20 Amazing Implementations of HTML5 Canvas. In this article, we explore some of the most awe-inspiring implementations of HTML5′s canvas element so far. From all of the new HTML5 tags, canvas is likely to be the most powerful. In a nutshell, the canvas element is a drawable region defined in HTML code with height and width attributes. With it, web developers are able to create visually inspiring implementations previously restricted to only Flash. Canvas Games Magician – Fairy Rescue Enter a world of magic and rescue beautiful fairies trapped in gleaming bubbles.
Sinuous Sinuous is the latest offering of Hakim El Hattab, one of the most active canvas experimenters. Pirates Love Daisies Pirates Love Daisies is a tower defense game. Super Santa Sweep 3D This is an 8-Bit inspired 3D Christmas dash game. PaJama PaJama is essentially a fish breeding simulation based on the fundamental laws of genetics. Fred Jones in Adventureland Fred Jones in Adventure Land is a platformer recreated with HTML5 by Purple Floyd.
Breakdom Canvas Rider Origami. Supercharged JavaScript Graphics The animal on the cover of Supercharged JavaScript Graphics is a maned sheep, orBarbary sheep. The Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia) is a relatively large species of caprid, or goatantelope.It is native to Northern Africa and can now be found in southeastern Spain,the southwestern US, and parts of Mexico. These desert-dwelling grazers are alsoknown as aoudad or auddan. The Barbary sheep is adapted to hot, dry, and barren areas. It takes in most of its waterthrough the plants it eats, but will drink and bathe in water if it’s present. Its large,curved horns contain a rich blood supply, which helps keep it cool in the hot, dry desert.In addition to its horns, the Barbary sheep is characterized by a sandy-brown, bristlycoat and long hair on the chest, front legs, and throat. Barbary sheep, like most desert-dwelling animals, seek shade during the day and aremost active at dawn and dusk, when it’s cooler.
The cover image is from Riverside Natural History. jQuery Mobile With the ever-growing popularity of Android, and the diverse range of other platforms available - including HP (Palm) WebOS, Blackberry OS, Samsung Bada, HTC Brew and Windows Phone 7, Nokia MeeGo and Symbian - many businesses are left with a choice: Do we produce an app for every platform? At a huge cost and long timeline, this option isn't available to all businesses.Do we pick one platform and hope our target market finds us? Risky again, if you get it wrong then you need to start again. Luckily there is another option. Whilst many developers have been moving towards the 'app model', there has also been a great deal of innovation in the 'mobile browser' space, and with the emergence of jQuery mobile, developers now have a real alternative to developing custom apps for each platform.
Programming the Mobile Web The book begins by providing the most comprehensive discussion of mobile browsers that I've ever seen. The author furthers this discussion throughout the book by providing some of the most detailed information on the compatibility between these various mobile browsers and the standards that each one supports. The book warrants a purchase simply for this information alone. The author continues by providing examples of supported doctypes, coding markup, and CSS. The author demonstrates CSS differences between the major mobile browsers, and demonstrates some libraries to make web applications look more like native applications. There is a lot of attention given to Safari, and rightly so, since it is one of the most popular mobile browsers available.
All in all, I found this to be a terrific reference to the state of mobile browsers and a great reference to assist in maximizing compatibility among mobile browsers. Developing Large Web Applications The animal on the cover of Developing Large Web Applications is a Newfoundland. Also known as a "Newf" or "Newfie," this massive dog is 26-28 inches tall at the shoulder and weighs 100-150 pounds. As its name implies, it originated in Newfoundland, Canada, where it was used by fishermen to haul nets, carry boat lines to shore, and retrieve items that fell overboard. An agile swimmer, the Newfoundland has webbed feet and a water-resistant coat, which can be black, brown, gray, or white and black (Landseer).
Newfoundlands are "gentle giants" known for their sweet, loyal dispositions and obedienceto their masters. Thanks to its muscular build and swimming prowess, the breed is frequently used in water rescues. The cover image is from Wood's Animate Creation . Programming HTML5 Applications The first chapter, The Web as a Platform for Applications provides an historical backdrop for the HTML5 standard by reviewing the founding of the web, JavaScript's history, the emergence of DHTML and AJAX, and laying of the ground work for the present environment.
The second chapter, The Power of JavaScript, reviews some nice aspects of the language such as functional programming, closure, being able to expand objects, and functions with prototypes. Chapter three, as the chapter title implies covers the JQuery, "a JavaScript Library that simplifies HTML document traversing, event handling, animating, and Ajax interactions for rapid web development. " The next chapter details ExtJS. While ExtJS is another JavaScript library, this library provides more than a DOM manipulation and event handling. ExtJS has several objects that provide the developer with several tools to create rich internet applications. Chapter 5 details using QUnit and Selenium to test JavaScript. JavaScript. High Performance JavaScript High Performance JavaScript goes much deeper into the scripting language but does also cover JavaScript's interaction with HTML and extensively covers JavaScript's interaction with the DOM.
One of the best things about the book is the extensive coverage of the subject. The topics are broken down into Page Load Times, Object usage, Dynamic DOM, Looping and Decision Statements, RegEx, User Controls/Interfaces, AJAX, Best Practice, etc. In each section the author provides graphs to show the relative time required by various techniques. For the most part, the best practices can be applied to any language. Their are extensive examples provided for each technique. The one drawback might be that lots of techniques are demonstrated that pull data from sources then dynamically update the page. JavaScript Web Applications As a Java and .Net developer, this text is more that I require concerning the use of JavaScript.
However, I am sure that as time goes on and JavaScript is more embedded in various frameworks via the likes of JQuery, etc. this book will become more practical for me. Instead of giving a chapter by chapter review, here is the summary of the overall content of the book (as if such is easy to do for this comprehensive work). This book is not for those just starting JavaScript development. However, if you have experience in another language, this resource will serve you well as you move into further JavaScript programming. The initial part of the book deals with the concept of the MVC framework, models, events and event handling, controllers, application state, views, and templating. Eloquent JavaScript Learning JavaScript, 2nd Edition The animal on the cover of Learning JavaScript, Second Edition, is a baby black, or hook-lipped, rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis). The black rhino is one of two African species of rhinos. Weighing up to one and a half tons, it is smaller than its counterpart-the white, or square-lipped, rhinoceros.
Black rhinos live in savanna grasslands, open woodlands, and mountain forests in a few small areas of southwestern, south central, and eastern Africa. They prefer to live alone and will aggressively defend their territory. With an upper lip that tapers to a hooklike point, the black rhino is perfectly suited to pluck leaves, twigs, and buds from trees and bushes. It is able to eat coarser vegetation than other herbivores. Black rhinos are odd-toed ungulates, meaning they have three toes on each foot. After mating, the female and male rhinos have no further contact. In recent years, rhinos have been hunted to the point of near extinction.
The cover image is from Cassell's Natural History. jQuery Pocket Reference For developers who want to learn jQuery, you will be able to learn nearly all you need to get started from this book. When I first heard about jQuery, I purchased a much larger book, which ended up being about 80% reprinting the API on jquery.com.
If you're like me, and you prefer insight, hints, and gotchas which encourage you to write some code, then this book is perfect for you. For developers familiar with jQuery, you may learn a little from this book. Flanagan covers a lot of overloads to common jQuery functions. The only thing I found a little odd about this book is how the jQuery Selectors chapter was at the end of the book. jQuery: Novice to Ninja Introducing HTML5 (Voices That Matter) (9780321687296): Bruce Lawson, Remy Sharp. Foundation HTML5 Canvas: For Games and Entertainment (9781430232919): Rob Hawkes.