support JavaScript. And see how to integrate your Ajaxified clients into Java, .NET, and Ruby on Rails server frameworks.

It's not just another book on Ajax. It's Pragmatic Ajax: a concise, complete look at a new way of envisioning and implementing browser-based applications.

Ajax turns static web pages into interactive applications. Now you can deploy rich-client applications to clients without sacrificing the easy deployment of web applications. But to many folks, Ajax seems difficult. That's why we produced this book. As a Pragmatic guide, it strips away the mystery and shows you the easy way to make Ajax work for you.

Rails is a full-stack, open source web framework that enables you to create full-featured, sophisticated web-based applications, but with a twist… A full Rails application probably has less total code than the XML you'd need to configure the same application in other frameworks. With this book you'll learn how to use ActiveRecord to connect business objects and database tables. No more painful object-relational mapping. Just create your business objects and let Rails do the rest. You'll learn how to use the Action Pack framework to route incoming requests and render pages using easy-to-write templates and components. See how to exploit the Rails service frameworks to send emails, implement web services, and create dynamic, user-centric web-pages using built-in Javascript and Ajax support. There are extensive chapters on testing, deployment, and scaling. You'll see how easy it is to install Rails using your web server of choice (such as Apache or lighttpd) or using its own included web server.

This book shows how to write tests, but more importantly, it goes where other books fear to tread and gives you concrete advice and examples of what to test–the common things that go wrong in all of our programs. Discover the tricky hiding places where bugs breed, and how to catch them using the freely available JUnit framework. It's easy to learn how to think of all the things in your code that are likely to break. We'll show you how with helpful mnemonics, summarized in a handy tip sheet (also available from our website) to help you remember all this stuff.

# Whether you’re making the switch from a traditional centralized version control system or are a new programmer just getting started, this book prepares you to start using Git in your everyday programming.Pragmatic Version Control Using Git starts with an overview of version control systems, and shows how being distributed enables you to work more efficiently in our increasingly mobile society.

Get up to speed on Git right now with Pragmatic Guide to Git. Task-oriented two-page spreads get you up and running with minimal fuss. Each left-hand page dives into the underlying implementation for each task. The right-hand page contains commands that focus on the task at hand, and cross references to other tasks that are related. You'll find what you need fast.

Software development happens in your head. Not in an editor, IDE, or designtool. You're well educated on how to work with software and hardware, but what about wetware–our own brains? Learning new skills and new technology is critical to your career, and it's all in your head.

Ruby, Io, Prolog, Scala, Erlang, Clojure, Haskell. With Seven Languages in Seven Weeks, by Bruce A. Tate, you'll go beyond the syntax-and beyond the 20-minute tutorial you'll find someplace online. This book has an audacious goal: to present a meaningful exploration of seven languages within a single book. Rather than serve as a complete reference or installation guide, Seven Languages hits what's essential and unique about each language. Moreover, this approach will help teach you how to grok new languages.