šŸ“˜ A Book About Hype (2020 Print Edition)

Great news

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Hereā€™s a quick update about the progress of this project. Itā€™s about 12% complete. Thatā€™s slower than expected, but the project should move more swiftly now. (About four work days were diverted to get Apparatuses online.) Also, Iā€™m moving a little bit slower because I want the book to look nice. :innocent:

Oh yeah, and I think I might be going a little crazy. :crazy_face:
(Shooting Stars started playing on my playlist while animating the fish. Heh, felt like the perfect background music.)

I got up to the ā€œRotation follows motionā€ part. I started wondering if I should add a graphic to better explain the effect. Next thing I know, Iā€™m drawing a fish. HA HA!

fish

Iā€™m not sure if Iā€™ll use it. What do you think?

  • I like the fish!
  • I donā€™t like the fish!

0 voters

Remember, if you want to be notified when the book is available, like the second post in this thread or use the Photics.com contact form.

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The fish is in the bookā€¦

ā€¦template coming soon.

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The books is now 25% complete. :slightly_smiling_face:

Lots of new templates are appearing on the website.

Since Christmas Eve, a new template has appeared at Photics.com every Tuesday. Two templates are already queued up for the next two weeks.

Also, thanks Tumult and @Daniel for the nice words in the Hype Universe newsletter.

Remember, if you want to be notified when the book is available, like the second post.

OK, less talk, more work. :smile:


UPDATE: The book is now 33% done. It looks like target of completing the book in the first-half of 2020 is still in sight.

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Excited for the printed book! Thanks! :grinning:

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Looks like there's an update to an earlier statementā€¦

...since December, I've been copying and pasting the previous book content into the new book ā€” creating new screenshots and updating the text. That part of the project is almost done.

The goal is to have a beefy sized book ā€” 500 pages. But after migrating the content, the book is around 250 pages. The remaining "Publishing" section content needs serious updating and the last two chapters of the "Examples" section are moving into a new game development section.

That means about half of the book will be new content.

The book is about 50% complete! :tada:

Since the project is now moving into the original content stage, I was looking back at old messages and comments for ideas. Here's one in particularā€¦

While this book isn't meant to cover every aspect of JavaScript, are you interested in a "crash course" chapter about JavaScript?

  • Yes, I would like a chapter about basic JavaScript.
  • No, there are plenty of JavaScript guides already. Use that book space for new Hype content.
0 voters

If you don't want a JavaScript chapter, what would you like to see instead?

Remember, if you want to be notified about when the book is available, heart the second post in the threadā£ļø

I voted no.

I donā€™t think a one chapter crash course on JavaScript is going to satisfy beginners. The shortest one I have seen is about 100 pages long with a nice amount of white space and line spacing for easy reading. There are also plenty of examples of how the various pieces fit together as You move through the book. A generous amount of examples are critical especially when learning something new.

I doubt this could be pulled off in a chapter (say 25 pages?). While beginners can definitely learn something in this amount of space they will be like the blind man feeling an elephant - the description of the animal will vary with the area being touched. They need to see the whole beast.

I donā€™t understand the resistance to buying a book dedicated to the subject.

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Actually, you don't even need to buy a book about JavaScript. There are plenty of free resources available.

I was actually thinking something shorter than that ā€” closer to a cheat sheet, but probably somewhere in the middle ā€” more like 10 pages so people can get up to speed.

The chapter would be for beginners.

So far, looks like I'm leaving the chapter out. HA HA. There are only two votes so far though.

No one else voted?! :scream_cat:

Hopefully Iā€™m not wasting my time with this project, as Iā€™m putting a lot of work into the book. Nah, of course Iā€™m not wasting my time. When I look at the book so far, I smile. I think itā€™s really goodā€¦ and thatā€™s without the freshly killed trees smell. :smile:

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Being a newbie in the world of coding, specifically HTML5, CSS3 & JavaScript, I believe the chapter on JS and how it works with hype would be helpful. JavaScript is a training in itself but, to brush up a little on the topic, I believe I see fit. JimScott, agreed to a certain point.

Regards,
tg2k

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Ok, I am likely not going to buy the book :scream: ( if I was just starting out I would though. ) butā€¦ maybe

Some basic explanations of what people are seeing when they see the use of JS.

ā€¢ var ( what a var is )
ā€¢ What no var indicates.

ā€¢Scope of vars and global ( in regards to Hype and Doc/window)
ā€¢ Scope of scene objects ( including if exists yet or not )

ā€¢Operator basics - + * = > < <= >= ! !== != == === && || : , ; $ ( string + symbol as apposed to maths +)

ā€¢ basic functions named/un-named

ā€¢ The idea of why Hype API overlays on top of vanilla javascript

ā€¢ id v class ( also picking up ids and classes from elements in Hype )

ā€¢ var & class naming conventions

ā€¢ console.log() why it is your friend

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As someone who is just getting to start their education and training in JS, I understand that in older code writing is what uses var and it has been substituted now by let yet, they are both used for variable declaration in JS. At least thatā€™s what the training Iā€™m taking right now specifiesā€¦

And so thatā€™s why I believe JS should not only be brushed up lightly in the book, if you are going to take that route is because JS is a whole other training in itself. Things like the definitions should be synchronous with the latest and greatest standards.

Just a thoughtā€¦
All the best @Photics ,
tg2k

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Yep let is also a good point to add. But could become confusing in a short basic explanation.
Also it is not a substitute for var.
It has different scope and definition implications

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You didn't totally rule it out, so you're saying there's a chance.

Maybe you too will want to have "A Book About Hype" up on your shelf, as a symbol of your mental prowess in the area of web animation, design, and development.

Not in this book. HA HA! :smile:

Because Hype supports IE 6-9, I'm sticking with "var" instead of using "let"ā€¦ Can I use... Support tables for HTML5, CSS3, etc


Anyway, the poll is still stuck at two votes. Right now I'm leaning towards not including a JavaScript explanation section. I have some radically new ideas for Hype templates. I suspect people will be more appreciative of that.

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Shoot! Clicked the wronk button. :crazy_face: Can I change my vote to ā€œnoā€? I rather see you focus on Hype and after the books finished, maybe spend time on an addendum?

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I think the book project is great and I will buy a copy out of curiosity alone. I am also investing in Hype Cookbook (although I was busy with birthdays and client work the past month). I think THIS book (by @Photics) is and will be a must have for beginners and people starting out. I intentionally didnā€™t try to overlap the scope to much with my effort. So I am focusing on ā€œrecipesā€, ideas/lookups and useful code fragments. Basically it is aimed at more advanced users. Also it wonā€™t be published as a hardback apart of maybe some print on demand copy if backers want it.

Coming back to the topic of JS in this bookā€¦ it most likely a book of its own but there is this special breed of Hype specific API calls. This certainly canā€™t be found elsewhere and that is the sweet spot on JS for a book about Hype in my opinion at least. Also some basics on understanding JS and Hype function scopes.

Have nice weekend you all.

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To add to @MaxZiebā€™s commentsā€¦

A page dedicated to offering links (and maybe short commentary about each suggestion) to various resources (on-line & printed books) for the beginning JavaScripter I would think to be of great value.

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A post was split to a new topic: Improving Accessibility

Don't worry, I pretended that you voted no. :smile:

I've decided to add a "JavaScript Basics" section. Here's why...

  • There's a lot of JavaScript in this book. I feel like some beginner info is needed.
  • I linked to two places to learn about JavaScript. I had trouble deciding on a third. So, I'm making own.
  • I just added 14 pages on Accessibility. It's not the definitive guide on Accessibility, but it covers the basics (as related to Hype) and lists URLs to get even more information. I'm thinking that the same should be done for JavaScript.
  • More people voted to include the JavaScript basics.

While this is a book about Hype, I see Hype as a stepping stone to becoming a well-rounded web developer / designer. The book needs to reflect that. There's something special about starting with Hype as a web design / development tool. As you use it, you change. You become better. You rely less on the GUI and dig more into the code. So, including some basic JavaScript information can help speed up that process.

Thanks for voting ā€” poll closed.

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