PeepCode Products

Meet Node.js

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:15:55 +0000

NOTE: This was originally announced as a two part series but has been combined into a single 70 minute screencast.

The Web has seen at least four major advancements in browser technology, about once every five years. Ajax has been around for five years, and we’re at the next jump: persistent connections between server and client.

Node.js makes it easy to write asynchronous, event-driven applications that serve static, dynamic, and persistent data to clients while using a minimum amount of RAM and CPU time. While other programming environments can accomplish similar things, Node has been built from the ground up to make this kind of programming painless.

In this 70-minute screencast, you’ll learn to install, use, and understand Node by building a real-time geographical tracking system (live demo). In Part I we start with simple servers, static requests, and dynamically-generated content. Part II (coming soon) will explore persistent connections and client-side scripting.

You’ll learn to:

Install Node.js (including the latest 0.2.0)
Create a basic HTTP server
Use built-in and third-party code
Organize your code into CommonJS modules
Understand and catch errors
Build dynamic responses at various URL paths
Setup a development environment
Configure and use a Websocket server library
Write a browser client
Publish and subscribe to messages between browser and client

Most Node documentation on the web or in print is sparse or outdated. Blast forward into productive development and save yourself hours of time by watching this screencast!

Available to PeepCode Unlimited subscribers or alone for only $9!

Includes a typed transcript.

Now includes an extra 30 minutes from the original! Download again if you bought the original version.

Rails 3 Upgrade Handbook PDF

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 01:39:46 +0000

Rails 3 is possibly the most anticipated release of the popular Ruby web framework. It’s been rewritten from the inside out with speed and stability at the forefront.

However, these extensive internal and syntactical improvements require some changes to your code and plugins.

Respected Rubyist Jeremy McAnally has researched and assembled 120 pages of useful tips and practical advice to make your upgrade path much smoother.

Save yourself hours of scouring outdated blog posts by purchasing this useful, up-to-date PDF guide. Whether you’re upgrading existing applications or starting fresh, it will put your wheels in motion with Rails 3.

120 pages of upgrade information
Step-by-step guides
Both high-level explanations and practical tips
A handy upgrade checklist for older apps
Two sample code projects

Our best-selling Rails 2 Upgrade Guide helped to establish PeepCode as an authoritative source of useful information. The Rails 3 Upgrade Handbook continues in this tradition. Buy your copy today!

Available to PeepCode Unlimited subscribers and credit holders, or alone for only $12!

If you purchased the Merb PDF, you’ll receive a free upgrade to this PDF. Check your email for the details.

Smash Into Vim II

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 19:00:33 +0000

Part I introduced you to the basics of Vim: installation, basic editing, operators, and file navigation.

This sequel will teach you to productively use Vim’s text editing, movement, and manipulation capabilities.

In this 59 minute screencast, you’ll learn from experienced Vim master Andrew Stewart (voiced by Internet celebrity Dan Benjamin).

Topics covered:

Precision movement
Movement, selection, and editing with marks
Text manipulation
Search, replace, and execute
Advanced configuration and abbreviations
Navigation and manipulation with folds
Auto-completion
Command recording and playback
Using and organizing plugins with Tim Pope’s Pathogen
Installation and basic usage of top plugins: Git & Fugitive, Surround, Ragtag, Endwise, Rails.vim, Snipmate, tComment
Reading, searching, and navigating the built-in documentation

If you’ve watched Part I or have a basic knowledge of Vim, this screencast will take you to the next level of confidence with the powerful Vim text editor.

Available to PeepCode Unlimited subscribers or alone for only $9!

Smash Into Vim

Mon, 10 May 2010 15:33:38 +0000

Developers of all kinds are rediscovering the power of the Vim text editor. Even after several decades, it’s the only text editor to prioritize text editing and manipulation over raw input. Few editors can match the efficiency and power that Vim users experience every day.

In this 50-minute screencast, experienced Vim master, water polo captain, and former British intelligence officer Andrew Stewart teaches you the very basics of Vim. You don’t need any previous knowledge of Vim—we’ll take you from the beginning.

You’ll learn to:

Install Vim for your platform
Use Vim for simple editing via SSH
Configure Vim with sensible defaults (basic and advanced configurations are included in the code download)
Use operators and commands to manipulate text
Work with files, windows and buffers
Install plugins

Vim is often the only decent text editor available on remote systems. This screencast will enable you to use Vim confidently, and start you on your way toward using it as an everyday editor for development, too.

Available to PeepCode Unlimited subscribers or alone for only $9!

Part II is now available!

PeepOpen Application

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 16:34:58 +0000

NOTE: This is beta software and doesn’t support some features like TextMate project files. We plan to support them in the future, but for now it works only with self-contained directories on disk.

Text editor development has been stagnant for several years. It’s time for developers to take the text editing experience forward into 2010!

PeepOpen is a file navigation application that works with TextMate, Coda, MacVim, and Emacs (Mac OS X Snow Leopard on 64-bit Intel required, support for other editors is coming soon). Search on both paths and filenames, and easily open the file in your text editor with a single keypress. Useful metadata helps you quickly choose the file you’re looking for.

PeepOpen is a menu bar app and won’t clog your dock or application switcher.

Our article on the PeepCode Blog was an instant hit, and now you can use the application we’ve built to fulfill that vision.

This beta release is primarily for the ambitious. That said, we’ve been using it daily for several months and people who use it have been thrilled with it. There’s currently no trial version.

PeepCode Unlimited subscribers can download a copy as part of their yearly subscription (or use your PeepCode credits or $9).

Features

Do your text editor’s navigation facilities do this?

Easy installation with a single application and one-button editor plugin.
Fuzzy search including relative path within project and filename.
Smart sorting algorithm puts the most likely file at the top based on modification time and the best metrics from two fuzzy match algorithms.
Useful metadata such as a Git diff summary helps you quickly find the file you’re looking for.
Customization via graphical preferences, as you expect from a quality Mac OS X application!
Compatible with major graphical and terminal text editors: TextMate, MacVim, Carbon Emacs (others coming soon).
Automatic updates with Sparkle.
Source code included for your personal hacking pleasure (Objective-C & MacRuby).

Grab a copy today with your PeepCode Unlimited subscription, credits, or only $9.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard on 64-bit Intel required.

Use the Cucumber

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:58:41 +0000

The Cucumber behavior-driven development framework is appreciated by developers from many languages. It makes it easy to write plain-text stories that run executable Ruby code against your application.

In this hour and ten minute screencast, you’ll learn the basics of Cucumber. You’ll learn the syntax, organization, and philosophy of writing Features, Scenarios, and Steps. You’ll build an application and learn where unit tests are a better fit.

The PeepCode series on RSpec kicked off our foray into independent screencast publishing and we think you’ll like this one just as much!

Topics covered in this screencast include:

Organization & Helper Tools
Setup & Installation
Basic Features
Wrapping Cucumber with a continuous script
Configuration & Form Submission
Using Tables
Reusing Steps
Using Webrat Directly
Proper use of Background steps & Tags
Integrating Unit Tests
Fixing form fields

Available with a PeepCode Unlimited Subscription or alone for only $9!

jQuery Ajax

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:00:14 +0000

PeepCode Meet jQuery quickly became our fastest-selling title of all time. In this screencast, we explore the Ajax features of the popular jQuery JavaScript framework.

We start simply with the transfer of HTML fragments in only one line of code. You’ll learn about the convenience methods in jQuery and then dive down into the details of the low-level Ajax method.

Included are the source code of the demo application in addition to tips and strategies for using jQuery well. Clear graphics and animated diagrams present the information you need to know over the course of 45 minutes.

Topics covered in this screencast include:

Setup
JavaScript code organization
Querystring Params & Callback Functions
Global Handlers
Sending Data
Handling Errors Gracefully
Client-side API Strategy
Common Ajax Options
JSONP data transfer from other domains

Ruby’s Sinatra framework is used as a demo server, but the concepts apply to web frameworks in any programming language.

Available with a PeepCode Unlimited Subscription or alone for only $9!

Meet jQTouch

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 03:53:51 +0000

With technical review by jQTouch author David Kaneda!

jQTouch makes programming for mobile browsers fun! Simple HTML, CSS, and jQuery Javascript combine to make it easy to build applications for WebKit-based mobile browsers like the iPhone/iPod Touch, Android, and Palm webOS.

The framework is sparsely documented, but after watching this 70 minute screencast you’ll have a firm understanding of how applications are built and how to extend and customize them.

This screencast covers:

jQTouch Intro
Architecture
Markup
Forms
Styling
Javascript Behavior
Full Strength Ajax
Offline Caching

See the graphic below for a full list of chapters and sub-sections.

Available to PeepCode Unlimited Subscribers or alone for only US$9!

iPhone Views I

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:36:25 +0000

Co-authored by Alex Vollmer, author of the Evri iPhone app and the PeepCode Screencast on MacRuby.

Whether or not you watched our first iPhone Screencasts, you’ll be able to jump straight into iPhone views in this screencast.

We dive deep into the visual controls and displays in the native iPhone SDK. You’ll learn how to use buttons, text fields, activity indicators and more.

We start with code from an existing project and build on it to post API updates, build custom text input cells, and create custom text views for maximal usability.

Unlike other tutorials, you’ll learn to build a fully-functioning, useful application. And it’s packed full of the explanatory motion graphics and useful diagrams that you’ve come to expect from a PeepCode production!

This screencast covers:

Cocoa View Basics
Built-in Read-only Views
Built-in Interactive Controls
Visual Text Input Cell Layout
Wiring it Together with the Tweet Controller
Improving Inputs with a Custom Text View Delegate
Creating a Custom Progress Indicator

See the graphic below for a full list of chapters and sub-sections.

You’ll do best if you’ve watched our Objective-C screencast and iPhone View Controller screencasts, but they aren’t required.

Available to PeepCode Unlimited Subscribers or alone for only US$9!

Meet jQuery

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:49:38 +0000

by Geoffrey Grosenbach

Two years in the making, it’s the PeepCode screencast on jQuery, the popular Javascript framework for developing web applications.

jQuery stormed out of the gate and quickly won the hearts of developers. Its design and implementation make it easy for you to accomplish basic tasks. Extendability is built in with its plugin architecture (you’ll write one in this screencast). You can organize code around native Javascript objects (you’ll do that, too!).

Researching and producing this screencast converted the author from a jQuery skeptic to a believer. If you want to understand the fundamentals in an easy, fun way with the high production values, motion graphics, and straight-to-the-point depth of PeepCode, this is the screencast for you!

In addition, you’ll learn about the Pomodoro time managment technique by building a simple time-tracking application.

Topics covered in this tutorial include:

jQuery Core Concepts
Browser Tools
Brief Javascript Primer
The Mighty Dollar Function
Selectors
Implementing a Pomodoro Task Management Application
Design and Write a Plugin
Event Handling and live()
Using extend()
Understanding the this keyword
Using the debugger
Code Organization with Javascript Objects
Basic Animation
Using Timers

Future screencasts will cover Ajax and Test-Driven Development.

With thanks to Paul Ardeleanu and Carlos Rodriguez.

Ruby 1.9 Part II

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:55:20 +0000

PeepCode has teamed up with Gregg Pollack and David A. Black of Envycasts to provide you with their current library of screencasts!

Jump into the future of Ruby with part 2 of this two part series on the distinguishing new features of Ruby 1.9. Topics covered in this 35-minute screencast include:

Block Variables
Strings
Encoding
Object-wide Newness

Start with Part I if you haven’t seen it yet!

Available to PeepCode Unlimited subscribers, or with your PeepCode credits, or as a single purchase for only US$9!

Ruby 1.9 Part I

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:49:35 +0000

PeepCode has teamed up with Gregg Pollack and David A. Black of Envycasts to provide you with their current library of screencasts!

Jump into the future of Ruby with this two part series on the distinguishing new features of Ruby 1.9. Topics covered in this 41-minute screencast include:

Hashes
Arrays
Symbols
Enumerators
Enumerable
RubyGems

Part II completes the series and is available now.

Available to PeepCode Unlimited subscribers, or with your PeepCode credits, or as a single purchase for only US$9!

Meet Sinatra

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:34:52 +0000

With technical assistance from Sinatra creator Blake Mizerany.

As a developer, you’re always looking for ways to write faster applications with less code. The Sinatra framework hits a sweet spot for writing small, fast web applications and web services with Ruby.

In this 64 minute screencast, Dan Benjamin teaches the basics of Sinatra: configuration, handlers, blocks, and templates. You’ll master these techniques by writing a simple ad server to manage and deliver images, Javascript, and HTML. You’ll enhance the application to track clicks using DataMapper and Sqlite3 to store and manage the data.

This screencast is for you whether you’re a beginning programmer with knowledge of Ruby or an experienced Rails developer looking to explore the Sinatra framework!

Chapters include:

Meet Sinatra
A Simple App
App Structure
DataMapper
Sqlite3
Styling
Forms & Interactivity
Displaying Ads
Tracking Clicks
Authentication
Deployment
Advanced Topics: Haml, Routing, Exceptions, Sinatra::Base, Rack, Heroku

Available to PeepCode Unlimited Subscribers or as a single purchase for only $9!

iPhone View Controllers Part II

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:49:38 +0000

Co-authored by Alex Vollmer, author of the Evri iPhone app and the PeepCode Screencast on MacRuby.

Our first iPhone View Controllers screencast (Part I) was an instant hit. This screencast completes it and continues the momentum in our new series of iPhone development screencasts.

In this tutorial you’ll become confident using the simple yet powerful table view controller. You’ll learn about layout, interaction, workflow, capabilities, and tips for working with tables.

We go beyond simple usage to show how to use a custom cell that dynamically displays multiline text. And you’re free to use it in your own projects, too!

Rotation and modal controllers are explained with a sample project included. Explanation is enhanced by the informative diagrams and motion graphics you’re used to seeing at PeepCode.

We conclude with a priceless tour of troubleshooting tips that will help you write more reliable applications with much less pain.

This 57 minute screencast covers:

Table View Controllers
DataSource & Delegate
Accessories & Callbacks
Reusing Cells
Cell Styles
Code: Table List Controller
Table View Methods
Populating the Cell
Connecting to the Nib
Bonus: KVO for Cell Images
Code: Grouped Table Detail Controller
Handling Row Selection
Using an Enum
The Table Footer View
Autoresizing
Dynamic Height Cells
Using a Custom Cell
Device Rotation
Presenting Modally
Troubleshooting
Expect Blood
Deploy Early
Zombies are your Friends
Threading Issues
Memory & Instruments
Non-Events
The Unexpected
Performance
Clang

See the graphic below for a full list of chapters and sub-sections.

Available to PeepCode Unlimited Subscribers or alone for only US$9!

Uses icons by Joseph Wain / glyphish.com and the HTTPRiot REST library.

iPhone View Controllers Part I

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 02:57:32 +0000

Co-authored by Alex Vollmer, author of the Evri iPhone app and the PeepCode Screencast on MacRuby.

After months of production and over a year of anticipation, it’s the first PeepCode Screencast on native iPhone application development!

The iPhone is possibly the most revolutionary computer device of the last few years. The good news is you can learn to write native applications for it!

Programming applications for the iPhone is radically different from writing web applications, but we’ll take you through both the high-level concepts and the line-by-line code to understand it. While many tutorials show only fragmentary examples or trivial applications, we’ll walk through a visual news application that fetches data from a web service and displays it with both custom and stock views.

This 78 minute screencast covers:

Conceptual Overview
View Controller Basics
Callbacks
Code: Setup
Tab Bar Controller Concepts
Code: Tab Bar Controller
Navigation Controller Concepts
Code: Thumbnail Navigation Controller
Code: Web View Controller
To Be Continued…

See the graphic below for a full list of chapters and sub-sections.

You’ll do best if you’ve watched our Objective-C screencast first.

Part II is now available!

Available to PeepCode Unlimited Subscribers or alone for only US$9!

Uses icons by Joseph Wain / glyphish.com and the HTTPRiot REST library.