The Bungee Blog

Here it is! The paper book apparently crossed the Pond in a few less days than expected, for I received my first author copy today! There’s really nothing for it: holding the thing in one’s hands is an altogether different sense of achievement, as an author, from perusing the PDF.

I hope you’re all getting your own copies delivered; all pending shipments had been processed on Tuesday last week, so hopefully you all got your copies in this holiday season!

Happy holidays to you all, and let’s start a Proto/Scripty-rich 2008.

Hey,

Well, here it is. The paper books have landed in all the major warehouses, and those early buyers who got the combo, or pre-ordered the paper book at PragProg, got their anxiously-awaited book shipped off early this week.

While I am no fan of the dead-tree form, it certainly has its advantages: it’s usually much easier on the eye than the electronic form (the resolution is higher, the white doesn’t glare, etc.), and it’s easy to carry around and read through on, say, public-transportation-based commuting. I certainly bought more than a few recent IT books in print.

On the other hand, the PDF is in color, syntax-highlighted, searchable, hyperlinked, etc.

Frankly, you should get either the PDF or the combo. And both are available only from PragProg.

However, I understand how non-U.S.-based readers may favor their local Amazon or bookstore, if only to save on shipment fees and reduce delays. But then, major online retailers, not to put too fine a point on it, move at glacial speed. Amazon.com, for instance, despite having numerous copies of my book in their warehouses, is announcing it online for January 11. (They are taking preorders, though.)

By the way, if you already got a whiff of the book and love it (“hey, thanks!”), should you wish to repay the author in kind, you might want to know I get much better royalties on paper books sold directly through PragProg than through “channel sales” (retailers). So there it is: full disclosure, and perhaps a reason for a few of you to buy it at PragProg instead of somewhere else.

In short, the book is available now. If you can’t wait to get your hands on the paper form, get it at PragProg. If you can wait (but should you really?) and favor other online retailers, buy it there.

It is my fervent hope that the book will reach as large an audience as possible, and help each and every reader big time with their JavaScript tasks. I look forward to reading about your feedback in the forums, in this blog’s comments, and in the online retailers’ comment areas.

Coming up

I’ll start posting extra content in here on what I hope will be a regular basis. There are quite a few ideas and tips that I didn’t feel belonged into the book (or it would be a real brick), and that I saved for this blog. I’ll also post possible solutions and further discussion on the Neuron Workout sections. I might even start the Proto/Scripty version of the famous Ruby Quizz in here!

Thanks to everyone at PragProg who made this book possible, and to all my tech reviewers for their excellent help. As for you, my dear readers, I can only say this: read and enjoy!

Hi all,

Just a couple things you might like to know about:

• The book is finally shipping in paper form!  It started yesterday, after a few delays PragProg experienced in actually getting the prints delivered to their warehouses (or so I gather). So although you may not receive it in time for Christmas (although U.S.-based readers should, I guess), it’s on its way to you!
• The PDF got an update yesterday; since I did not trigger it, it appears to be the result of a final round of copy editing and typo hunting. Don’t be concerned about missing new information in there: it’s just, er, cleaner.

As soon as the books make it to reseller shelves everywhere (most notably online resellers, I guess, such as Amazon and Barnes & Nobles), I’ll trigger a new round of releases. If you like the book, do spread the word! Blog about it, recommend it to your friends, rate it on Amazon… in short, yell back!

And as I may not post again before then…

Merry Chrismas to you all!

I just realized I hadn’t mentioned it here, but Andrew Dupont (aka My Favorite Competitor) released a while ago a kick-ass article on custom events in Prototype 1.6, complete with sweet unification of mousewheel events. It’s very well written, clear and effective.

If you haven’t read it yet, hop over the link!

I’ll never say enough how much technical store I set by people such as Sam and Thomas, authors of the libraries the Bungee Book revolves around.

For those of you who wish to boost up their scripting skills and make the best of them, you should run, not walk, to Thomas’ upcoming workshop for Carson, which will be held in London on March 26, 2008. There are only 54 seats, each of which is downright precious!

This is a rare occasion to learn straight from the man who brought your script.aculo.us, did the revamp of Gucci, and is now available for hire as a rich-interface consultant, as proclaimed by his spiffy new pro page (which uses the embryo of future “Scripty2”).