📘 A Book About Hype (2020 Print Edition)

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 — poll closed.

3 Likes

book need hype 4, no hype3.6

The new printed book is about Hype 4.

Like the second post in this thread if you want to be notified when it's available.

Very much looking forward to this (yes I did like the second post!). I agree that a “JS for hype” section is a good idea, along with a couple of examples that show how and why you’d use it.

3 Likes

A post was merged into an existing topic: Visual Studio Code Snippets, for rapid Hype API function lookups

Here’s a little preview of what I’m working on…

Did I miss a “frustrated with puzzle” button? :rofl:

1 Like

A post was split to a new topic: Photics-Physics Bridge – Name The Function

Not sure I’ll do anything significant with it though. What do you think?

    • You should totally put the template files on GitHub
    • I don’t understand what this means.

0 voters

I was surprised to see this…

Circles With Grandma was mentioned. I wasn’t planning on including it in the book, but I didn’t think it would help thousands of people either. It was just a little pencil game I played with my Grandma and my Aunts when I was little.

So, I suppose this is another opportunity for a poll.

Do you want tutorials on existing Hype games by Photics?

  • Yes! I would like a tutorial on Cabling and/or Circles With Grandma
  • No! I’d rather see other topics.

0 voters

Since this is to be a printed book, it’s not easily searchable like a PDF or eBook. So…

Do you want an Index?

    • Yes
    • No
    • I don’t know

0 voters

Why is this even a question - of course a printed technical book needs an index!

Let me guess it is a PITA - having done more than a few indexes for (printed) tech books in my time. :crazy_face:

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Ha ha. Good response!

It's not so much about the tedium, as creating an Index is a welcome change of pace. I could finally put my computer back in dark mode (it's been in light mode for better screenshots) and I could play my music — two things I can't do while writing actual content.

The reason it's a question is because an index can take up a large part of the book.

A typical index for an ordinary book takes up about 5% of the pages. That’s an index for a 100-page book that’s 5 pages long. But many books are not typical.

Since the goal is 500 pages, that could be 25 pages of just indexing. That's why the poll exists. Would you rather have more Hype coverage or should the book be easier to search?

The feedback is good. I'll wait to see if there are more votes.

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Here’s just a quick update.

With about 60 pages left, and a big chunk of that is just the index, you’d think I’d just wrap it up. But noooooooo… I had to go crazy. :crazy_face:

I noticed that a lot of people want to use Hype to build full websites. While that’s probably not a good idea, Hype can be very useful in certain situations. I started thinking about the advantages of Hype. That’s when I started liking the idea of building a website with Hype. Well… a landing page… and it would be for the book itself.

The last chapter in A Book About Hype is about building the landing page for A Book About Hype. It’s one of those Shakespearian “play within a play” kind of things. So, I started working at it… and I was hating it. I’m like, this doesn’t look very good. Am I sure I want to do this? That’s when I stumbled upon a nice effect…

a-book-about-hype-effect

It was created entirely in Hype — so nice! After making it, I hit the reload button a lot. (Ha ha, I was too amazed to simply put the animation on loop.) I don’t know if I’ll keep the effect, as it doesn’t work well on Firefox or Chromium browser, but it looks like the end is in sight. I think this is the right direction for the rest of the book.


UPDATE: HA HA… typical!

Looks like Lulu changed their book sizes when they updated their website. 8.25 x 10.75 doesn’t seem to be available. Looks like I’m going to have to reflow the whole book at 8.5 x 11. :man_facepalming:t2:

Performance or something else? Chrome can sometimes benefit by toggling the "Use WebKit Graphics acceleration" and all browsers can benefit from smaller sizes with filter effects.

Ouch :angry:.

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I think it's performance and maybe the way graphics are handled. On Firefox, it doesn't do anything. The letters just appear. It's a new project, so graphics acceleration is on by default.

Ah, that's pretty close to the target. With about 100 pages of indexing left to go, I'm estimating that the Index will be about 20 pages. I didn't even stretch it out either. I decreased the font size, lowered the leading, as compared to the regular body copy. I wasn't too redundant, but tried to make it easy for searching.

Apparently, I like to use the word "quick" a lot, but that's not in the index. The overwhelming majority of the list is just technical terms.

It's kinda mind-boggling, how it takes pages and pages to list what there is to cover about a topic. :exploding_head:

Anyway, it shouldn't be much longer now. The last chapter is about building a webpage in Hype.

I wasn't too keen on the idea when starting this book. I didn't think Hype would be very good for building a website. Yet, I tried it. I knew other people were doing it, so I wanted to help them at least minimize the damage.

That's a web.dev report. Heh, not bad. Hype was way better than I thought it would be.

If you want to receive a notification when the book is available, heart the second post in this thread.

2 Likes

Creating the Index was fairly easy. Double-checking the Index — that sucked! :smile:

I'm waiting for the files to process, so I can order a proof copy.


Update...

Screen Shot 2020-05-16 at 9.38.52 PM

If the book looks good, then I can open it up for sale.

Note — Since the plan is to only offer the book through Lulu, there is no ISBN.


Another Update...

Now that the project is done, and there's not much to do but wait, I'm feeling kinda nervous. Heh, but then I saw this...

Screen Shot 2020-05-17 at 7.17.45 AM

...they're making the book! There really is something special about a physical book. I don't remember this sense of excitement and anticipation over a digital book. Although, I've made printed books before too... somehow... this feels different. The project was massive.


Yet Another Update...

Looks like Lulu is pulling a Darth Vader.

Screen Shot 2020-05-18 at 6.53.19 PM

I'm altering the date. Pray I don't alter it any further.


Angry Update...

(╯° °)╯︵ ┻━┻

I don't have to put up with this. If I wanted to be treated like this, I could make iOS apps :stuck_out_tongue:

4 Likes

Congratulations on getting to the point where you can see the book finish line. Consider me virtually standing in line to purchase the book, when available. PM :smiley:

1 Like