Originally submitted at O'Reilly
CSS3: The Missing Manual, 3rd Edition
Excellent coverage of all CSS3
Pros: Concise, Easy to understand, Accurate, Well-written, Helpful examples
Best Uses: Expert, Student, Novice, Intermediate
Describe Yourself: Developer
This book has been a pleasure to read. CSS3 has brought some great enhancements to the plain old CSS and this book does an excellent job of covering that.
This book has 650 pages and that might sound intimidating. However, the language and the flow has been so friendly that you could literally pick something that interests you and get a deep coverage.
If you want to learn everything about CSS3, go out and pick this book. You will not regret it.
(legalese)
Originally submitted at O'Reilly
A Playful Introduction to Programming
Great book for 8-12 year olds
Pros: Accurate, Easy to understand, Well-written, Concise, Helpful examples
Cons: Too basic
Best Uses: Novice
Describe Yourself: Developer
I highly recommend this book for your 8-12 year olds (or other grownups who have an interest in learning programming). This book makes it dead simple by going over installation, basics of Python, and moving over to interesting things like graphics and building games with animations.
The font is pretty kid friendly and the graphics used throughout the book will make sure your kids are not intimidated by the programming fears. The companion website makes it easy to grab all the examples in the book in addition to more programming puzzles. I have a 7-yr old who is grasping this book slowly. That's why I feel this book is suitable more for 8 year olds. However, it all depends on your child and your 5-year old may be able to pick it up as well.
Overall, the contents of the book are great and engrossing.
(legalese)
Originally submitted at O'Reilly
Building Apps for the Open Web
This book rocks!
Pros: Helpful examples, Accurate, Well-written, Easy to understand, Concise
Best Uses: Novice, Intermediate, Expert
Describe Yourself: Developer, Technical Leader
Having met with Wesley Hales personally at the recent SAPInsider conference, I was pretty impressed with the quality of his presentation. Naturally I picked up this book as I wanted to learn more and I must say - This book rocks!
Today web app development is a convoluted place to be. Wesley Hales demystifies the landscape by explaining what has changed from the traditional client/server model. That is, the browser is the platform!!! The browser has traditionally been a thin interface between the user and the server and that has changed in recent years due to enormous strides in the JavaScript capabilities supported today.
I don't want to mention too many details of this book but do want to mention how much I thoroughly enjoyed reading each and every chapter and learned quite a few new things in each chapter, although I have been playing with HTML5 for more than a year now.
(legalese)
Originally submitted at O'Reilly
From the Client-Side to the Server Side
Just OK
Pros: Easy to understand
Cons: Not comprehensive enough, Too basic
Best Uses: Intermediate, Novice
Describe Yourself: Developer
Compared to OSCON 2011, these set of videos are just OK. There is no introductory type videos but most of the videos are just general. The number of videos is lesser too compared to last year. The quality of the videos is great. The presenters are well-respected too.
(legalese)
