You'll have noticed how quiet this blog has been. I'm working on my next book, to be published by The Pragmatic Programmers, about Prototype and script.aculo.us. It is destined to become the reference book worldwide, and there's a lot to work on, as both libs evolve daily and the book tries to stay current, and even ahead!

The first official beta released today and is available online, along with the Table of Contents and free excerpts. You can buy the PDF or the Combo Pack. Either way, you'll get updates of the PDF along the way, be able to submit comments, suggestions and report errata, and get the final version eventually. If you bought the combo, you'll then get the paper book shipped to you, too.

At a scheduled 370 to 400 pages, full of excellent information, the $22 price tag looks like a steal compared to usual prices for tech books here in France, which routinely jump to $50 for less contents.

This first beta includes the whole Prototype part. The next one, due in a few weeks, will include the whole script.aculo.us part, too. In the meantime, contents is revised to stay in sync with the latest projected versions of both libs.

They're talking about it already!

It even already has its nickname: "The Bungee Book."

  • Announcement on the official support mailing list
  • Sam Stephenson, creator of Prototype, blogs about it on the official Prototype blog
  • Thomas Fuchs, creator of script.aculo.us, blogs about it on mir.aculo.us
  • Tobie Langel, Prototype Core fellow and noted Prototype blogger, blog about it too.