My latest book (and my first book since 2001) is almost finished! The title is WebKit for Dummies, and it’s available for pre-order now
I’m excited about the publication of this book (coming in February), and about the topic, but I’m finding myself having to explain what exactly it’s about pretty frequently, so I thought I’d write something about that here in order to clear up some misconceptions and possible confusion.
WebKit is the name of the open source browser engine that powers every mobile device’s browser except for Windows devices. This includes iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry, Nokia, and more. It also runs a large and growing percentage of desktop web browsers (Google Chrome, Apple Safari). My book isn’t really about WebKit, however — it’s really about how you can take advantage of the fact that WebKit is so widely available on smartphones and tablets in order to create cross-platform mobile apps with HTML5.
Also, the book isn’t really just for dummies. It is part of Wiley’s huge and successful “For Dummies” series, of course, but I want smart people to buy it as well. That’s not to say that dummies won’t also learn something, but I don’t think anyone needs to be excluded — with the possible exception of people who can’t read.
Now that you know all that, I hope you buy and enjoy the book!
Hi Chris,
The steps indicated in your book for creating a Komodo Edit Boilerplate Mobile template (and subsequent new project from Template) simply do not work. The new project does not get created properly.
Where can I get help with this?
I see no errata for the book whatsoever.
Thank you!
-Ken
Hi Chris,
Not sure if you care about this or not but the previous comment I entered (about the Komodo Edit issue in the Dummies book) has just been identified as a Bug in the current Windows Version.
Here is my posting of the issue on the Komodo Support Forums:
http://community.activestate.com/node/8303
Here is the bugfix that Komodo Support filed:
http://bugs.activestate.com/show_bug.cgi?id=93571
Disappointing that folks who pick up your book will encounter this issue on Windows but hopefully a fix will come soon.
I have to say that I am rather frustrated with the lack of a community area to discuss the book with other people who are working through it (I realize this is not due to any fault of your own).
I have come across another challenge with the book (the code for using the google api to retrieve your RSS feeds is not working). In addition Google no longer requires users to register for an API key (this was easy to figure out but frustrating that the script itself doesn’t work and there is no where to discuss this with others that I know of at least)….
Thanks for your time,
-Ken
Hi Ken,
Sorry I didn’t see your comment sooner! Thank you for writing. I’m starting to post bugs and fixes to the code to http://www.webkitfordummies.com. I’ll post yours there right away.
I’m considering purchasing your book Webkit for Dummies. What I would like to know is if I can use MS Expression Web 4 to work with Webkit application builds? (I don’t have Blend) If you are looking for a ‘test case’ person for your Dummies book, well, I would fit perfectly! I have built a couple sites way back in the late 90’s using FrontPage but that is the extent of my knowledge. My goal is to learn how to build an App. and it seems this book works to that end. Thanks, Dale.
Hi Dale,
Thanks for writing! My book doesn’t talk about or require anything but freely available (mostly open source) products. You’ll be able to do everything in the book using any code editor at all, and any level of knowledge of how Web sites work will be just fine to get you started! You may also want to consider taking my online course: Creating Mobile Web Apps with HTML5. You can find out more at http://www.minnick.com/html5apps Good luck!
-Chris