Microsoft Press - Free ebook: Programming Windows 8 Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (First Preview)


Hello! To help celebrate the Windows 8 Release Preview and the Visual Studio 2012 Release Candidate, we’re happy to release a preview edition of Programming Windows 8 Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, by Kraig Brockschmidt (who, some of you might remember, many years ago worked with us on a couple editions of Inside OLE).
Download a PDF of the ebook here (4.34 MB).
Download the ebook’s sample code here (27.5 MB).
(We’ll release EPUB and MOBI versions of the final ebook.)
This first preview contains the first four chapters of what we think will be an 18-chapter final ebook:
Chapter 1   The Life Story of a Metro Style App: Platform Characteristics of Windows 8
Chapter 2   Quickstart
Chapter 3   App Anatomy and Page Navigation
Chapter 4   Controls, Control Styling, and Basic Data Binding
Chapter 5   Collections and Collection Controls
Chapter 6   Layout
Chapter 7   Metro Style Commanding UI
Chapter 8   State, Settings, Files, and Documents
Chapter 9   Input and Sensors
Chapter 10   Media
Chapter 11   Purposeful Animations
Chapter 12   Contracts
Chapter 13   Tiles, Notifications, the Lock Screen, and Background Tasks
Chapter 14   Networking
Chapter 15   Devices and Printing
Chapter 16   Extensions
Chapter 17   Apps for Everyone: Localization, Accessibility, and the Windows Store
Chapter 18   Services
In the summer we’ll release a Second Preview version, which will contain 8–12 chapters. And then, in the fall, we’ll release the final version. (Watch this blog and follow us on Twitter to learn about these releases.)
Here’s more information about the ebook, from Kraig’s Introduction:

Who This Book Is For

This book is about writing Metro style apps for Windows 8 using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Our primary focus will be on applying these web technologies within the Windows 8 platform, where there are unique considerations, and not on exploring the details of those web technologies themselves. For the most part, then, I'm assuming that you're already at least somewhat conversant with these standards. We will cover some of the more salient areas like the CSS grid, which is central to app layout, but otherwise I trust that you're capable of finding appropriate references for everything else.
I'm also assuming that your interest in Windows 8 has at least two basic motivations. One, you probably want to come up to speed as quickly as you can, perhaps to carve out a foothold in the Windows Store sooner rather than later. Toward that end, I've front-loaded the early chapters with the most important aspects of app development along with "Quickstart" sections to give you immediate experience with the tools, the API, and core platform features. On the other hand, you probably also want to make the best app you can, one that performs really well and that takes advantage of the full extent of the platform. Toward this end, I've also endeavored to make this book comprehensive, helping you at least be aware of what's possible and where optimizations can be made.
Many insights have come from working directly with real-world developers on their real-world apps. As part of the Windows Ecosystem team, myself and my teammates have been on the front lines bringing those first apps to the Windows Store. This has involved writing bits of code for those apps and investigating bugs, along with conducting design, code, and performance reviews with members of the core Windows engineering teams. As such, one of my goals with this book is to make that deep understanding available to many more developers, including you!

What You'll Need

To work through this book, you should download and install the Windows 8 Release Preview along with the Windows SDK and tools. These, along with a number of other resources, are listed on http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516. I also recommend you visit http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsapps/Windows-8-Modern-Style-App-Samples and download the entire set of JavaScript samples; we'll be using many of them throughout this book.

Acknowledgements

In many ways, this isn't my book—that is, it's not an account of my own experiences and opinions about Metro style apps on Windows 8. I'm serving more as a storyteller, where the story itself has been written by the thousands of people in the Windows team whose passion and dedication have been a constant source of inspiration. Writing a book like this wouldn't be possible without all the work that's gone into customer research, writing specs, implementing, testing, and documenting all the details, managing daily builds and public releases, and writing perhaps the best set of samples I've ever seen for a platform. We'll be drawing on many of those samples, in fact, and even the words in some sections come directly from conversations I've had with the people who designed and developed a particular feature. I'm grateful for their time, and I’m delighted to give them a voice through which they can share their passion for excellence with you.
A number of individuals deserve special mention for their long-standing support of this project. First to Chris Sells, with whom I co-authored the earliest versions of this book; to Mahesh Prakriya, Ian LeGrow, Anantha Kancherla, Keith Boyd and their respective teams, with whom I've worked closely; and to Keith Rowe, Dennis Flanagan, and Ulf Schoo, under whom I've had the pleasure of serving. Thanks also to Devon Musgrave at Microsoft Press, and to all those who have reviewed chapters and provided answers to my endless streams of questions: Chris Tavares, Jesse McGatha, Josh Williams, Feras Moussa, Jake Sabulsky, Henry Tappen, David Tepper, Mathias Jourdain, Ben Betz, Ben Srour, Adam Barrus, Ryan Demopoulos, Sam Spencer, Bill Ticehurst, Tarek Anya, Scott Graham, Scott Dickens, Jerome Holman, Kenichiro Tanaka, Sean Hume, Patrick Dengler, David Washington, Scott Hoogerwerf, Harry Pierson, Jason Olson, Justin Cooperman, Rohit Pagariya, Nathan Kuchta, Kevin Woley, Markus Mielke, Paul Gusmorino, as well as those I've forgotten and those still to come as additional chapters are added to this first preview. My direct teammates, Kyle Marsh, Todd Landstad, Shai Hinitz, and Lora Heiny have also been invaluable in sharing what they've learned in working with real-world partners.
Finally, special hugs to my wife Kristi and our young son Liam, who have lovingly been there the whole time and who don't mind my traipsing through the house to my office either late at night or early in the morning.
Enjoy!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My developеr іs trying to convince mе tο move tο
.net from PНP. I hаve alwаyѕ
ԁisliκed the idea becаuse of the costs. But hе's tryiong none the less. I'ѵе beеn
using Movable-typе on ѕeveral webѕites
foг about a yеаг and am cοncеrned
about sωitсhing to anоtheг рlatform.
I hаѵe heaгԁ gгеat things аbout blogеngine.
net. Is therе a waу Ι cаn transfer
аll mу wordprеsѕ poѕts into it?
Anу kind of help would bе rеally аpprеciated!


Му blοg ρost :: lloyd irvin

Anonymous said...

Ηі there, I fοunԁ уour site bу ωау
of Gοogle ωhіle seаrchіng
fог а simіlaг subјeсt,
yοur website got here up, it seеms tο be good.
I've bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
Hello there, simply was alert to your blog thru Google, and located that it is truly informative. I'm gonna ωatch οut for brussels.
I will be grateful if you continue this in futurе.
A lot of other pеople ωill liκеlу
be benefіtеd from your writing. Cheers!

Here is my blog ... reputation management

Post a Comment