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Good free online book about web development

Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 3:10 am
by m3mn0n
I was browsing around 37signals website when I decided to check out their "our book" page. To my surprise, I noticed it was offered online for free.

I read a few of the chapters and this is some good stuff and I felt obligated to share it with the rest of you, so here is the link:

http://gettingreal.37signals.com/toc.php

From what I've read so far, it doesn't seem to be geared towards actual web development technology... it's rather more of a guide to the logic behind the development process. But I'm sure they might mention their Ruby on Rails offering in there quite a bit. :wink:

Even if they do preach that, it's quite possible to apply the general concepts of their teachings to any language, and specifically PHP.

Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 3:38 am
by matthijs
It is an excellent book. I actually bought the pdf a while ago (don't think the book was online then, but that doesn't matter). The whole "getting real" way of thinking might not be the thing for everyone or every situation, but reading it you get at least some good ideas about development.

Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:03 am
by Kieran Huggins
Best book I've ever read on web development is "Building Scalable Web Sites" by Cal Henderson (of flickr fame). It will teach you in hours what it takes years to learn... the guy is a genius at cutting to the quick of any issue.

Unfortunately, it's not free, but it is worth every penny at any price!

Seriously, it taught me more than all my post-secondary schooling combined.

Oh, and since it's an O'Reilly book, you get an attractive pencil drawing of a carp on the cover as an added bonus.

Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 10:04 am
by m3mn0n
Funny you should mention that book; it's at the top of my "to buy" list after hearing a couple of his talks at a conference (mp3s: here and here).

I really can't wait to get my hands on that. :)

Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 11:19 am
by alex.barylski
Good read, thanks for the link :)