Friday, March 21, 2008
Prototype and script.aculo.us
Learned of the power of prototype and script.aculo.us from GeekDinner. After spending the day reading web forums and blogs, purchased the book from The Pragmatic Programmer. I'm a visual designer who has spent the past year learning ActionScript 3.0. I think this framework will lend itself to my work to increase functionality and usability. Programming is a useful way to extend my abilities as an interactive designer. More to come as I explore this language.
Friday, March 14, 2008
The Safari Books Online Advantage
Web technology continues to change and improve. It's hard to keep up without buying books or having someone on hand to show you the ropes. I joined Safari Books Online because it has proven to me it is a valuable tool when maintaining or learning new skills. Below are a few thoughts.
You might be able to buy used versions of these books from other sources for nearly the same cost of the monthly fees. However, if you need to learn software quickly, Safari Books Online offers many advantages over buying and owning books.
One clear benefit is in the search feature. Imagine searching among all the books in the O'Reilly library as well as a slew of related publishers, to locate books containing info on your query.
Because O'Reilly books are written while software is being developed, they sometimes contain errors throughout. Printed books might include a web address for few corrections. Safari Books Online calls the pages errata and are available at the top of every page. These often do not include all the errors. Readers catch and notify the publishers of errors. These are published to an errata, unapproved by the authors, yet extremely valuable to the reader.
A great feature you can't deny is the ability to copy and paste scripts. As an ActionScript programmer I'm pleased to not retype code I want to test only to spend an hour debugging a typo. While it is true you might learn by typing, it is also true that if you are new to script programming, it is easy to overlook the syntax of a script.
You might be able to buy used versions of these books from other sources for nearly the same cost of the monthly fees. However, if you need to learn software quickly, Safari Books Online offers many advantages over buying and owning books.
One clear benefit is in the search feature. Imagine searching among all the books in the O'Reilly library as well as a slew of related publishers, to locate books containing info on your query.
Because O'Reilly books are written while software is being developed, they sometimes contain errors throughout. Printed books might include a web address for few corrections. Safari Books Online calls the pages errata and are available at the top of every page. These often do not include all the errors. Readers catch and notify the publishers of errors. These are published to an errata, unapproved by the authors, yet extremely valuable to the reader.
A great feature you can't deny is the ability to copy and paste scripts. As an ActionScript programmer I'm pleased to not retype code I want to test only to spend an hour debugging a typo. While it is true you might learn by typing, it is also true that if you are new to script programming, it is easy to overlook the syntax of a script.
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